College Students with High Marks Get Up to $760 with BofA Credit Card and Deluxe Credit Protection Plan

I wish I had run across this item a few weeks ago, before some students enrolled at college. But there are still opportunities here for good college students, whether you're just starting or and especially if you're going to graduate this year.

It's may sound a bit complicated to follow, but by using a Bank of America Credit Card and joining their Deluxe Credit Protection Plan, good full-time college students (3.6 GPA or better and 12 or more credit hours/semester) can earn up to $1,000 a year ($500/semester). Since this credit protection plan costs $20 a month, they could net up to $760.00. (Even if you only qualify for one event, you would net $260.00.)

The $500 can also be earned by enrolling a college or by graduating with a degree (even an AA degree apparently). You can earn $500 twice a year for a $1,000 maximum.

If you are in a situation already getting a 3.6 or higher, or you are going to graduate soon, or you will start school soon, but not have any of these events occur before 30 days from now (the lead-time period), then maybe you should consider this. If you think this might be a possibility for you and want to learn more, read on. Thanks to Villa Bryan at Slick Deals for the info.

What's needed:
- A Bank of America credit card
- The credit protection Deluxe plan (20 dollars a month)

30 days after activating the plan, you can get 500 bucks for doing the following:
- Getting a 3.6 GPA for a full-time term (after activating the plan)
- Becoming a full time student at a school
- Graduating and receiving a college degree

You can only get money from those types of benefits twice a year. So if you take two semesters at 3.6 GPA or higher and graduate (three events) you would still only qualify for two.

To find out about how to get the Deluxe plan, you can call 1-888-668-6938 (the BofA website only seems to post information about a Credit Protection Plus plan, which isn't the one which has this benefit).

If you don't have a BofA card yet, call to make sure you can get the Deluxe plan if you sign up for a credit card. If you already have a card, call and find out if you can get the Deluxe plan. It costs $20 a month, so you should gauge whether this will be worth it (i.e. if you're not sure you can maintain a 3.6 GPA and you're not just enrolling at a college soon nor graduating soon).

You have to be a Full-Time student (12 units or more each term). You have to wait 30 days before activating a benefit (although apparently you can register during a semester in which you're pretty sure you will get 3.6 or higher, as long as you register for the plan more than 30 days before that semester ends).

When you activate a life benefit under the Deluxe plan, you get a $500 credit applied to your credit card bill. If you don't have a blance at the time, they put it in a reserve account, and you get to charge $500 dollars worth of stuff to it (such as next semester's books) and not pay.

To activate a life benefit (any of the three academic ones shown above), you call the number they give you, they send you an envelope, you send back an official transcript, enrollment verification, and class schedule. You must follow all of those rules for it to get activated. 1-2 weeks later you get a letter letting you know you if your benefit was activated or not. If not, they tell you why not.

So obviously this isn't for everyone. But if you're consistently getting high grades of well over 3.6 anyway, have a semester that's going to end in a little over 30 days, and think you can do it again the following semester, this is worth a look. It's especially worth a look if you're getting those level grades and planning to graduate, or planning to enroll in a new college soon.

Since this does involve getting a protection plan that costs $20.00 a month, you should research this carefully before applying, to make sure the benefits will outweigh the costs. But if they will, this is some nice bonus money for good school work.