Friday, October 30, 2009

Huh? A Useful Savings Program from Bank of America?

A year or so ago, Bank of America started its "Keep the Change" program, where they move the "change" from debit card purchase to your savings account (rounding each purchase to the whole dollar and moving the difference). Personally, I find this program completely harmless - I mean, sure, I appreciate the $67 I've earned this year - but many find it pointless and annoying, as the savings accrue painfully slowly even for frequent debit card users (and all the little transfers muddle my online statements).

But lo and behold, they have a new program- one where you can actually get some legitimate rewards. It's called "Add It Up" and with minimal effort, you can get anywhere from 3 - 20% cash back on purchases from a whole host of online retailers. When I first noticed this little promotion, I was quite skeptical that there would be any retailers I actually patronized, but in fact, they have an incredible list of partners including Target, Sephora, Bloomingdales, PotteryBarn, FinishLine, Overstock, BestBuy, UrbanOutfitters, Apple, Gap, JCrew, and on and on. At this point, I'm more surprised when a company is NOT available.

The percentage you receive back varies from company to company, but given that the only additional effort required to receive the savings is to register one of your BOA cards (once) and then click through the Add It Up site to the retailer's site (total time: 1 minute), it's definitely worth the effort to check. When I recently purchased two pairs of shoes from Endless.com, I received 9% cash back, for a total of over $20 in savings! At JCrew.com, I got 4% cash back and at Sephora 5%. While I fully recognize that 3% back on small purchases is nothing to write home about, I highly recommend checking this site anytime you're about to click "submit" for an order over $100. And best of all, this program doesn't negate any other coupons, discount codes, or card rewards - it's on top of anything you'd already get.

Check it out: additup.bankofamerica.com

1 comment:

  1. question: did you get to keep the money you made once you returned said shoes? i'd love to know as a frequent return-er.

    ReplyDelete