Bank of America discount plan rolling out, first to employees

Groupon Inc. was first to offer online deal-of-the-day discounts usable at local or national companies. Now, there are a number of websites competing for a growing business: consumers looking for steep discounts from their favorite retailer.

Bank of America Corp. today takes it a step further with testing of BankAmeriDeals, its own discount program that would allow customers to earn discounts and cash back based on their previous spending habits.

Tara Burke, a bank spokeswoman, said the program is being offered as a tryout only to employees in Nevada, North Carolina and South Carolina at this time. By mid-February all of the bank's roughly 275,000 employees will have access. Burke said no time frame has been determined for when the program will be available to customers.

"We are very deliberate when we introduce a new product," she said. "It's not about being first to market with a product or service."

What makes BankAmeriDeals different from most discount programs is that it's based on the customer's buying habits, and participants need not sign up for emailed coupons or check a separate website, as Groupon and other bargain sites require.

Instead, the bank's software notes when a customer uses a Bank of America card and attaches discount offers for that or similar businesses to the customer's online banking statement, under a separate tab. Customers can then accept the offers they want to use.

When customers make purchases using the discount offers, they pay full price but at the beginning of the next month they receive cash back in their account equal to the sum of all the discounts they've used. She said customers can use only Bank of America debit or credit cards to participate.

Burke declined to disclose participating retailers.

There will be a way to opt out of the deal offers, said David Godsman, an executive with Bank of America's online and mobile banking division. But he said the program is designed to make more relevant offers available to customers than daily deal email blasts or other coupon programs. Most customers will receive about 16 to 20 offers per month, although someone who uses the deals frequently could see more.

The program is built on software from an Atlanta-based company called Cardlytics. The company did not immediately return a call, but its website says it handles rewards programs for four of the top 10 banks and three of the top five prepaid card providers.

The program is paid for by the merchants making the discount offers, not by Bank of America, which won't charge the customer a fee, Burke said.

Contact reporter Chris Sieroty at csieroty@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. The Associated Press contributed to this report.