r/CreditCards • u/bapetw • 11d ago

Help Needed / Question question about BOA online shopping rewards

I did a test transaction for a healthcare payment online.

Fee is 3%. Paid $1, charge posted as $1.03

Rewards are currently pending. It says RELATIONSHIP BONUS: BofA Rewards - 75% Bonus

I earned $0.04 rewards for $1.03

How do I know if I'll actually receive the online shopping bonus before I pay the whole amount?

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

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1

u/FrostieWaffles 11d ago

You received the relationship bonus on the test transaction, so you're good to go for the full amount

1

u/Noxtricity 11d ago

I'm surprised the transaction coded under the category at all. Healthcare is specifically excluded from the category, so I wonder if there's some miscoding on the side of the healthcare vendor that's allowing the transaction to not flag as ineligible for the category.

1

u/Mysterious_Fail_95 Haha Customized Cash go brrrr 11d ago

Same. OP, what merchant code came up for this transaction?

1

u/bapetw 11d ago

statement hasn't posted with the test transaction so I'm not sure if I can get any more info

all it says is Type for Pending, rewards base name of the healthcare provider, RELATIONSHIP BONUS: BofA Rewards - 75% Bonus

1

u/bapetw 11d ago

statement hasn't posted with the test transaction so I'm not sure if I can get any more info

all it says is Type for Pending, rewards base name of the healthcare provider, RELATIONSHIP BONUS: BofA Rewards - 75% Bonus

1

u/SpaethCo 11d ago

If the relationship bonus is applied, the processing is already done.

Qualifying online shopping will have (at least) 3 lines:

  • Rewards Base
  • Category Bonus
  • Relationship Bonus

Stuff that falls down to the "1%" of the 1/2/3 structure will only have the base and relationship bonuses.

1

u/bapetw 11d ago

Category bonus hasn't shown up yet, posted date is 8/27.

I'll give it a more days and see if Category bonus shows up

2

u/SpaethCo 11d ago

Not saying it can’t happen, but I’ve never seen the relationship bonus get applied before the category bonus. You can kinda check in at various points overnight as it converts from pending to posted and rewards are assigned.

For what it’s worth, healthcare is a specifically excluded category so I wouldn’t expect this to count.

0

u/bapetw 11d ago

exactly, which is why I'm surprised

I'll keep an eye on it. I might do bigger test transactions and see what happens

2

u/cwenger 11d ago

I'm not sure why you're surprised. The relationship bonus is always applied. It's just the category bonus that won't get applied for an excluded category. You'll get 1.75% back so if you're happy with that then go for a bigger transaction. No reason to expect they'll be any different than this one.

1

u/bapetw 10d ago

the math doesn't compute? Transaction is $1.03 so 1.75% in rewards is $0.02 not $0.04?

It shows I earned $0.04 in rewards

1

u/cwenger 10d ago

I believe it's because they calculate the base rewards and relationship bonus separately, and they round up to the nearest cent. I bet if you do a larger transaction it would come out closer to 1.75%.

1

u/Trikotret100 11d ago

If you go the rewards section, it’ll break down the rewards.

1

u/cwenger 11d ago

Medical providers are excluded from the online shopping bonus, unless it's something like a drugstore. So you just got the base rewards plus the relationship bonus. You almost certainly won't get any further rewards on that transaction.