Rakuten's amount and terms were read on Tuesday, October 7, 2026, signed in to our own account: $425 in the Rakuten app, $400 on the card's store page at rakuten.com the same morning. Bank of America's offer was read the same day on bankofamerica.com. Rakuten publishes no end date.
The short version: Rakuten is paying $425 cash back in its app for getting approved for the Bank of America Premium Rewards card ($400 on its website), up from its usual $125, and that is separate from the 60,000 points Bank of America pays after $4,000 of purchases in 90 days, which the bank itself values at $600. Together that is $1,025 back on $4,000 of spending you were going to do anyway, against a $95 annual fee. If your Rakuten account pays out in Amex Membership Rewards or Bilt Points instead of cash, the $425 lands as 42,500 points (21,250 Bilt at Blue). Not on Rakuten yet? Join through a referral first and Rakuten adds $50 more.
Where the money comes from, piece by piece
| Piece | What you get | Who pays | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rakuten approval bonus | $425 cash in the Rakuten app ($400 on the website), or 42,500 Amex Membership Rewards points or Bilt Points if your account pays in points | Rakuten | "within a few months" of approval, per Rakuten |
| Card welcome bonus, 60,000 points after $4,000 in 90 days | "a $600 value" in Bank of America's words; the points redeem for cash into a Bank of America or Merrill account, as a statement credit, or for gift cards and travel | Bank of America | after the spend posts |
| The $4,000 itself, at 1.5 points per dollar (2 on travel and dining) | 6,000 to 8,000 points, $60 to $80 | Bank of America | as you spend |
| Rakuten's new-member bonus, if you join through a referral link | $50 after $50 of qualifying purchases in 90 days | Rakuten | after the $50 of spending |
That is $1,025 before the fee, $930 after it in year one, and $1,085 to $1,155 counting the points on the spend and the referral piece. We have not summed the two point currencies into one number anywhere above; the $600 is Bank of America's own cash valuation of its points, printed on the card page.
The card's recurring pieces, from the same page: up to $100 a year in airline incidental statement credits (seat upgrades, bag fees, in-flight purchases, lounge fees, applied automatically), up to $100 toward TSA PreCheck or Global Entry every four years, no foreign transaction fees, 2 points per dollar on travel and dining and 1.5 on everything else.
The app and the website show different numbers
On the same account, the same morning, the Rakuten app showed $425 for this card and the store page at rakuten.com showed "$400 Cash Back, was $125." Rakuten amounts can differ between the app and the site and from one member to another, and what counts is the offer you click through from. So open the card in the app and on the site, and apply from whichever shows the higher number. If yours shows less than $425, the rest of this still holds; only the first row of the table changes.
How to do it so you actually get paid, in order
- Log in to Rakuten, or join through our link first if you are new, so the $50 new-member bonus is in play.
- Open the Bank of America Premium Rewards card in the Rakuten app, and on the site from its search or Banking and Finance category, and confirm the number: $425 in the app and $400 on the site when we looked. Start from the higher one.
- Click through from that page and finish the application in the same browser session. Do not open the bank's site separately.
- On the Bank of America page that opens, check that it shows "60,000 online bonus points" after $4,000 in 90 days before you submit.
- Keep the card open. Rakuten's terms: "Cash Back only available for new, approved Bank of America® Premium Rewards Credit Card customers who keep the account open for a minimum of 3 months after approval."
- One per account: "Only one cash back bonus per Rakuten member account." If you already took Rakuten's cash back on another card, read that line as a no.
Rakuten's other lines, word for word: "Cash Back provided by Rakuten, not Bank of America." "Applying for a new credit card may impact your credit score." "U.S. residents only." Posting time: "Cash Back will be automatically added to your Rakuten account within a few months."
Taking the $425 as 42,500 Amex or Bilt points
If your Rakuten account is set to pay out in American Express Membership Rewards, Rakuten converts at 1 point per cent, so $425 arrives as 42,500 Membership Rewards points. We value those at 1.9 cents each, about $810 toward a transfer-partner award, which is why some people choose the points over the cash. One concrete use: Membership Rewards transfer 1:1 to Iberia Club, and Iberia's own chart prices a one-way Business Comfort award from New York, Boston or Chicago to Madrid at 40,500 Avios on off-peak dates (50,500 from Dallas, Los Angeles or Miami). So the Rakuten piece alone, taken as 42,500 Amex points, covers a one-way business-class seat to Madrid from the band-5 cities with 2,000 points left, plus Iberia's taxes and fees. How we priced Iberia's chart against a real seat is in our Dallas-to-Madrid write-up; the chart was read on iberia.com on September 20, 2026, and there is no Amex-to-Iberia transfer bonus running today. Bilt is the other option: 100 Bilt Points per dollar at Silver, Gold and Platinum, 50 at Blue, so 42,500 or 21,250 Bilt Points. The payout method is a Rakuten account setting, and it has to be set before the cash back posts. How we think about the Bilt tier math is in our Palladium write-up.
The Amex points do not require holding an Amex card to receive, but they need an Amex Membership Rewards account to land in, which does mean a card that earns them.
Coming in 2027: Bank of America points into Alaska's Atmos Rewards
Bank of America points have never transferred to an airline or hotel program, which is why we value them at the 1 cent they redeem for. That is set to change. Alaska Airlines' September 29, 2026 announcement about its Atmos Rewards program says: "In 2027, Alaska also plans to deepen its Bank of America relationship by enabling customers with eligible Bank of America card products to transfer points into Atmos Rewards." It adds that "over time, Atmos Rewards also plans to add points-transfer opportunities with other select global financial institutions."
Alaska has not said which Bank of America cards will be eligible, when in 2027 it starts, or the transfer ratio. Until those three details are published, the 60,000 points are worth the $600 Bank of America prints and nothing more. It is still worth knowing before you redeem: points sitting in a Bank of America account when the transfer opens may get a second use.
The other Bank of America cards on Rakuten today
| Card | Rakuten today, on the website | Rakuten's usual |
|---|---|---|
| Premium Rewards ($95 fee) | $400 on the site, $425 in the app | $125 |
| Customized Cash Rewards (no fee) | $250 | $75 |
| Travel Rewards (no fee) | $250 | $100 |
| Unlimited Cash Rewards (no fee) | $200 | $75 |
The Travel Rewards card was Rakuten's $400 card in September; it is $250 on the site today, and the Premium Rewards card has taken the top spot. We checked only the Premium Rewards card in the app, where it was $25 higher than the site, so look at the app for these three too. The one-bonus-per-account rule means you pick one.
The question is whether $4,000 of spending in 90 days is spending you already have. If it is, the Premium Rewards row pays $1,025 against $95. If it is not, the $1,000 no-fee rows in September's event write-up are the same idea at a quarter of the spend.
Alaska's Atmos Rewards announcement read on news.alaskaair.com on October 7, 2026. Rakuten amounts read from the Rakuten app, from rakuten.com's store page for the Bank of America Premium Rewards card and from Rakuten's search results, signed in, on October 7, 2026. Bank of America's offer, credits and earn rates read from bankofamerica.com the same day. Rakuten pays us $50 when a new member joins through our link; we hold no Bank of America affiliate relationship.
Related articles
- Rakuten's One-Day Credit Card Event: Up to $400 From Rakuten on Top of the Card's Own Bonus (September 28)
- A No-Annual-Fee Card That Pays Up to $715 Back on $1,000: Rakuten's $400, Bank of America's 25,000 Points, and $50 More If You Are New to Rakuten
- Rakuten Is Paying $350 for the Bank of America Travel Rewards Card, on Top of Its 25,000-Point Bonus
- Rakuten Is Paying Up to $250 to Apply for a Credit Card, and It Stacks With the Welcome Bonus
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