Credit Cards Rewards Cards

AAA Member Rewards Visa Review

overall rating
3.5

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Verified by Fernando Flores
Updated August 11, 2021

With the AAA Member Rewards Visa, you can earn cash back, even if you're not an AAA member. Cardholders receive 3% cash back on travel purchases, as well as 2% cash back at grocery stores, wholesale clubs, and gas stations. There is also a bonus of $200 and a no-interest introductory offer on balance transfers.

AAA Member Rewards Visa®

Overall Rating
3.5
AAA Member Rewards Visa®
Next Steps
On Bank of America's Secured Site.
Current Offer

Receive a $200 statement credit after you make at least $1,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of account opening.

Recommended Credit
Score Our recommended ranges are based off of the FICO® Score 8 credit-scoring model. Credit score is one of the many factors lenders review in considering your application.
350 579
580 669
670 739
740 799
800 850
Good - Excellent
Regular APR (%) 13.99% - 23.99% variable
Annual Fee $0
Rewards Earning Rate 3% cash back on eligible travel and AAA purchases, 2% cash back on gas, grocery stores, wholesale club and drugstore purchases, and 1% cash back on purchases everywhere else.
INTRO BALANCE TRANSFER APR 0% for 12 Statement Closing Dates
Balance Transfer Fee Either $10 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.
Foreign transaction fee (%) 0%
how this card stacks up
When compared among all rewards cards in our database:
Rewards
Benefits
Low Fees
Security/Customer Experience
Low Interest
worst best
Read our full methodology.

The AAA Member Rewards Visa card is not one of our top-rated rewards credit cards. You can review our list of the best rewards credit cards for what we think are better options.

Full Review of AAA Member Rewards Visa

table of contents
Pros

  • No annual fee

  • One-time offer

  • Introductory offer on balance transfers

  • Earn higher cash back at wholesale clubs

Cons

  • No introductory APR on purchases

  • Doesn’t waive the balance transfer fee for new cardholders

  • Limits on points earned through AAA purchases

Pros Explained

  • No Annual Fee: The AAA Member Rewards Visa doesn’t have an annual fee. This is in line with some other cash back cards, like Blue Cash Everyday from American Express and SavorOne Rewards from Capital One, that charge no annual fee and offer a 3% cash back category. This card also doesn’t charge a foreign transaction fee, making it a potential choice for international travel.
  • One-Time Offer: Cardholders receive a $200 statement credit after spending $1,000 within the first 90 days of account opening. 
  • Introductory Offer on Balance Transfers: On top of the bonus, there is also a balance transfer offer with a 0% introductory APR for the first 12 billing cycles. Balance transfers must be made within the first 60 days of account opening, and a balance transfer fee applies.
  • Earn Higher Cash Back at Wholesale Clubs: The AAA Member Rewards Visa features 2% cash back at wholesale clubs. This is a slightly different approach from other cards. Many other cards, like the Blue Cash Everyday, offer a higher cash back earning at grocery stores but don’t include wholesale clubs as part of that. With this card, it's possible to earn 2% cash back on grocery store purchases as well as on wholesale club purchases.

Cons Explained

  • No Introductory APR on Purchases: While there is an introductory APR on balance transfers with this credit card, the AAA Member Rewards Visa doesn’t have a 0% APR offer on purchases. 
  • Doesn't Waive the Balance Transfer Fee for New Cardholders: There's a 3% balance transfer fee—and this applies to transfers made under the introductory offer.
  • Limits on Points Earned Through AAA Purchases: This card offers 3% cash back on AAA purchases, but there are restrictions on which purchases are eligible. For example, if a cardholder buys an insurance policy through a AAA club, but it isn’t underwritten by an AAA-owned affiliate or company, that purchase won’t count toward the extra cash back. As a result of these restrictions, some cardholders who make purchases through AAA might be disappointed to discover that they aren’t earning the higher 3% cash back rate.

This Card is Best For

  • Avatar for Annual Fee Averse Persona
    Resists or refuses an annual fee on principle or due to cost
    Annual Fee Averse
  • Avatar for Rewards Strategist Persona
    Seeks to maximize points or miles earnings across spending categories
    Rewards Strategist

The AAA Member Rewards Visa might be best for people who want a no-annual-fee card that pays a higher rate of cash back on travel.

Some credit cards that focus on travel, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred, charge an annual fee. Others, like the Bank of America Travel Rewards card, charge no annual fee but don't offer a higher earning level for travel. The Bank of America card, for example, pays a flat 1.5 points per dollar on all purchases.

In addition, this card offers opportunities for 2% earning on everyday purchases like groceries, gas, and drugstore items. It could be especially useful for people who do a lot of their shopping at wholesale clubs. Cards like the Capital One SavorOne offer 3% cash back on grocery purchases, but wholesale clubs are excluded from that. 

AAA Member Rewards Visa Bonus

New cardholders can receive a statement credit of $200 after spending $1,000 on the card within the first 90 days of opening their account.

Rewards Earning Details

This card offers tiered rewards:

  • 3% cash back on eligible AAA and travel purchases
  • 2% cash back on qualified grocery, gas, drugstore, and wholesale club purchases
  • 1% cash back on other purchases

Bank of America expresses the earnings as cash back, but the rewards are technically paid in the form of points. So, with the 3% cash back, cardholders receive 3 points for each dollar spent on eligible purchases.

Rewards Redemption Details

It’s possible to redeem points for travel, cash back, AAA rewards vouchers, and gift cards. Cash back rewards can be in the form of a check, statement credit, or a deposit into a Bank of America account, including a Merrill Edge investment account. The cash back and deposit rewards have a value of one cent per point. Redemption values for other rewards vary according to the type of reward.

There are minimums to begin redeeming rewards. For example, airfare redemptions start at 2,500 points, while gift card redemptions start at 3,500. In order to get cash back rewards or receive AAA vouchers, cardholders must have at least 5,000 points.

It's important to note that points expire five years after the month in which they were earned, so it's possible to lose points if you don’t redeem them in time.

How to Maximize Your Rewards

One way to maximize rewards is to use the AAA Member Rewards Visa in conjunction with other no-annual-fee credit cards. Because this card offers 3% cash back on travel, it can work well with cards that provide higher cash back in other categories. For example, the Capital One SavorOne offers 3% cash back on dining and entertainment and the Amex Blue Cash Everyday offers 3% cash back on groceries.

The AAA Member Rewards card also offers 2% cash back at wholesale clubs, which could be an advantage if you often shop at one. In addition, this card might be useful as a backup for another card that imposes a limit on earnings. For example, the Amex Blue Cash Everyday card pays 3% cash back only on up to $6,000 in grocery purchases during a year; after that, it pays just 1% cash back on groceries. Once that threshold is met, switching to the AAA card, which pays 2% on groceries, could be a smart move.

Standard Benefits

  • $0 liability on fraudulent purchases
  • No foreign transaction fee
  • Supplemental rental collision insurance

Cardholder Experience

Bank of America, which issues the AAA Member Rewards Visa, came in third out of 11 national credit card issuers in J.D. Power's 2020 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study. Its score was 812 out of 1,000, while the national average score was 810.

It's possible to manage an account from the Bank of America app, which has a 4.8 rating (out of 5) in the Apple Store and a 4.7 rating (also out of 5) on Google Play.

Bank of America offers customer service through the app as well as by phone. Customer service hours are 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

Security Features

Cardholders aren’t held accountable for fraudulent purchases. Bank of America also offers access to a monthly FICO score, so cardholders can monitor their credit and take action if something appears suspicious. Cardholders can also opt in to receive account alerts by text or email.

Our Verdict

The AAA Member Rewards Visa offers relatively competitive travel rewards while charging no annual fee. It is also one of the few cash back cards to include wholesale clubs in a higher rewards earning tier. When used in conjunction with other cash back cards, like the Amex Blue Cash Everyday or the Capital One SavorOne, this card could be a worthy addition to any wallet.

Next Steps
For AAA Member Rewards Visa®
on Bank of America's Secured Site.
Compare This Card
See how this card compares to similar cards
CURRENT CARD
AAA Member Rewards Visa®
overall rating
3.5
AAA Member Rewards Visa®
Next Steps
Recommended Credit
Score Our recommended ranges are based off of the FICO® Score 8 credit-scoring model. Credit score is one of the many factors lenders review in considering your application.
350 579
580 669
670 739
740 799
800 850
Good - Excellent
Regular APR (%) 13.99% - 23.99% variable
Annual Fee $0
Rewards Earning Rate 3% cash back on eligible travel and AAA purchases, 2% cash back on gas, grocery stores, wholesale club and drugstore purchases, and 1% cash back on purchases everywhere else.
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Investopedia is committed to delivering the best credit card recommendations in the industry. We’ll tell you when a card is good, we’ll tell you when a card is bad, and we’ll only call a card the best if we would recommend it to our friends or family members.
Overall Star Rating Explained
To rate credit cards we objectively assess, score and weight nearly 100 individual card features which roll up into five major feature sets: fees, interest, rewards, benefits and security/customer service. Here’s how we weighted those feature sets for the overall star rating of a card:
We have applied our proprietary rating methodology to every generally-accepted credit card in the U.S. domestic market to allow consumers to make fully informed choices. It’s important to note that for our overall score that we make a number of assumptions about how you would be using your credit card:
  1. While we make no assumption as to whether balances are carried on a given card we do assign varying weights to all credit cards’ introductory APR (if present) in addition to the regular, long term purchase and balance transfer interest rates.
  2. We utilize BLS (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) income and average category spending data to calculate annual earnings rates for rewards cards that offer cash back, points or miles rewards at a set rate on all spending or in consideration of bonus rewards for certain spending categories, like gasoline, groceries, restaurants or travel.
  3. We determine the maximum points value of rewards cards by dividing the points, cash back or miles required to exchange for the retail price of the most valuable redemption option (for example, in the case of a card that offers a domestic roundtrip airline ticket as a redemption option vs. another redemption option of lesser value that requires the same amount of points or miles to acquire, we would base the rewards value on the airline ticket).
  • Cards that are selected best overall in their respective categories generally feature most if not all of the following attributes:
  • Low or Reasonable Fees Credit card fees come in many forms but the primary ones involve those for annual card membership and balance transfer. There are a myriad of reward and non-reward card options that charge no annual fee but for the many that do assess an annual fee the cost is often justified by their lucrative ongoing rewards and initial signup bonuses. Balance transfer fees are occasionally waived during introductory periods with certain cards, a factor which is heavily and positively weighted in our scoring model for cards offering this benefit. When charged, balance transfer fees range between 3% - 5%, which we grade accordingly. Other standard fees can generally be avoided, such as those for paying late or taking cash advances but we rate those relative to other cards in the market for reference, though with less weight assigned
  • Competitive Interest Many cards offer 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers for varying lengths and then revert to a permanent or regular APR (based on a variable rate tied to the prime rate) that applies to any balances not paid in full. We rate both introductory APR percentage and length (in months) along with the midpoint of the variable regular APR interest rate range.
  • Valuable Rewards Credit card reward programs can be based on cash back, points or travel rewards (which can be generic or travel partner-specific, as with airline and hotel co-brand card programs). For cards that offer rewards we determine the value per dollar spent along with average redemption values and assign more favorable ratings to cards that offer superior consumer value. We also assign value to sign-up bonus offers and their initial spending requirements, when present.
  • Excellent Benefits Credit card benefits cover a range of offerings like concierge service, TSA Pre-check, auto rental coverage, travel accident insurance, lost luggage assistance and free credit scores. We rate cards on the number and level of over a dozen standard and upscale benefits and provide extra weighting emphasis for those travel-related perks that apply to premium travel cards when present.
  • Solid Security/Customer Service Security and customer service features like lost or stolen card replacement, being able to lock one’s card from an issuer app and 24 hour customer support are becoming more standard across the card market and we provide a significant amount of weighting to features in this area.
  • You can also read the full version of our methodology for a more in-depth look at how we assess cards and award them the best in various categories.