The Bank of America trifecta - earn 2.63% cashback plus $1075 in account bonuses to start

Update: I was wrong about two things related to the BofA Travel Rewards card: 1) unlike the BofA Cash Rewards card, the Travel Rewards can only be redeemed toward travel charges made on the BofA Travel Rewards card, unless you have a BofA Fidelity card, in which case you can transfer the points earned to the Fidelity card and then redeem for cash into your Fidelity brokerage account, and 2) unlike the Cash rewards card, the 10% bonus on deposits to your checking account do not apply, because you can't transfer the points to cash in your checking account.  2.63% toward travel isn't bad, though.  And what's more, is that like Citi's credit cards, you can pay your BofA credit card balance with a debit card by calling 888-998-2829 (collections department).  So if you have a rewards debit card that pays you 1% back (hard but not impossible to find these days), you can theoretically earn 3.63% back!

Road to riches via manufactured spending

Do you have $100,000 in cash under your mattress?  No?  I am a little disappointed, because you could have earned this sum by following some of my past advice in buying Visa gift cards and liquidating them.  With the right credit card, each of the following cards earned me ~$20.

Credit card glory

Okay then, do you have $100,000 in your IRA?  If yes, you can take advantage of Bank of America's relatively new Preferred Rewards program.  In the program, you can earn bonuses for keeping money at Bank of America, including its subsidiary Merrill Lynch.  These bonuses include (in order of importance to me):

• 75% bonus on credit card rewards
• free investment trades every month
• waived monthly bank account fees

The first of those is the most important.  You see, Bank of America has some credit cards that pay you 3% back in certain categories.  That translates into 5.25% back.  If you don't care to hustle around and buy gift cards at 7-Eleven, then you won't get as fat a bonus, but you can get 2.63%2.89% back on everything you buy.  So consider paying those pesky convenience fees for your income or property taxes, paying 1.88% or 2.35% and earning 2.63%2.89%!  I like those numbers!

How to earn 2.89%?  Bank of America has a Travel Rewards credit card that earns 1.5 Worldpoints (i.e. 1.5% cash back) for all amounts spent on it.  Multiply that by 1.75x, and you get 2.625% cash back.  Wait a minute, you say.  That's not 2.89% back.  You're right, because there is another bonus which is if you redeem your points for cashback that is directly deposited into your Bank of America checking account, you get an additional 10% back, so you really earn 2.8875% cash back on everything!

Alternatively, you can get the Cash Rewards credit card, which earns

• 3% (5.775% with multipliers!) back at the gas station
• 2% (3.85% with multipliers) back at grocery stores, and
• 1% (1.925% with multipliers) back on everything else.

The only downside is that the bonus categories (gas & groceries) is limited to a bonus on $1,500 per quarter, which puts a serious crimp in my get rich quick schemes.

$1,075 to start!

There are nearly always account opening bonuses on all three accounts: brokerage, checking, and credit card.  These will add up to $1,075 if you apply in the right sequence and take advantage of a current checking account promotion:

• $300 for opening a checking account (expires April 10, and note the direct deposit requirement and service fees, which will get waived if you keep a certain balance and waived permanently once you qualify for a Preferred Rewards tier)
• $600 for depositing/transferring $200,000 of securities ($300 for $100,000)
• $100 for opening a Bank of America credit card, which will get bonused up into $175 only after your 3-month average BofA balance has reached $100,000 and you redeem into a checking account.  You will need to wait about 1.5 months for this to happen if you deposit $200,000.