I received the following in the mail:
Bank of America
Reward Center
10615 Professional Circle
Suite 102
Reno NV 84521
Paul Robinson
550 S. Carlin Springs Rd
Rm 330B
Arlington VA 22204
Your reward has arrived
Order date: June 16, 2020
Order number 159228256212326
Dear Paul Robinson,
Congratulations! The gift card(s) you earned exclusively with your
Bank of America® credit card is enclosed. Thank you for participating in your rewards program. Enjoy your reward!
Please see the important instructions and restrictions printed on the back of the gift card.
If you have any questions, please visit us at
www.bankofamerica.com or call the number on the back of your bank of America credit card.
Thank you.
Amazon $100.00
This credit card program is issued and administered by Bank of America, N.A. Bank of America and the bank of America logo are registered trademarks of Bank of America Corporation. All other company product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others and their use does not imply endorsement of or any association with this program. ©2020 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.
Card is active and ready for immediate use
All good and reasonable, right? Not so fast.
I don't have a Bank of America credit card. I have not applied for a Bank of America credit card. I have such poor credit that I don't think I could even qualify for a credit card from a normal bank
[1], certainly not one offering a $100 Amazon gift card.
But in case BofA made a mistake, I've already used the gift card for something I have lusted over for years, but is now so cheap with the extra hundred bucks I could afford it: A lifetime supply of chocolate err sorry, wrong movie, no, a lifetime supply of disk space! An 8TB powered external hard drive that I can plug into my computer. $144, so with the gift card it's an astonishing $44. It took me ten years of downloading to put 1.5 TB on my NAS, how long do you think it would take me to fill an 8 TB USB drive? By then we'll probably be able to buy thumb drives or SD cards that big for $20.
If I live that long.
And if BofA is stupid enough (given my credit history) to actually send me a credit card, if it has a tiny credit limit, I'll probably use it up and not pay it for insulting me with such a low limit. If it has a large limit, then I almost certainly will use it responsibly. Or maybe I should go nuts with it so if they come to their senses and cancel it, there's nothing left to cancel!
The question I'm not sure about is why BofA has been so nice to give me a $100 Amazon gift card. And why they think I have one of their cards.
[1] By "Normal bank" I mean one like BofA, Wells, Citi, my credit union, etc. I had received an offer from Credit One Bank, where they offer a card with a $750 limit but the fees on it run close to $250 the first year and $150 a year thereafter. Not worth considering; I have a no fee card from Chase with a $2000 limit.