Bank of America ending Total Rewards Credit Card

[Alan Mendelson]

In the mail today was a notice from Bank of America that effective the end of March 2013 Bank of America "will be ending its relationship with the Caesars Total Rewards program." The notice says that my current Total Rewards Visa card will be converted to a "BankAmericard Power Rewards" Visa card account.

Also in the notice:

"You will not lose any Reward Credits you have earned."

Are there other banks associated with the Caesars Total Rewards program?

What was especially advantageous about the Total Rewards credit card program is that you could keep your "comp balance" alive even if you were not a regular casino customer. Under the Caesars Total Rewards system, you must earn at least one credit every six months to keep your comps from expiring. In the past, that meant a casino visit at least every six months -- or getting a friend to play on your card for a few bucks. But if you made at least one purchase every six months with the Total Rewards Credit Card that counted the same as play in a casino.

[russkg]

Haven't recvd my notice yet. Someone on the Vegas Message Bd mentionde that if you shop at Total Rewards, your points will not expire.

[Alan Mendelson]

Thanks Russ, I hadn't heard about that option either... about shopping at TR to keep points from expiring.

Do you know of any other banks that offer the TR credit card? I also asked the question on the Total Rewards Facebook page -- of course mentioning that B of A is dropping the TR credit card -- and it didn't take long for my post to "disappear."

Update: Total Rewards is supposed to make some kind of an announcement on April 1, 2013. I have no idea what it will be. Hopefully another bank relationship. This was a good idea and I hope it doesn't end.

[Alan Mendelson]

Harrah's Rincon via its Facebook page confirmed that Bank of America has been the only bank offering the Total Rewards credit card, and that an announcement by Total Rewards will be made on April 1st, 2013. This makes sense. I don't think Caesars would be allowed to promote another banking relationship while the current contract with BofA is in effect... at least if I was at BofA I would have that in my contract. So this means that Caesars may be looking for a new credit card partner now, or they might already have one but cannot announce that until after the BofA deal ends at the end of March 2013.

This was really a good deal. It not only prevented expiration of reward credits earned in the casinos, but also allowed players to earn extra reward credits without gambling.

[Alan Mendelson]

You can sign up for the new TR credit card at www.totalrewards.com/creditcard after April 1st.

[ismaelMolton]

What I really want is my low interest rate, under 8%, back. Prior to the financial crash, I had rates like that for all my credit card accounts. I always paid my bills on time & usually more than minimums. All the credit card companies, despite my excellent credit rating, to a man, raised my rates due to their financial screwups.

[Alan Mendelson]

Thanks for the post. It amazes me that the federal and state governments did nothing to roll back what used to be usurious interest rates. I remember when it was against the law to charge more than 18% on credit cards. Now rates are as high as 30%. And we wonder why the economy is still sluggish? People can't afford to spend and those who used credit during the recession and during unemployment can't afford to get out of the mess.

[hannamart]

Bank of America has released a new type of rewards card. Rather than rewarding consumers for spending -- which only boosts the amount of their debt -- it pays them when they pay their bill once it is due and they will pay just a little more than their minimum monthly requirement when doing this. In that way, it is incentivizing individuals to handle their loan debts more sensibly.

[Dan Druff]

Alan please either delete the post above or remove the link from the phrase "loan debts".

The person posting above is simply a spammer, and is using your site to both drive traffic to their site (for profit), as well as increase their google rank.

Notice they are not even keeping to the topic, and are simply posting here (likely with an automated program) because the thread mentioned the words Bank of America and card.

[Alan Mendelson]

Dan I checked that link and it does go to a report about a valid Bank of America credit card. Here is BofA's own page about that card:

http://promo.bankofamerica.com/ccsea...%20BBR%20Exact

Now, I agree that the article in question might be on a website for a particular company, but in this case I think it showed other products BofA is promoting. BofA did send me a different credit card to replace my TR credit card when the program expired.