Credit Cards Balance Transfer Cards

BankAmericard® Credit Card Review

overall rating
3.7

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by Reyna Gobel
Verified by Marisa Figat
Updated January 26, 2021

The BankAmericard credit card from Bank of America is a solid option among balance transfer cards, though it is a no-frills basic credit card. It features an extended, 12-billing cycle balance transfer offer and has no balance transfer fee for transfers made in the first 60 days. The ongoing APR is also low. This card could save you on interest charges, but it doesn't earn rewards or have a one-time offer.

BankAmericard Credit Card

Overall Rating
3.7
BankAmericard Credit Card
On Bank of America's Secured Site.
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 (%) 12.99% - 22.99% variable
Annual Fee $0
INTRO BALANCE TRANSFER APR 0% for 12 Billing Cycles
INTRO PURCHASE APR 0% for 12 Billing Cycles
Balance Transfer Fee Either $10 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.
Rewards Earning Rate This card does not offer a rewards program.
how this card stacks up
When compared among all balance transfer cards in our database:
Low Introductory Interest
Low Fees
Low Long Term Interest
Security/Customer Experience
Benefits
worst best
Read our full methodology.

Full Review of BankAmericard® Credit Card

table of contents
Pros

  • No annual fee

  • 0% APR on balance transfers and purchases for first 12 billing cycles

Cons

  • No rewards program

  • No one-time offer

  • Charges foreign transaction fees

Pros Explained

  • No Annual Fee: With no annual fee, this card is a much better deal than many cards that offer balance transfer options. However, once you've paid off your balances, you're left with a card that doesn’t have a rewards program, if that's important to you.
  • 0% APR on Balance Transfers and Purchases for 12 Billing Cycles: You won't pay any interest on balance transfers or purchases for the first 12 billing cycles after you open your account. In the case of balance transfers, you just have to initiate them within the first 60 days of opening the account.

Cons Explained

  • No Rewards Program: You won't earn any points or cash back with this card. If you are looking for a rewards card without an annual fee, there are other cards to choose from, such as Quicksilver by Capital One, with a $150 one-time offer and 1.5% cash back. However, the Quicksilver has higher APR and no balance transfer offer. It offers a promo of 0% on purchases only. You should check terms before applying as rates and promos can change at any time.
  • No One-Time Offer: You won't get any bonus for signing up for the BankAmericard credit card.
  • Charges Foreign Transaction Fees: The BankAmericard credit card charges a 3% foreign transaction fee on purchases made outside of the U.S. If you have plans to travel abroad, there are quite a few cards available with no foreign transaction fees—from Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, and Discover, among other issuers.

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 Balance Carrier Persona
    Tends to pay less than balance in full and so accumulates debt on card
    Balance Carrier

Without a rewards program, the BankAmericard credit card is designed for people who want a plain vanilla credit card for purchases or who are looking to pay off the balances on their higher interest credit cards. 

But, if you have good or excellent credit, you don't have to settle for a card with no rewards to get a 0% APR balance transfer offer for 12 months or more. Consider the Citi Double Cash credit card.

The difference between the two in BankAmericard’s favor is that the BankAmericard is more accessible to those with average credit. On the Citi side, you’ll get 1% cash back on purchases in addition to 1% cash back when you pay your bill.

Cardholder Experience

Bank of America, the company that issues this card, ranked third out of 11 national credit card issuers in the J.D. Power 2020 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study. Bank of America earned an above average score.

All Bank of America cardholders get free access to their FICO credit score on a monthly basis, along with tips for improving their score. While most credit card companies offer customers some way of gauging their credit standing as well as tips on improving it, not all provide FICO scores. FICO is the scoring system most often used by lenders and other creditors in making credit approval determinations and setting interest rates. To enroll and check your scores, you sign in from the BankAmericard app.

Security Features

Bank of America will send text, email, and mobile alerts if it suspects any fraudulent activity on your account. As a cardholder, you have $0 liability for fraudulent charges.

If you're using services such as Apple Pay or Google Pay with a digital wallet, you will enjoy enhanced security.

You can also opt out of receiving paper statements. While that's a very common convenience and cost-saving measure, it has the added security benefit of making it difficult for someone to obtain your account number by stealing your mail.

Hidden Fees to Watch Out For

The BankAmericard has a 3% foreign transaction fee and a late fee that can be up to $40.

Our Verdict

The BankAmericard credit card is a solid, no-frills card for people who want to transfer existing balances from higher interest credit cards, because it offers a 0% APR on balance transfers for the first 12 months. But it is not the card for people who want cash back or other rewards.

Compare This Card
See how this card compares to similar cards
CURRENT CARD
BankAmericard Credit Card
overall rating
3.7
BankAmericard Credit Card
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 (%) 12.99% - 22.99% variable
Annual Fee $0
Balance Transfer Fee Either $10 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.
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    350 579
    580 669
    670 739
    740 799
    800 850
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    350 579
    580 669
    670 739
    740 799
    800 850
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    350 579
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    670 739
    740 799
    800 850
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    350 579
    580 669
    670 739
    740 799
    800 850
    Good - Excellent
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    Annual Fee $0
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    overall rating
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    U.S. Bank Visa® Platinum Card
    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 (%) 14.49% - 24.49% variable
    Annual Fee $0
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    Simmons Visa®
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    350 579
    580 669
    670 739
    740 799
    800 850
    Excellent
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Investopedia Credit Card Rating Methodology
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.