SIGN UP TO RECEIVE THE LATEST POSTS VIA EMAIL!PerkStreet Promo – $50 with New Checking Account
November 25, 2009
UPDATE 2/18/10 – This promotion is no longer available. You can check out PerkStreet Financial’s current promotions here!
PerkStreet Financial is having a promotion where you can get a $50 bonus when opening a new online checking account. To qualify for the $50 checking account promo you need to do the following:
- Open a new online checking account with a minimum of $25
- Open the account by 2/28/2010
- Keep the account active for 3 straight months
- Initial funding can be done with a credit card (this is treated as a purchase and not a cash advance)
If the above criteria are met you will receive $50 in your account within 15 business days of the end of the third month.
The PerkStreet Financial free online checking account is being promoted as a rewards account. You earn a reward of 1% cash back on purchases when using your debit card that is tied to the account. The 1% is based on non-pin debit card transactions. The 1% cash back is a great deal since most checking account offer rewards that equate to far lower than a 1% return.
There is no minimum balance required, however to avoid an inactivity fee of $4.50 you must have activity in the account each month from either a debit card transaction, check, deposit or withdrawal. The account comes with a free book of checks, free debit card and free online banking and bill pay.
PerkStreet Financial is also a member of the STARsf Surcharge Free ATM network which offers of 37,000 free ATMs nationwide.Perkstreet Financial’s banking services are provided by The Bancorp Bank which is FDIC insured. The Bancorp Bank has a been a FDIC member since 2000.
If you are looking to move toward an online checking account this one may be the way to go. With the high rewards, nationwide free ATM access though the STARsf network, no fees and a $50 bonus, there are not many other online checking accounts that beat this deal.
Check out the PerkStreet Financial promo page for more details.
You can also check out more checking account promotions here.
Watch out for these people.
You more then likely will not get the bonus.
There system is junk. Bonus does not get applied to every account because of software glitches.
“Thanks for your email; I apologize for the trouble. Please provide your full name or account number and I will reset your information. I think that there was a processing error in our New Accounts department as several other customers were affected as well.
Best Regards,
Steve
Customer Correspondence
The Bancorp Bank
Dave – I received my $50 without a problem. Did they solve this for you?
Full disclosure here: I work for PerkStreet Financial and wanted to respond to Dave’s post above. The correct bonus was applied to his account but there is a slight lag between when an account is first opened and when the offer details appear in our customer service system. This caused some confusion, but we have reached out to Dave and resolved his issues.
Yes,
The first post I made dec 4 was jumping the gun. Since then I have spoke with perk street and they made it right. It was my error and jumping the gun. I would for sure tell anyone to sign up for the account it will kill any rewards checking account you can find.
Sorry Dan and the perk street team.
This company has some very nice stuff in the pipeline.
Glad you guys worked it out. Curt, I definetly thing you have something innovative for an online checking account.
There are several problems with this bank, so I would warn potential customers to be aware of the fine print. Although PerkStreet’s website has the appearance of being clear about their policies, I found that not to be the case. These “fine print” policies seem designed to (1) make it difficult to move money out of the account, and (2) to limit the cashback that you can earn. Below are examples.
(1) They have a limit of $1500 on incoming online transfers in an entire *month*! They don’t tell you about this anywhere except when you actually try to move money into your account. When I called them about it, they said that they have this restriction for new customers and I was still in my first month. After a couple more calls, I realized that they will increase this limit to $2500 after six months.
Stated reason: Security.
Suspected motive: To limit the amount of money you can spend to get cashback.
(2) They have a limit of $500 on outgoing online transfers. So, say you move $5000 into your account to get 2% cashback. You are stuck with that money with them for the rest of the month (unless you adopt a slower paper check route).
(3) They have a limit of $1500 on daily expenses and explicitly say on their website that it can be waived simply by making a phone call. I had to book two one-way international flight tickets that cost a total of over $1500. I booked these and called them to waive the limit. They refused to do so because I was still in my first month. There is no notice about waivers not being allowed in the first month anywhere. As a result, I have to now spend much more money re-booking that ticket just because PerkStreet does not allow me to spend my own money.
Stated reason: Security for new customers. They claim that all banks have spending limits on debit cards. Really? Bank of America did not.
Suspected motive: Limiting spending => limiting cashback.
(4) When I tried to circumvent the limitation in (1) above to move more money into my account using FedEx, there was another surprise! The first FedEx check takes not 1 day as stated, but about 9 days for some reason. Again, some vague security reason that is incomprehensible to rational beings is given as an explanation.
Bottomline: It is not easy to get much cashback because of their restrictive policies on what you can do with your money. And they make it harder to move money out of the account while not giving any interest on it. As for the 5% cashback, they are on such specific and tiny items that I have never been able to get 5% cashback so far.
My name is Jason Henrichs and I work for PerkStreet. I’ve corresponded with AV since his experience and also worked with our customer service team to improve the information he was delivered. We are always working to improve the experience and any customer’s feedback is appreciated. We are taking action on the areas of AV’s experience that can be corrected, but there are several parts of his claim that I’d like to better explain.
Unfortunately fighting fraud is a tremendous burden that has several impacts not just for the bank but for the customers as we establish a relationship. For AV’s first point, the limit does go up over time and with the deeper relationship. There are several ways you can get money in the account besides our free online transfer- by pushing the money from the other account, setting up direct deposit or sending a check. We recognized that this would limit a new customer’s ability to meet the $5,000 threshold which is why we put in a 90 day grace period where you earn 2% no matter what. If we were looking to bait and switch to keep your balance captive we certainly wouldn’t have done that. We keep a small share of the interchange earned when a customer uses the card and give most of it back to the customer. It is in our best interest to make sure customers can spend as much as they want while balancing the fraud exposure to us and to the customer.
On the daily limit, I’ve worked with the customer service agent on how to better handle the situation and apologize that it was not a stellar experience.
For your last point on the check, it is clearly stated in FAQs what the hold times are but let’s face it, wading through FAQs is a pain so you naturally picked up the phone where the representative was not clear in her explanation. Again, I’ve worked on the education that she should have inquired whether you were a new customer because their is an extra hold time for the first 30 days.
Unfortunately banks have done little to engender trust so we’re fighting little by little to do better and earn that back. IM- I hope you’ll give us a shot. We aren’t perfect but I can assure we have many customers who love us. And I don’t know many other banks that have their COO writing a lengthy reply to an irate customer on a Saturday because he genuinely cares about making banking better.
Any customer or potential customer can contact me directly if they have questions or suggestions: jhenrichs -at- perkstreet.com
I applied for my card a second time… I got a response, and now vey happy!!! All of the info that AV talked about I saw and started thinking I am glad for the restrictions, now understand where I am coming from… I received connection from Dave Ramsey who is the Guru Of Fin. Peace. The whole reason I am getting this card is to cut up my credit card at 19%, which by the way is secured. With the limitations that perkstreet has I will spend less but yet if I see a really good deal on a human hair wig that about $200 and I happen to be in the web site on their one day sale … I pick it up for $40..
I started out with 10 bills I am down to 3 and only $9000 to go to being debt free… so I say to Perkstreet you go!!!! And a great big thank you for coming up with this idea for those of us who want to build a relationship with you for the long hall. God bless.
Forever Thankful
Livie
PS: People that actually respond from the company cool beans!