Compare the Features and Benefits of Hilton Honors Surpass® Credit Card and
Bank of America® Unlimited Cash Rewards Credit Card

With a relatively low $150 annual fee, The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card comes with some valuable benefits, including Gold Elite status, which gets you free breakfast (or a daily food and beverage credit) on all stays at full-service Hilton hotels and resorts.

Waldorf Astoria Pedregal – Cabo, Mexico

With Hilton Honors points having an approximate value of 0.5 cents per point, you are earning roughly 6% back on Hilton stays and 3% back on select categories in the US: gas stations, gas, and groceries. Remember you’ll earn 3X Hilton Honors points on other eligible purchases, so that would be worth about a 1.5% return on spend.

The Hilton portfolio also has some amazing hotels and resorts at which you can spend your Hilton Honors points and Free Night Reward certificates. You can get value of rooms that sell for over $1,000 a night and include the Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi and the Waldorf Astoria Pedregal in Los Cabos. You could easily make a case that simply being able to earn the lucrative Free Night Reward certificates is reason enough to hold this card.

While we don’t recommend the Hilton Honors Surpass card as your only credit card, it certainly is worth more than its annual fee if you frequently stay at Hilton portfolio hotels and resorts.

Rates and fees for the Hilton Honors Surpass® Credit Card

With over 3,800 branches, Bank of America is a retail banking giant. It offers its Unlimited Cash Rewards Credit Card to customers who are looking to earn strong rates of cash back on all purchases, but don’t want to pay an annual fee.

Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases

This card offers 1.5% cash back per dollar spent on all purchases, with no limits. This is very competitive for a card with no annual fee. This high rate of return comes at the expense of bonus categories, as this card doesn’t have any, like other cards do for things like travel and dining purchases.

Cash back rewards can be deposited into a Bank of America savings account, redeemed as a statement credit, or applied to an eligible Merrill account.

And unlike a Bank of America Travel Rewards card, you don’t get any statement credits towards baggage fees, or the purchase of vacation packages, just cash rewards.

However, Bank of America Preferred Rewards members can earn a 25%, 50% or 75% bonus on their rewards, depending on which tier they are in. And these are simple cash rewards, so you don’t have to redeem points to be rewarded.

Many cardholders will find this simple formula better than earning bonuses on some purchases, but a mere 1% on other purchases.

And your cash back rewards never expire so long as your account remains open and in good standing.

But what makes this card exceptional is the ability for Bank of America Preferred Rewards customers to earn as much as 2.625% cash back. That’s what you’ll get if you’re in one of the higher tiers of their program and earn a 75% bonus on your rewards earned. Others will earn a 25% or 50% bonus, which is still enough to take this card from competitive to remarkable.

Otherwise, this simple card is also one that’s light on benefits. There’s very little to no travel insurance or purchase protection policies, but you do get a free credit score, which most cards offer these days. One notable benefit is Bank of America’s Museums on Us program, which offers free access to hundreds of museums on the first full weekend of the month. This unique benefit can offer significant value to families, parents and other museum lovers.

There’s no annual fee for this card, but there is a 3% foreign transaction fee imposed on purchases processed outside of the United States. That leaves this card as a solid choice for those looking for a competitive, but basic cash back card rather than a travel rewards credit card.

However, if you also happen to be a Bank of America Premier Rewards member, then using this could be the most rewarding card that you could ever use.