Called BofA again and it seems my calculation is correct and basically they said that even if my mom drops from the Platinum Honors tier on January 1, 2018 for not meeting the $100,000 average balance on December 31, 2017, I would need a balance of $145,000 on January 1, 2018 so that the average 3 month daily balance on that date will be $100,000 assuming I don’t take anything out so t0 hat at the end of the statement cycle which is basically the last business day of the month, it would meet the $100,000 requirement and she would get upgraded back to the Platinum Tier automatically on February 1, 2018 as they always upgrade those that meet the requirements every month if they are already in the Preferred Rewards program. They also said the Cash Rewards bonus is $262.50 and the Preferred Rewards status for the 75% bonus is only needed during redemption of the reward. Ofcourse the $65,000 needed to earn the extra $112.50 would be earning $70.00 in interest at 1.30% elsewhere so in reality, it’s really only $42.50 more and not $112.50 extra compared to the initial $150.00 bonus.

Just got off the phone with Bank of America Preferred Rewards Customer Service and basically they were clueless on what the daily balance had to be on December 31, 2017 or even how to calculate it. I will be doing a ACH push from Fidelity Investments to BofA in the next day or two so I want to make sure I am calculating this correctly using the same method meed18 used. The balance on the account is $82,448.44 except to be on the safe side leaving some headroom, we will call this $80,000 as the balance basically was bouncing between $81,000 to $86,000 since October 1, 2017 and has never actually reached $80,000 so that level should be safe and I already know how much money will come out before December 31, 2017. It basically goes down about $2,000 a month but this month is higher due to property taxes which is included in the deduction I will mention which will be done on December 27, 2017. I will just use December 27, 2017 as the reference point even though the ACH will probably be in the account a few business days before that and basically I will be deducting $7,052.30 from the account which probably wouldn’t matter as the ACH deposit will include another $8,000.00 so that will cancel out the deduction to play it safe.

October 31 days + November 30 days + December 31 days = 92 days.
October 31 days + November 30 days + December 1-27 = 88 days.
$100,000 x 92 = $9,200,000
$80,000 x 88 = $7,040,000
$9,200,000 - $7,040,000 = $2,160,000
92-88 = 4
$2,160,000 / 4 = $540,000
$540,000 + $8,000 to cover the December 27, 2017 $7,052.30 deduction

So am I correct I would need a $540,000 + $8,000 = $548,000 total balance on December 31, 2017 which means I would need to transfer $478,000 just so my mom can stay a Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors Client? Or did I calculate this incorrectly? This doesn’t seem cost effective if the only reason to get her that status for another 3 months is for the Bank of America® Cash Rewards credit card which gives $150 for spending $500 during the first 3 months and an addition 75% bonus for being in the Platinum Honors Tier which would be $262.50.

Yeah, they sent a letter to the secondary account holder because she only has this account for the balance while I have other accounts to exceed the requirement and it does say it has to meet the requirement on December 31, 2017. For some reason, I thought they would just make secondary account holders eligible based on the assets of the primary.

Thanks meed18, hopefully that amount is correct since basically it seems like for October 1-November 30, 2017, there is a shortage of $20,000 per month x 2 = $40,000 and then for December, there would also be a shortage of $20,000 which totals $60,000 or a total of $1,400,000.00 is needed at the end of December 31, 2017 which is about $8k less than what is needed.

Does anyone know how often BofA actually check the balances since assuming it meets the criteria on December 31, 2017, when will they usually do the next review as I noticed the account has been under $100,000 for atleast 6 months before they sent the letter to the secondary account holder who had no other accounts.

I have a question on the Bank of America Preferred Rewards Platinum Honors tier which requires a 3 month average balance of $100,000. Basically, what if the average monthly balance from October 1, 2017 to December 4, 2017 is $80,000. How much does one need to deposit so that it will meet the $100,000 average on December 31, 2017 to keep the status? Thanks!

@frugalpete

Haven’t looked into it because the risk is higher than QLD which is 2x leveraged, so not even sure how the performance compares.

I always thought that any checks would have to be drawn in U.S. Funds so Canadian checks would not work unless it was drawn in U.S. Funds. If it was in Canadian funds, you can get charged some fee and then the conversion which may or may not be in your favor.

I also wonder about making transactions with the debit card, if they count the transaction date or the post date as far as the December 1, 2017 date is concerned.

@david-scubadiver

I think it’s a YMMV, I bought both QLD and DDM in March of 2009 and both have been up and continuing to go up. 8 years should be long term enough so it really depends on the price you buy at and when you buy which is more important. However, I woudn’t buy at todays prices.

Yeah, would be interesting to know how it works…