Bank of America Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Alleged Mastercard Rewards ‘Bait-and-Switch’

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

A Mastercard holder claims in a proposed class action lawsuit that Bank of America breached its contractual agreement by failing to honor his credit card rewards bonus offer.

Get the latest open class action lawsuits sent to your inbox. Sign up for ClassAction.org’s free weekly newsletter.

The 13-page lawsuit was filed by a Massachusetts resident who accuses the bank of using “bait-and-switch tactics” to lure him into signing a contract for a credit card pursuant to a specific bonus offer and then unilaterally changing the terms without adequate notice or “any justifiable reason.”

The suit says that in April 2024, the plaintiff applied for an Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard to take advantage of an advertised offer that promised to provide new applicants with “70,000 Bonus Miles plus 40 XP (Experience Points)” if they made at least $3,000 in purchases within the first 90 days of their account opening. The promotion also offered an extra 60 XP upon approval, the case adds.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff began to make transactions after receiving the credit card, and when his wallet went missing a month later, he requested a replacement card from Bank of America. The filing shares that with the new credit card, the bank provided a document detailing the man’s original bonus offer, as well as a second paper advertising a new plan, which offered only 50,000 bonus miles and 60 XP after $2,000 or more in purchases in the first 90 days.

“[The plaintiff], who had already contracted pursuant to the original offer and saw the original offer on the new set of documents, reasonably concluded that his original contract applied,” the suit relays. “Indeed, there was no reason why it would not.”

However, the plaintiff did not receive the original bonus offer rewards despite spending well over the required $3,000 on the card within the 90-day period, the Bank of America lawsuit contends. Instead, the bank superseded the man’s original contract, applied the second offer and refused to abide by the terms of the previous promotion, the case claims.

The plaintiff says he was “extremely frustrated and upset” when he learned he would not receive the expected credit card rewards. Notably, the man was told by a Bank of America representative on the phone that the bank had received “numerous complaints related to its bait-and-switch of [the] advertised offer,” the complaint alleges.

Bank of America has faced previous legal action from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over the bank’s allegedly unfair and deceptive conduct with respect to withholding credit card rewards, the filing states.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone who, in the last four years, applied for a Mastercard with an offer to earn 70,000 bonus miles plus 40 XP after making $3,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days of opening their account and was not provided those rewards.

Check out ClassAction.org’s lawsuit list for current class action lawsuits and investigations.