Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Authorized Users: How They Affect Your Rewards

The Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards card is a popular one to share within a household by adding an authorized user. Doing so raises a specific question: Does that person's spending help, hurt, or simply not affect the primary cardholder's rewards?

The short answer: The card's rewards, including its quarterly spending cap, are structured per account, not per user. Here's what that means before you add someone to the card.

An authorized user can:

• Make purchases on the account

• Earn cash back on those purchases at the same rates as the primary cardholder

An authorized user can't:

• Redeem the cash back that's been earned

• Request a higher credit limit

• Add another authorized user

• Close the account

Account-level decisions stay with the primary cardholder.

• One shared category: The Customized Cash Rewards card's rewards are set at the account level, not per cardholder. Only one choice category is active at a time, and an authorized user's purchases in that category earn the same rate as the primary cardholder's.

• One shared cap: The $2,500 quarterly cap on combined choice-category and grocery store/wholesale club purchases applies to the whole account, so authorized-user spending counts toward it. If both of you use the card, you'll reach that cap faster. After that, purchases earn 1% for the rest of the quarter.

• A workaround for multiple cards: Households juggling several cards might find it useful to look into maximizing cash back across multiple cards, or consider a simpler cash-back approach if tracking a shared category feels like too much coordination.

Because everyone shares one category and one cap, financial planner Dave Grant recommends making sure every cardholder knows where the bonus rate applies:

Yes. With this card, new cardholders can earn a $200 online cash rewards bonus after you make at least $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of account opening. That spending requirement is based on total purchases on the account, not just purchases made by the primary cardholder, so authorized users' spending during that window counts toward the minimum.

Grant says pooling household spending on one new card to reach a welcome bonus has worked well for his family.

“My wife and I do this when we need to make a larger, one-off purchase — like an appliance or a new piece of furniture. We'll open a new card with a healthy sign-up bonus and then make our purchase with it,” details Grant. “We'll either hit the bonus right away or get very close to it, and then we'll have the cash to pay off that purchase within the next one or two billing cycles.”

The Customized Cash Rewards card has no annual fee, and there's no fee to add an authorized user.

The real cost consideration is indirect: The primary cardholder is responsible for every purchase an authorized user makes on the card. That's why setting ground rules upfront matters.

“It's important for every user to understand that this isn't an unlimited spending arrangement. It's for planned purchases and must be paid back within that billing cycle. For larger, planned purchases that everyone agrees to, it may stretch to one cycle, but the goal is not to hold a balance on a card,” Grant says.

If those rules aren't followed, Grant explains both sides have an exit option. The primary cardholder can remove the authorized user at any time, and the authorized user can ask to be taken off the account if the primary cardholder is the one falling behind.

Bank of America's cardholder agreement notes that account information may appear on an authorized user's credit report. That can help the authorized user establish or build a credit history.

It's a common path into credit. In a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau study of how consumers first establish a credit record:

• 19.1% had at least one account on their credit report on which they were an authorized user.

• 10.9% (roughly 1 in 9) became “credit visible” specifically because an authorized-user account was added to their credit record.

This benefit depends entirely on the primary account staying in good standing. Missed payments or high balances can hurt an authorized user's credit just as on-time payments can help it.

If you're adding a child, ask Bank of America whether activity is reported for authorized users under 18. Issuers set their own reporting rules, so it's worth confirming before you count on the card to help them build a credit history.

• Choose your method: Add an authorized user through Bank of America's Online Banking, the Mobile Banking app, or by phone.

• Provide their information: You'll typically need the person's full legal name, date of birth, Social Security or tax ID number, address, relationship to you and citizenship status, plus their permission to add them.

• Receive their card: Once they're added, they'll get their own card tied to the same account.

Adding an authorized user to your Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards card puts more household spending to work toward one category, one quarterly cap, and one welcome bonus. That can help you earn the bonus sooner and give the authorized user a head start on credit. Just agree on ground rules first: who spends on what, and when the balance gets paid.

Does an authorized user get their own 6% category?

No. The choice category is set at the account level, and only the primary cardholder can change it (once per calendar month). When an authorized user makes a purchase in that category, it earns the same rate as the primary cardholder's purchases.

Will adding an authorized user make me hit my quarterly cap faster?

Likely, yes. The $2,500 cap is shared across all choice-category and grocery/wholesale club spending on the account, including the authorized user's purchases.

Can my authorized user redeem the cash back we've earned together?

No. Only the primary cardholder can redeem rewards on the account.

Is there a fee to add an authorized user?

No. The card has no annual fee and no separate authorized-user fee.

• Bank of America: Customized Cash Rewards credit card product page (rewards structure, quarterly maximum, and welcome offer)

• Bank of America: Customized Cash Rewards category choices and exclusions

• Bank of America: Sample credit card agreements (authorized-user terms and credit reporting)

• Bank of America: Credit Card Account Management FAQs (account management)

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Becoming Credit Visible (authorized-user accounts and credit building)

Disclosures