Susan G. Komen® Customized Cash Rewards Visa Credit Card Review – Donate to Breast Cancer Research

Bank of America’s Susan G. Komen® Customized Cash Rewards Visa Credit Card, also known as the Pink Ribbon Card, is a cash back credit card that rewards spending in your choice of popular spending categories and other eligible purchases as well.

This card’s most distinctive feature is an automatic charitable giving scheme: part of every transaction benefits Susan G. Komen, a well-regarded breast cancer charity. Aside from this feature, the Susan G. Komen card is very similar to the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Credit Card. Like it, the Susan G. Komen card offers some nice benefits for existing Bank of America deposit account holders in addition to general cash back rewards and benefits.

The Susan G. Komen Credit Card competes with a host of other cash back rewards credit cards, including the Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card, the Discover it family of credit cards, and the American Express Blue Cash Everyday Credit Card.

What Sets the Susan G. Komen Customized Cash Rewards Visa Apart

The Susan G. Komen Customized Cash Rewards Visa card isn’t a revolutionary credit card by any means, but it does have some notable features worth calling out upfront:

• Part of Every Transaction Supports Susan G. Komen’s Work. Bank of America donates a tiny slice of every transaction to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, plus a larger amount for each new sign-up and account renewal. BofA has guaranteed $1.5 million to the organization through December 2023.
• Earn 3% Cash Back in Your Choice of Spending Category. You can earn up to 3% cash back on eligible purchases with this card — and you can choose the spending category that earns at that pace. If you’re a Preferred Rewards member, which requires a minimum balance across eligible BofA and Merrill Lynch accounts, you can earn even more: up to 5.25% in the 3% categories.
• Enjoy 0% APR on Purchases and Balance Transfers for 18 Billing Cycles From Account Opening. This is one of the longest 0% APR promotions in the cash-back space, and it applies to both purchases and balance transfers — a bona fide rarity for an 18-cycle term.

Is the Susan G. Komen Customized Cash Rewards Visa Legit?

Yes, the Susan G. Komen Customized Cash Rewards Visa is legitimate.

Don’t be fooled by the Susan G. Komen name, which is popular and respected but not universally known. This credit card is virtually identical to the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards Visa card, the only difference being that a very small slice of each transaction (and some other cash here and there) goes to support the work of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Key Features of the Susan G. Komen Customized Cash Rewards Visa Credit Card

Let’s take a closer look at the key features of the Susan G. Komen card.

Sign-up Bonus

Make at least $1,000 in eligible purchases within 90 days of opening your account to qualify for a $200 cash back bonus.

Earning Cash Back Rewards

The Susan G. Komen card has a three-tiered rewards program that works as follows.

First, you can earn 3% cash back on eligible spending in one of the following categories:

• Gas
• Online shopping
• Dining
• Travel
• Home furnishings/home improvements
• Drugstores

Second, you can earn 2% cash back on eligible spending at wholesale clubs and grocery stores.

Third, you can earn unlimited 1% cash back on all other eligible spending.

Importantly, your rewards potential in the 2% and 3% categories is not unlimited. They have a cumulative quarterly spending cap of $2,500, above which you’ll earn just 1% cash back on eligible purchases.

Redeeming Cash Back Rewards

Earned cash back is redeemable for statement credits, paper checks, and deposits into a Bank of America deposit account (savings or checking) or Merrill Lynch Cash Management Account.

Susan G. Komen Donations

Bank of America has a multi-year relationship with Susan G. Komen, a well-known breast cancer foundation that has donated more than $1.5 billion to breast cancer research, education, advocacy, healthcare support, and other causes, since the early 1990s.

From January 2021 through December 2023, Bank of America guaranteed at least $1.5 million to Susan G. Komen, partly by contributing 0.08% of every card transaction to the foundation – well under the card’s baseline 1% cash back rate. BofA donates an additional $3 to the foundation for every new card it issues, as well as $3 for every card renewal it processes, provided the account is in good standing and does not have a $0 balance at renewal.

Preferred Rewards Benefits (Bonus Cash Back)

If you have more than $20,000 on deposit with Bank of America, you qualify for the Preferred Rewards cash back bonus. There are three Preferred Rewards tiers: 

• Gold: $20,000 to $50,000 on deposit with Bank of America, good for a 25% cash back bonus
• Platinum: $50,000 to $100,000 on deposit, good for a 50% bonus
• Platinum Honors: $100,000-plus on deposit, good for a 75% bonus

So as a Platinum Honors member, you can earn 5.25% cash back on eligible 3% category purchases.

Overdraft Protection for Bank of America Deposit Account Holders

If you have a checking account with Bank of America, you can link it to your Susan G. Komen card to protect against overdrafts. Whenever you make a non-sufficient funds transaction in your checking account, Bank of America covers the shortfall by charging a cash advance to your credit card. These advances always come in $100 increments. For instance, if you make a $175 overdraft, your corresponding advance is $200.

Each overdraft advance costs $12 (as opposed to other types of cash advances, which cost the greater of $10 or 3%) and accrues interest at the maximum cash advance APR rate.

Introductory APR

This card comes with a 18-billing-cycle 0% introductory APR on purchases and balance transfers. Qualifying balance transfers need to be made within 60 days of account opening. Thereafter, variable regular APR applies.

Important Fees

The Susan G. Komen card does not have an annual fee, but the foreign transaction fee is 3% of each transaction amount.

Credit Required

This card requires good to excellent credit. Some minor dings are fine, but major blemishes are likely to disqualify your application.

Advantages of the Susan G. Komen Customized Cash Rewards Visa Credit Card

These are the biggest advantages of the Susan G. Komen card. Note the strong sign-up bonus, long 0% APR promotion, and robust charitable giving framework that doesn’t require any effort (or extra spending) on your part.

• Charitable Giving Is Baked Into the Card. The Susan G. Komen card contributes to a well-known charity every single time you swipe it, dip it, or punch in its number online. While the absolute size of each donation is pretty small – 0.08% of every $100 transaction amounts to just eight cents – the millions of transactions made annually with this card surely add up. Plus, every new card sign-up sends $3 Susan G. Komen’s way – and that’s real money.
• No Annual Fee. The Susan G. Komen card doesn’t come with an annual fee. That’s a nice advantage over more expensive cash back cards, such as American Express EveryDay Preferred and Blue Cash Preferred.
• Good Sign-up Bonus. This card’s $200 sign-up bonus is easy to attain. You need to spend just $1,000 in 90 days to qualify.
• Solid Introductory APR Promotion. The Susan G. Komen Credit Card’s 18-billing-cycle 0% purchase and balance transfer APR promotion is great news for people switching from high-interest credit cards or planning to make large purchases soon after opening their accounts. Some popular cash back alternatives, such as Capital One Quicksilver (0% APR for nine months), have more perfunctory promotional periods.
• Extra Benefits for Bank of America Accountholders. If you have a Bank of America deposit account in good standing, you’re guaranteed to get at least a 10% bump to your Susan G. Komen card’s cash back earnings. If you’re fortunate enough to have more than $20,000 on deposit with BoA, you stand to earn a lot more. Some popular competitors, such as Discover it and Discover Bank, don’t offer bonuses for deposit accountholders.
• No Quarterly Categories or Manual Activation. The Susan G. Komen Credit Card’s spending categories are set in stone. You never have to worry about keeping track of rotating categories or manually activating new categories when they come online. On the other hand, both the Chase Freedom Flex Credit Card and Discover it 5% card require you to manually activate their rotating categories. That’s a potential headache for busy cardholders.

Disadvantages of the Susan G. Komen Customized Cash Rewards Visa Credit Card

These are the biggest downsides of the Susan G. Komen card. They include the foreign transaction fee, caps on earnings in the 2% and 3% categories, and limited value-added benefits.

• Caps on Earnings in the 2% and 3% Rewards Categories. The Susan G. Komen Credit Card caps potential cash-back earnings in the 2% and 3% spending categories. You can only earn bonus cash in these categories on your first $2,500 in combined category spending each quarter. If you spend more than $2,500 per quarter in these tiers combined, consider a more generous grocery or gas credit card, such as PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards Credit Card (which pays an unlimited 5% back at the pump) or American Express Blue Cash Preferred (which pays 3% back at gas stations and 6% back at supermarkets).
• Charges a Foreign Transaction Fee. This card comes with a 3% foreign transaction fee. That’s a real bummer if you travel internationally with any frequency. Discover it and Capital One Quicksilver both lack foreign transaction fees.
• Has a Penalty APR. The Susan G. Komen card charges penalty interest. That’s a big problem for people who occasionally miss their statement due dates, as Bank of America reserves the right to impose penalty interest indefinitely after missed payments. Chase Freedom and Discover it both eschew penalty interest.
• No Credit Score or Credit-Building Tools. The Susan G. Komen card doesn’t provide you with a free credit score in your monthly statement or online account dashboard. It also doesn’t have any credit-building tools to speak of. All the Discover it-branded cash back cards offer free FICO scores, while Capital One Quicksilver comes with free FICO scores and useful credit-building tools.

Final Word

It’s not always easy to find the right charities. To attract donations and grants, charities need to demonstrate that they’re responsible stewards of their donors’ funds, and that their leaders have a clear vision for the future. Poring through multiple charities’ financial statements, or even summary reports produced by third-party watchdogs, can be time-consuming and confusing even for informed laypeople.

Bank of America’s relationship with Susan G. Komen won’t help you conduct due diligence on the other charities you donate to. However, it does make a real difference with one highly regarded nonprofit in particular. It’s nice to know that, with every swipe of your Susan G. Komen® Customized Cash Rewards Visa Credit Card, you’re doing your small part for a good cause. If you’re going to spend the money anyway, some of it might as well end up in capable hands.