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Bank of America’s Museums On Us program is back for 2018. The program which has been running for a few years has also increased the number of museums you can get free entry to from over 150 in 2017 to over 175 in 2018. The program allows you to use your debit or credit card to gain entry to museums across the US.
How To Gain Free Entry
To gain entry to a participating museum is a relatively straightforward process. All you need to do is as follows:
- Present a current Bank of America or Merrill Lynch debit or credit card
- Present your photo ID
You will then be granted one free admission ticket. Keep in mind that you are not allowed to bring in guests for free with the Bank of America “Museums On Us” program, so any accompanying guests will have to pay. The free admission does exclude special exhibitions, fundraising events, and ticketed shows.
One possible exclusion on the guest policy is for Bank of America Preferred Platinum Honors Members. They should be able to use their status to get free entry for their family (which was the case in 2017). However, this year’s terms and conditions are not entirely clear, so your safest bet is to double check with Bank of America beforehand.
That said, if you've got authorized users on your account, have them bring their cards — they're not excluded!
Which Weekends Are Free
Thanks to this Bank of America program, during the first weekend of every month, you can gain free entry to a participating museum. The list for 2018 is:
- January 6th & 7th
- February 3rd & 4th
- March 3rd & 4th
- April 7th & 8th
- May 5th & 6th
- June 2nd & 3rd
- July 7th & 8th
- August 4th & 5th
- September 1st & 2nd
- October 6th & 7th
- November 3rd & 4th
- December 1st & 2nd
There are more than 175 museums participating in the program across the nation, for instance in the New York area you can visit:
- American Museum of Natural History
- Intrepid Sea, Air & Land Museum
- Liberty Science Center
- Aljira, a Center of Contemporary Art
- Newark Museum
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art – The Met Fifth Avenue
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art – The Met Breuer
You can search for a museum near you on the Bank of America site using either Zip Code, City, or State.
Our Take
Museums On Us is a nice perk open to all cardmembers. We're happy to see Bank of America continue this benefit for 2018 while increasing the number of museums you can visit for free.
Source: The Travel Sisters
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
It’s nice that this program includes the popular museums in major metropolitan areas, instead of a random selection of obscure ones. Even from my infrequent usage, this perk gives me just about as much value as the cash back I’d receive in a year using my BofA card. I’m pretty bad about remembering that it’s the first weekend of the month though, so I set a calendar reminder.
When signing on to Citibank to check something related to a credit card, a page showed up offering free admission to New York museums with a Citigold debit card (I haven’t had a Citigold account for quite a while since they raised the minimum a multiple of times, but my debit card expires 8/2021). I remember it listing The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, The Park Avenue Armory, Museum of the City Of New York, The New York Botanical Garden (weekdays, and weekends in July and August), and I think The Guggenheim Museum, and possibly The Whitney and Museum of Natural History (maybe not), This may have only been a portion of the museums, as I did not click through to read the entire thing, intending to do it later. I saved the URL intending to explore this further, but cannot bring it up again with it or through my browser’s history, and can’t find a trace of this through a search engine. I called the New York Botanical Garden and was told that, with a Citigold Debit card you and a guest receive free admission all year, with weekends in July and August, although the weekends may well be extended past August.
Several free admissions to the museums will practically pay back the annual fees of the few cards that charge such fees.
Cool. I see that there are a couple of places in Las Vegas, where I’m going to visit someone (who mentioned the Las Vegas Springs Preserve as a place worth going without it being free).
I really love having this program. Such an awesome benefit
Thank you for the tip about authorized users also getting free admission. I will add my spouse so that the whole family can get the free admission!
What a cool benefit to enrich us all!
Fantastic for the Met in New York – a very nice feature to have !
Great perk.
I used it to go to the Newseum in DC, which otherwise is pricey.
a great program, esp. now that the NY museums are starting to charge $25 for tourists.
Such a cool perk of having a BofA card.
This is a nice perk. However, keeping track of which weekends are free adds some inconvenience.
First weekend of every month. How hard is that?
Go to the BOA Museums on Us website, and you can enter your email to be sent a reminder a few days before the weekend.
Always good to check these out, like I did when it was really cold this weekend. Unfortunately, the selection in my area is smaller than it used to be, even last year.
It’s great that this perk is still on going! One of the great reason to have a BOA card
How do we prove Bank of America Preferred Platinum Honors member status at the museum?
We’ve yet to figure that out — we didn’t hear from anyone on this last year either, so we’re going on the working assumption the rules are the same and that your card would have some indicator if your status.
Thanks, Howie, but there is no such indicator on the card. I can’t find any info online about this benefit from last year either. Where did you find this info last year? Can you share a link?
Sure, picked it up here: milestomemories.boardingarea.com/bank-of-america-free-museums-2017/
My cards don’t indicate platinum status anywhere.
I received a new ATM card with a chip (my other ATM card was expiring. so I don’t know if they are replacing all ATM cards with chip cards now, or when your old card expires). It indicates “Preferred”, but not “Platinum Honors”.
If it provided any benefit, that would be useful. But, not only am I unclear if it does provide a benefit, I have a feeling that even if you do demonstrate it (by bringing a statement or signing into your account account as well as showing the card), the people you have to deal with for entry won’t know anything about it.
This is a great benefit that I have enjoyed for a few years! Thanks BoA!