Bank of America to Roll Out Cash-Back Deals for Cardholders

NEW YORK (MainStreet) – Bank of America (Stock Quote: BAC) is preparing a new service that will provide cardholders with exclusive deals to the retailers they visit most.

The program, which the bank has named the prosaic BankAmeriDeals, is currently being tested among Bank of America employees in select states. It will roll out to employees nationwide by the end of February, after which the bank will decide how to proceed with a customer rollout.

The basics are this: Bank of America will be teaming with merchants to offer limited-time discounts to cardholders, which will be given to customers in the form of an end-of-month cash-back account credit. In other words, if a merchant offers 10% off and you make a $100 purchase with your Bank of America debit card, you’ll pay the full $100 upfront but get $10 back in your account at the end of the month.

For now, the company won’t say which merchants will be participating, and we imagine the list is still being finalized. But the most interesting part of this program is how each customer’s lineup of deals will be chosen: The company says that it will bring you deals for merchants in your area based on your purchase history. So if you regularly make purchases at sporting goods retailers, you can expect to see deals for local sporting goods stores show up in your account. All you need to do is add that deal to your card using online banking and then make your purchase at the store using that card.

In this sense, the program is a sort of strange fusion of cash-back rewards, daily deals and frequent customer discounts. While we’d have to see the actual deals on offer before we pass judgment, it sounds like this will be a nice perk for the bank’s customers.

Matt Brownell is a staff reporter for MainStreet. You can reach him by email at matthew.brownell@thestreet.com, or follow him on Twitter @Brownellorama.