I’m a Credit Card Expert. This Is The Only Credit Card in My Wallet

Like anyone who has ever paid for a luxury hotel room entirely with points or upgraded to business class with miles, I enjoy spending credit card rewards. For me, there’s also joy in simply earning the rewards—I love feeling like I’m beating the system and getting a rare deal.

But after years of extreme optimization—I carried around more than 40 cards at one point—I wondered if I could get similar results with less hassle. Luckily, a few years ago I found a single card that offers rewards that are on par with a premium travel card, but with the simplicity of a cash back card. There is a catch: You need $100,000 to get this deal, but if you are a working adult of a certain age that might not be as difficult as it sounds.

Because if there’s a route to getting great rewards, I’m the person to find it. In fact, credit card rewards have been a cornerstone of my finances since college. It was the early 2000s and I started reading a now-defunct online forum focused on deals. Pouring through posts from other enthusiasts, I learned how to stack coupons, rebates and rewards to milk every purchase. Eventually, I started blogging about travel rewards and now I write about credit card rewards for many well-recognized outlets. 

Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards

Bank of AmericaPreferred Rewards

But I realized I needed a change when I found myself carrying around a binder of credit cards organized in sleeves meant for baseball cards. Perhaps, I began to wonder, I had taken things a bit too far. 

These days, I carry a slim-nylon surfer wallet containing only a Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards card. Usually, this no-annual-fee card is a pretty boring option, paying just 1.5% cash back on purchases (the best cash back cards typically pay about 2%). It doesn’t offer special bonus categories or access to airport lounges or travel clubs. 

But thanks to my retirement savings and a different kind of rewards program, I get 2.62% back with my Unlimited Cash Rewards card. Yes, that’s right, 30% more than the top market rate.

Bank of America Preferred Rewards is a relationship banking program meant to encourage keeping and spending as much money with the bank as possible. Customers with high enough balances can get tiered benefits including lower mortgage rates, higher savings rates—and bonuses on their credit card rewards. 

Unlike similar programs, Bank of America will count a self-directed Roth IRA with Merrill Edge, its investment division, toward deposit requirements. This made the program the perfect solution to my problem. 

I had more than $100,000 in a Roth IRA at another institution and was happy to move it. While that is not a trivial amount, many Americans my age—40—have at least as much saved for retirement. (In 2019, the average retirement savings for ages 35 to 44 was $131,950, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve.) 

Moving that much money to a Merrill Edge account, plus a new Bank of America checking account, qualified me for a 75% credit card rewards bonus. In other words, when I spend $100 I get $2.62 back—the $1.50 that anyone can get with the Unlimited Cash Rewards card, plus another 0.75% of that $1.50. (You can calculate your potential cash back at various Preferred Rewards earnings tiers and with different eligible cards here.) 

If your retirement savings are already in an individual retirement account or you are doing a 401(k) rollover, moving your savings might be a viable option and Merrill Edge offers $0 trades, no annual account management fees and low-fee index ETFs from Vanguard.

When I’m out and about, I no longer worry about which card I’m using and I’m earning an amount of rewards similar to what I would combining a 2% cash back credit card with numerous specialty rewards cards. I give up a few cents here and there by, say, not charging dinner on a card that pays extra points at restaurants. But that’s a price I’m now willing to pay for simplicity—and to not lug around an album full of cards.  

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