Bank of America Accelerated Rewards American Express card

Looks like a very decent card, at first glance. Most people will be lured in by the enticing 1.25 pts per dollar and the fact that the ad states that it’s 25% more pts than the standard card. However, they didn’t count on us doing the math on those point values. Anyone can make it sound good, but it all depends on how much you can get for those pts. We looked at the cash back rewards first. A card carrier would have to spend $20,000 on this card in order to get a little over 1% cash back. That’s sad. What’s worse is that your points expire after five years. Can you spend that much money on your credit card in 5 years without declaring bankruptcy? Then we looked at their gift cards, thinking that this could be the silver lining. We were disappointed again. You would have to spend $9,600 in order to get a $100 gift card, that’s about 1% cash back. We didn’t think it was worth it when you can pretty much get 3% on a standard card, and if you’re really lucky, you can find 5% cash back. The other reward options aren’t worth mentioning since they are pretty much the same deal. But if you want to know, you can get $100 shipboard credit and $250 off the cruise of your choice, Two Tickets to Smucker's Stars on Ice, or Fly anywhere in the continental 48 states. The only real nice thing about this card is that you will receive 0% interest on all purchases for 15 months/billing cycles. The interest rate is also nice, but they can afford to be generous, you aren’t getting very good rewards.

Bank of America Cash Rewards Platinum Plus MasterCard Credit Card

Is not really that great either, only this one isn’t misleading about their 1% cash back. This card is pretty straight forward, 1% cash back, rewards start at the same value as the previous card; 2,500 pts, and the same interest rate range of 9.99% - 19.99% and the introductory rate of 0% for 15 months/billing cycles. These cards are pretty much the same.

Bank of America Student Platinum Plus Visa Credit Card

Isn’t a rewards card. This card is being advertised to help college students build credit. The interest rate is a little misleading, since it says Prime Plus 10.99%. I’m not sure that all freshman students all know what this means, and I am a little worried that they would just mistake this for meaning just 10.99% interest rate. That is wrong, and currently the prime is a little over 3% (January 17, 2009) so this ends up being about a 15% interest rate. This is actually a decent first credit card for a college student with no credit. I would go so far to say that this is actually the best of the three credit cards, but only for everyone, just the group it’s being marketed to; college students.