New Federal Reserve Board rules that next month will reduce how much issuers make from debit card purchases has prompted Bank of America Corp. to make a change in its Merrill Lynch deferred debit card.
Starting Nov. 16, brokerage clients no longer will earn rewards when using the card, which links to a customer’s brokerage account and deducts funds for transactions at the end of each month.
The bank is urging customers who wish to continue to earn rewards to apply for a Visa-branded credit card. New cardholders will earn a one-time bonus of 25,000 points if they make retail purchase totaling $1,000 by Feb. 28.
Cardholders also will receive double points for purchases made within 90 days of opening an account by Feb. 28.
BofA sent a letter about the change to its brokerage clients last week.
“We created the best solution for clients by allowing them to transfer points from a deferred debit card to a credit card and continue to enjoy the benefits of our rewards program,” the issuer said in an emailed statement.
The bank says it “will continue to evaluate pricing and benefits across all our payments products, including debit cards.”
The Merrill Lynch decision did not affect BofA’s popular Keep the Change program, a spokesperson adds.
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