How The Bank Of America Customized Cash Rewards Card’s Category Selection Works

The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card allows you to choose a 3 percent cash back category each month that matches your spending patterns.

Here, we’ll cover how to choose your 3 percent category, what type of purchases the categories cover and how to utilize these categories to earn more rewards.

What is the Bank of America Cash Rewards cash back structure?

With the Bank of America Cash Rewards card, you can choose which category earns 3 percent cash back. Your options include:

• Gas and EV charging stations
• Online shopping (including cable, streaming, internet and phone services)
• Dining
• Travel
• Drugstores
• Home improvement and furnishings

In addition, you’ll also earn 2 percent cash back at grocery stores and wholesale clubs and 1 percent back on all other purchases.

Let’s say you reached this limit on 3 percent category purchases alone. You’d wind up earning $75 in cash back per quarter, for a total of $300 in cash back per year. Plus, once you’ve hit the spending cap, you would still earn 1 percent back on all purchases.

The Bank of America Cash Rewards also includes no annual fee and a welcome bonus of $200 online cash back after spending $1,000 within the first 90 days from account opening, as well as other benefits.

Can you choose your 3 percent cash back category?

When you first get your Bank of America Cash Rewards cards, your 3 percent category is set to gas and EV charging stations by default. If you don’t want to earn 3 percent cash back in this category, you can choose a different one.

Additionally, you can choose to change your category once per month. So, if you anticipate that you’ll be spending a lot on dining during a particular month and then on travel during another, you can adjust your 3 percent category to accommodate your spending.

Which purchases qualify for cash back?

Whenever you make a purchase with a particular merchant, your purchase is assigned a merchant category code (MCC). The type of MCC that a merchant receives depends on the type of products or services that they offer. Whether a purchase you make will qualify for a specific cash back category depends on the MCC, and Bank of America has no control over how a merchant classifies itself.

That said, Bank of America does group similar types of merchants together. This means there is a greater chance that your purchases will qualify for the 3 percent cash back categories and be classified as intended.

For example, the dining category includes purchases made at:

• Restaurants
• Fast-food chains
• Bars
• Cocktail lounges
• Discotheques
• Nightclubs
• Taverns and other drinking places

Some merchant examples include Chipotle, Olive Garden, Starbucks and Grubhub.

How to choose your Bank of America Cash Rewards category

Here are the steps to choose or change the 3 percent category for your Bank of America Cash Rewards card:

1. Analyze your spending habits. Before choosing a category, you should first review your spending patterns. For example, if you eat out frequently, you might want to choose the dining category. If you shop online a lot, consider selecting the online shopping category.

2. Log in to your account and select your card. After logging in to your Bank of America account online or through the mobile app, select your Bank of America Cash Rewards card.

3. Manage your rewards. Next, select your card’s rewards tab. If you’re online, you should see a breakdown of your card’s current rewards rates, as well as how much you have available in rewards. If this is the first time you’re changing your category, you’ll see that your 3 percent category is set to gas and EV charging stations.

4. Choose “Change 3% category” to change your category. Selecting this button will provide you with a list of categories. If you want to learn more about your options before choosing a category, you can select “Category Details” instead. This will provide you with examples of qualifying merchants and purchases. Once you change your category, your choice will go into effect for all future purchases.



When to change your 3% category

It’s quick and easy to change categories online or through the Bank of America app. If you spend a lot of money at gas or EV charging stations each month, it may make sense for you to stick with the default as your 3 percent category. But, there are some situations where it’s likely better to switch from that default category, such as when:

• You tend to spend more in another category. If you spend a lot at online retailers — such as on Amazon or Etsy, for example — you may find it better to choose online shopping as your 3 percent category. Same logic applies to categories like drugstores and dining.
• You’re trying to complete a home improvement project. The Customized Cash is one of the few cards with a dedicated home improvement and furnishing category, so you might want to switch your category to that to maximize your earnings. Some of the qualifying merchants for home improvement include Ace Hardware, IKEA, The Home Depot and Lowe’s.
• You’re going on vacation soon. You could change your category to travel during the month you make all your bookings to save money that way. The travel category is broad and includes purchases made with Airbnb, Uber, Delta Airlines and more.


Keep in mind:

You can only change categories once per calendar month, and you’ll only earn 3 percent cash back on up to $2,500 worth of purchases each quarter. After that, you’ll earn 1 percent back on purchases in your selected category until the next quarter. If you don’t change your category, your 3 percent category will remain the same until you deliberately switch it.

How to maximize the Bank of America cash back category rewards

There are a few things you can do to maximize your earnings with the Bank of America Cash Rewards card. These include:

• Choosing the best 3 percent category for your lifestyle. Choose the category that works best for you. It should be a category that you’ll have high spending in during that particular month or quarter.
• Switching 3 percent categories when necessary. If you need to, switch categories for a month. This can come in handy if you have a large expense coming up in a particular category. Once you’ve made that large purchase, be sure to switch your flexible category back to your preferred everyday category so that you still earn 3 percent cash back when you return to your regular spending.
• Qualifying for Preferred Rewards. Bank of America Preferred Rewards members can earn at least 25 percent more and up to 75 percent more rewards on purchases, depending on their membership tier. To become a Preferred Rewards member, you must have a qualifying Bank of America or Merrill account and meet a $20,000 three-month minimum balance requirement across all accounts.
• Pairing your card with a flat-rate cash back option. To earn more rewards on all spending, consider pairing the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards card with a flat-rate card like the Citi Double Cash® Card or Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card. If you use your Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards card for purchases in your 3 percent category and your flat-rate card for purchases in non-category spending, you can maximize the cash back you’re getting for all purchases. For the Citi Double Cash Card, for example, you’d get 1 percent cash back as you buy and 1 percent as you pay for purchases, which would amount to more than what your Customized Cash Rewards card would offer for non-category spending.

The bottom line

The 3 percent categories on the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards card are fairly broad, which is why so many cardholders love it.

The key to maximizing this cash back card is to plan out big purchases ahead of time and choose a 3 percent category according to category seasons, such as choosing the online shopping category for the holiday season or the travel category for a big summer vacation.

The Bank of America content in this post was last updated on July 3, 2025.

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