Bank of America's Add It Up Program Review
Bank of America AddItUp Program Review
The program is free to join -- sign up here.
How to Earn: Receive cash back to your registered BOA credit or debit card of up to 20% for shopping online at over 250 merchants when you start your shopping session at the AddItUp Program's website. There are four offline cashback offers; hopefully more will be added.
Who Can Join: Membership in this program is limited to people with a Bank of America credit or debit card who are enrolled in online banking. Residents of Washington and Idaho cannot participate, nor can Small Business credit card only customers. Some BOA cardholders are ineligible, including holders of other BOA-issued rewards cards like Upromise, TripRewards, etc.
When You're Paid: Your AddItUp transactions will appear in your account within 20 days, and will be given a "pending" designation until the merchant pays BOA, within 30 to 90 days. Payments are then made to members on a monthly basis, around the 25th of the month. If your cashback earnings (meaning the purchases that went from Pending to Earned status) from the 21st of the prior month through the 20th of the current month are $5 or more, you'll receive your cashback, as an ACH deposit to your debit card or a statement credit to your credit card account. Otherwise, your earnings will roll over to the next month.
Customer Service Contact: 1-866-934-6250
Notes:
1. Several big-name merchants are featured as special offers with BOA matching (doubling) cashback up to $250 through 7/12, at Home Depot (3% doubled to 6%), Staples (4% doubled to 8%), Target (4% doubled to 8%, excluding gift cards), Walmart (2% doubled to 4%, excluding gift cards), and Sears (3% doubled to 6% and gift cards ARE included). Note that you'll earn all of the original cashback rate but BOA will match/double up to a total of $250 across all of these merchants.
2. AddItUp has a coupon/discounts section, providing coupon codes or links for many of their participating merchants.
3. Add It Up's rates are outstanding to high-average compared to other cashback rewards programs. Some examples: Buy.com at 3% cashback (versus around 1.5% elsewhere), Avon at 9% (versus 6 to 7% elsewhere), Dell Home at 2% (3% elsewhere), Kmart at 3% (2% elsewhere), Macy's at 4% (same as competitors), Office Depot at 4% (around 3% elsewhere), PETCO at 7% (8% elsewhere), and ToysRUs at 2% (same as competitors). You'll especially want to take advantage of the doubled rates at the merchants listed in #1.
My Take: If you pay your credit card off in full each month, or if you have an eligible Bank of America debit card, this program is definitely worthwhile. Their shopping rates are very competitive. Remember, though: if you're charging to your BOA credit card and paying interest on it, you're not really "earning" all this cash back -- they're recouping a big chunk of it with the interest you pay. So, pay in full or use a debit card. Of course, that's good advice for anyone using any online rewards program. ;)
Date: March 16, 2009 10:32 AM
Discover has had a program like this for some time. Card holders just need to sign in, go to the "Shop Discover" section of the site, and browse a wide array of merchants. I recently got 10% cash back bonuses from Best Buy and Home Depot using this service. New merchants will sometimes have bonus offers for a limited time, often up to 20% cash back. Chase likewise has a similar program.
Date: March 17, 2009 9:52 AM
Yep, the type of program Bank of America's Add It Up Program has set up is nothing new -- Citibank's ThankYou points is another example. I understand they're catching quite a bit of heat over it, though, because BOA received government bailout money and there are those who feel it shouldn't be spent promoting huge corporations, particularly those who import or outsource work overseas (all of their participating merchants are huge retailers). Staying out of the political debate over that one! ;)
I don't have a Discover card so I can't do a thorough review of their shopping portal, though at a glance I didn't see their rates as being tremendously better than what's offered elsewhere. Interested to hear your good experience with Discover's cashback site, though, and would love to hear comments from others about it good or bad.
Thanks so much for your comment!
Date: March 29, 2009 5:26 PM
I shopped through BofA's website at OfficeMax and also just by going to OfficeMax.com. What did I notice? OfficeMax's prices were HIGHER when I accessed the site through the Add it Up program. How much higher? Exactly 3% higher, the amount of rebate I was supposed to get. So...pay OfficeMax 3% more, and get 3% back. Deal or no deal?
Date: March 30, 2009 8:12 PM
I was really interested to read this and tried it out myself. Went through BOA's link to OfficeMax in a Firefox window, and cleared cookies/cache in Internet Explorer and went directly to Office Max.
No difference in prices.
And BOA pays 4% for OfficeMax, not 3%. Are you sure it was OfficeMax? (I checked OfficeDepot, too, and didn't see a difference in pricing for them, either.)
Date: July 1, 2009 2:03 PM
I made multiple purchases from staples from 5/03/09-5/16/09 via going through my Bank of America additup account and by clicking the retailer link on their website. I was 100% sure that I went through the additup site to take advantage of 4% staples cash back they offer. However several weeks after the transactions the cash back did not show up on the additup website. When I called they said all transactions are there and would eventually give me cash back in few days. When I called this week to know the status they said, I wonâ??t be getting cash back as I did not go through their website. This company is doing fraud found a silly reason to deny my cash back. As I mentioned, I am 100% certain that I went through the additup website to make all these transactions. This was confirmed during my first call with customer service person as she said she could see all the transactions. Now they found a simple way to reject my cash back by saying that I did not go through their website while making the purchase. This is not correct, but no way to prove it. There is no way that I missed additup sign up for all my 12 transactions starting from 5/3-5/16. If I miss one or two I would have agreed. I feel I have been cheated by this company as they are purposefully denied me the cash back. The whole reason of using a BOA card and additup was to get the cash back, otherwise I had better options to make this transaction rather than using BOA card. So lesson learned is the whole additup sucks. Don't expect cash back while doing your purchase. If you get it you are lucky. I am just amazed how this company takes away money by saying they give cash back and at the end not honoring that saying nonsense reason to deny it. Buyers beware using BOA services, this company is fraud, and it is just there to loot your money ...Pathetic cheats...
Date: August 7, 2009 4:39 PM
Some of my transactions appeared and most of them didn't appear.
I didn't expect Bank of America to cheat like this.
Date: October 1, 2009 7:13 PM
This program os good for debit card purchases as well, Discover and Citi Bank don't offer this the way BoA does with the debit card purchases.
Date: October 6, 2009 9:27 PM
Will BA cancal my worldpoint reward program after I join? And is there any monthly free after a period of time or other hidden fee?
Date: January 11, 2010 10:41 AM
it will take forever to get the reward,I think this is a scam. I bought a printer at newegg.com and officemax.com two month ago, status of my rewards are pending, and i called BOA, they said it will take 90 days to process. is it a joke?
Date: February 3, 2010 7:33 PM
Does the add it up program work for any debit card purchase or online only?
Date: June 16, 2010 1:13 PM
this program is bs
i bought $500 stuff via this program...call them they tell me to wait 30days call back again wait another 30 days call today it was denied
so no cash back
no reason for why it denied
and i called sears.com and newegg.com customer services
guess what same old transfering method till your customer gave up...
Thank you Bank of America
you cheap cheat butt hole