November 22, 2024: We’ve added a bunch more data points based on our spending over the last few months.
The Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards credit card offers 3% cash back in one of six categories you can select, 2% cash back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs, and 1% cash back everywhere else.
And when you combine the card’s bonus rewards with Preferred Rewards with Platinum Honors or higher status, the 3% category becomes 5.25% cash back and the 2% category becomes 3.5% cash back.
Depending on the category you choose, the card can be one of the best cards for gas, groceries, online shopping, Costco, home improvement, or any number of other categories.
In this article, we show you how much the card earns at various merchants.
In this article…
Table: How much do you earn in rewards at each merchant?
Here is a table containing the most recent datapoint from each merchant. This information was compiled independently from our own use of the cards and our community.
| Merchant | 2% category | 3% category |
|---|---|---|
| Abt.com | – | Online shopping |
| Blizzard Battle.net | – | Online shopping |
| Costco.com | Warehouse clubs Codes as warehouse purchase unless “Online shopping” is selected as 3% category | Online shopping |
| Costco In-Store | Warehouse clubs | – |
| Costco Gas | – | |
| CVS | Drug stores | – |
| Google (Google store online) | – | Online shopping |
| Lowe’s | Home improvement and furnishings | – |
| Nordstrom.com | – | Online shopping |
| Otterbox.com | – | Online shopping |
| Seats.aero | – | Online shopping |
| Square (small merchant processor) | – | Online shopping |
| Target.com | – | Online shopping |
Data points: Where we made purchases, when we made them, and how they coded.
Here are the data points that go into the table above. Searching through these can help you understand how fresh the data above is. As we collect more data points, we should be able to see if merchants change how they are coded over time.
These are in the format: [ merchant ] [ how the purchase coded ] [ date of purchase ]
- Zero Hour Escape Rooms. (Processed by Square, online). Online shopping. 11/21/24
- Nordstrom.com. Online shopping. 11/15/24
- Costco in-store. Wholesale club. 11/20/24
- Seats.aero. Online shopping. 11/9/24
- Target.com. Online shopping. 10/7/24
- Costco in-store. Wholesale club. 10/6/24
- Costco gas. No bonus. 10/6/24
- Abt.com. Online shopping. 9/11/24
- Google store online. Online shopping. 9/9/24
- Blizzard (battle.net). Online shopping. 9/2/24
- Costco in-store. Wholesale club. 8/28/24
- Lowes in-store. Home improvement. 8/2/24
- Otterbox.com Online shopping. 7/30/24
- Costco gas. General purchase. 7/25/24
- Costco.com. Online shopping. 6/20/24
- Costco.com. Wholesale club. 5/30/24
- CVS in-store. Drug store. 5/13/24
Bottom line: Online purchases are pretty consistent
We have the most data points for online purchases because in our view, the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards credit card‘s most valuable bonus category is online purchases. Pretty much everything we’ve expected to post as an online purchase has coded and been rewarded as an online purchase, making the Customized Cash our go-to card for online shopping.
