Bank of America has launched a tidy little retention effort for its online banking customers: the “Add it Up” program has created a sort of online mall, where shoppers can only pay with a Bank of America credit or check card.
BoA Online Banking customers register (“for FREE!” the site cheerily exclaims) for the service, sign in and select an offer from the site. It seems that the offers can be used in-store as well as online, so long as payments are made with the BoA card.
Then there’s the big payoff. Whenever you shop with a registered partner (which include Target, Staples and The Home Depot), you can get cash back deposited directly into your BoA account. Most of the cashback offers seem to fall between 1% and 5% of the purchase price — i.e., spend $100, get $1 deposited back — but the site claims that shoppers could earn up to 20% back.
I don’t have a BoA account, and this sort of offer won’t make me race to sign up for one, but for existing customers, it seems like good incentive to stick around. We can’t just stop spending money altogether; eventually, we’ll need something from Target or Staples or our local dry cleaner (one of the ‘in-store’ offers). When that time comes, a little reward will certainly help shoppers appreciate their banks a bit more.
