If you’re looking for free museums, one strategy that you will likely be able to take advantage is the Bank of America Museums on Us program. Â Bank of America has partnered with hundreds of museums across the country to give free museum days throughout the year. Â The Bank of America free museum days are on the first weekend of each month (both Saturday and Sunday). Â Bank of America Museums on Us is a program that has been going on for several years and is very successful.
How do Bank of America free museum days work?
Bank of America Museum on Us allows anyone that has a Merrill Lynch or Bank of America credit card or debit card to enter any of the associated museums for free. Â The BoA museum program lets anyone with a valid Bank of America or Merrill Lynch credit or debit card to enter participating museums for free on select days. Â You do also need to bring a photo ID, and my understanding is that anyone that does not have a valid debit or credit card and matching photo ID (including children) would need to get their own ticket
Who can use the Bank of America Museums on Us program?
Anyone that has a Merrill Lynch or Bank of America debit card or credit card can take advantage of the Bank of America museum benefits. Â As I said before, all you need to do is show up to a participating museum on one of the Bank of America Museums on Us dates and show your card along with photo id.
Again, to get your Bank of America free museum admission, EVERY PERSON must have their own card and photo ID. Â It doesn’t matter if your card is a primary card or an authorized user card, but if you don’t have a card, you won’t get free entrance to museums. Â Children do have reduced admission at many museums, but check with the individual museum.
Bank of America Free Museum days
The Bank of America free museum days are typically the first full weekend (Saturday and Sunday) of each month. Â The Bank of America Museums on Us 2020 dates are:
- January 4th and 5th, 2020
- February 1st and 2nd, 2020
- March 7th and 8th, 2020
- April 4th and 5th, 2020
- May 2nd and 3rd, 2020
- June 6th and 7th, 2020
- July 4th and 5th, 2020
- August 1st and 2nd, 2020
- September 5th and 6th, 2020
- October 3rd and 4th, 2020
- November 7th and 8th, 2020
- December 5th and 6th, 2020
How to visit museums that are Bank of America free museums
Unfortunately, the Indianapolis Children’s Museum isn’t on the Bank of America Museums on Us list!
You can view the Bank of America free museum list at the BoA Museum on Us site here. Â You can also search through the list of the 220 Bank of America free museums by state to find one close to you
One other thing to note is that if you visit during the Bank of America free museum day, the museum is likely to be VERY crowded!
The Indianapolis Children’s Museum is NOT on the Bank of America free museum list, and it USED to offer free admission on the first Thursday of each month but now offer $5 First Thursdays. Â We’ve been there a couple of times when it was Free First Thursday and it gets SUPER crowded. Â Same thing will apply for museums that participate in the Bank of America museum on us program.
Our trips to free museums on the Bank of America free museum list
Unfortunately, for us personally, the Bank of America free museum list isn’t super helpful, though it’s getting better! It used to be that there were no participating museums in Kentucky or Indiana and only one Bank of America free museum in Ohio (the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, 4 hours away). But Bank of America has consistently added new museums and now there is additionally the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton and the Conner Prairie Museum in Fishers (north of Indianapolis)
Of the museums on the Bank of America free museum list, we have been to the Chicago Art Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
So if racking up miles and points weren’t reason enough to get a Bank of America card, now you can take advantage of Bank of America museum benefits as well!
This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as thepointsguy.com. This may impact how and where links appear on this site. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Enrollment may be required for select American Express benefits and offers. Visit americanexpress.com to learn more. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them
User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.
Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Typical of BOA, I didn’t hear about their 2016 program from them, I heard it from a blogger. If a museum is free to their cardholders on the first week-end of the month and no one knows about it, what’s the point? Anyhow, while I feel like they’ve lost/dropped some worthwhile museums, still on the list are some great ones — the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Art Institute of Chicago, and in NYC the Met and the Whitney. Significant savings on the last two, even with the “pay what you want” admission at the Metropolitan.
I’ve been seeing the museum weekends advertised on ATM’s for at least the past year. I also recall seeing it on the website. If it’s not on your ATM’s (if you use them) I wonder if they only advertise it in cities with participating museums.
Interesting – you’d think Bank of America would market the Museums on Us program pretty widely!
You said it well! Husband & I were visiting in Portland, OR first weekend of July. B of A “Museum on us” just happened to popped up on cell phone screen. We have been long time users of BofA Visa program & never heard of this benefit. At two listed museums we informed the employee we had BofA Visa card & showed WA driver’s lic & received free entrance. When I asked if they would have informed us upon entrance & paying with BofA visa of the free weekend, response, “No, we are told to charge admission unless the patron informs us of the offer”. She further commented it is a hidden benefit that BofA doesn’t advertise. Doesn’t make sense!
It’s only one museum, but Los Angeles County Museum of Art has a deal where kids can bring an adult for free. Kids are generally free there anyway but if they sign up for NextGen, they can bring a free adult for each kid w/ a NextGen card.
http://www.lacma.org/kids-families/nexgen-fast-facts
I believe LACMA was on the BofA list but if there are more adults than there are B of A cards, or if a person doesn’t have a B of A card but does have children, this isn’t a bad deal at all.
Is it ANY BofA credit card? For example, must it be a BofA debit card or Bank pf America Travel Rewards Visa credit card, OR does a co-branded card like a Virgin Atlantic Visa issued by BofA work, too?
Yes – that is my understanding – any card from Bank of America, so Virgin Atlantic or Alaska should work
Debit cards also work.
The NASCAR Hall of Fame was part of this for one year, saved us a TON of money!
I wish I had caught that deal – too expensive at this point.
I didn’t see a link to the list. am I blind?
You are indeed blind – it’s there :-). Here it is again http://about.bankofamerica.com/en-us/global-impact/arts-and-culture/partners.html 🙂
It’s the Art Institute of Chicago
I remember when the dino exhibit at the Indy Children’s Museum was an Imax theater and basically the highlight of every elementary school year. I’d come out half motion sick thanks to the crazy curved screen, but it was worth it. So worth it.
How does a museum get on the BOA list????? No one at BOA has been able to help!
Thanks for the reminder – I’ve heard about this but never remember when the eligible weekends come up. I read the rules and I see that it specifically covers the cardholder only – can anybody confirm how it works if you have two separate cardholder adults and two kids? Each adult gets in free, and you just pay two for two kids? Or can the kid come with the parent under that one cardholder free ticket? Maybe it depends on the museum…?
Thanks in advance if anyone knows the answer!
Parents would get in free since they each have a card. Kids would be subject to fees for kids if there are any fees.