Last fall, my primary personal credit card from Bank of America was compromised, and I was issued a new one. While I was waiting for the new card to arrive, I got in the habit of using another bank’s card. When the replacement card arrived, I stuffed it in a drawer, unactivated and still stuck to the mailer, forgetting I’d ever received it.

Fast forward six months, and I get an email this morning from Bank of America, offering $25 if I spend just $250 on the moth-balled card before June 30 (screenshot below). Coincidently, I’d just run across the forgotten card while doing a little preliminary tax prep. 

The offer requires activation, a smart move that avoids paying out $25 to someone who never even noticed the offer. And I was pleasantly surprised that I had to do nothing more than click the Activate Now button in the email. Within a few seconds I was greeted with a confirmation delivered through a BofA webpage (second screenshot; see update below).

Bottom line: It worked. I’ve got the BofA card back in my wallet, and I’ll be using it tomorrow. And as I’m sure the bank knows, they are likely to make the $25 back within a month or two, assuming I resume my previous charging behavior. Well done, BofA card marketing dept. 

————————————————

Bank of America email offering $25 cash back to reactivate my credit card (3 April 2012)

The one-click activation process* took us to this screen on the BofA website

*Update 4 April (in response to comment): Although I didn’t test it, it looked as though the single click activated the offer only. I still had to phone BofA using the usual process to activate the card. It would have been nice to have been able to do both through the Activate button.