If you are interested in slashing your banking costs and having your bank put some money in your pockets for a change, I think you’ll like reading my PerkStreet review.
BTW, please read through to the end of this post to see how you can get a free copy of my mega best seller ebook “Money Academy For Couples Stop Arguing About Money & Get Your Finances Together in 30 Days”.
Before endorsing (or bashing) any financial product or service, I like to get in there and kick the tires a few times. That’s why I spent a good chunk of time doing my research. And after I did my basic sniffing around, I grilled a Perk Street executive on the phone for more than 75 minutes. Then I called customer service to see if I could trip them up a little. After that I looked under a few rocks to try to uncover a few problems. Here’s what I learned.
What is PerkStreet?
PerkStreet is an FDIC insured bank that offers two products right now; a free checking account and a free debit card. Since they are FDIC insured, each account is insured us to $250,000. They are an online-only bank. The do not have brick and mortar branches. According to PerkStreet’s research, it costs physical banks about $800 per customer/per year to keep their fancy branches open. That’s a lot of cabbage. Guess who ends up footing the bill for those expenses? Bank customers do.
By not having physical branches, it saves PerkStreet a ton of money and they pass those savings on to you. That’s why they can offer excellent service and put money back in your pockets too. In fact, they figure that the average American would save $563 a year by using the PerkStreet’s checking account and debit card compared to any other debit card on the market today. Hefty.
The bank was founded in 2009 and they already have more customers than 50% of all the banks in the United States. That’s impressive if you ask me. PerkStreet estimates that 18% of all bank customers use direct banking (online only) and that number is growing by leaps and bounds every year.
Here’s a brief comparison of PerkStreet versus the competition:
You can see that PerkStreet has a few very competitive advantages and a few drawbacks as well. Let’s dive into this in more detail.
Why might you be interested in opening an account with PerkStreet?
As I hinted above, it costs PerkStreet a tiny fraction of what it costs your typical bank to run. As a result, they operate with almost no fees, free checking accounts (you can open and operate an account with no charges), no minimum balances, a free debit card and a great cash rewards program. I’ll explain all this in just a minute.
What if you want to deposit money into your account?
You have to open an account with a minimum of $25. After that you can send money to Perkstreet f you want to deposit checks into your account. You send your checks to PerkStreet using free postage paid envelopes or you can overnight your deposit for free using a UPS store. Nice.
The exec I spoke with also told me that they are working on mobile applications that will allow you to take a picture of a check and instantly make a deposit. That should be available soon. Far out.
You can also set up automatic transfers into your account from your employer, social security or other banks. No charge. If you have cash, you can go to any Money Gram store and they’ll deposit the cash into your account gratis as well. Money Gram stores can be found in most Wal-Mart’s and many other locations as well.
Apply to Open A PerkStreet Account Today!
What if you need cash?
Whenever you need cash you can easily go to any one of their more than 42,000 ATM machines in the STAR system and make a withdrawal. There is no fee whatsoever as long as you use an ATM that is part of the network. They make this pretty easy to do. On their site, they have a button you can select to locate the nearest ATM machine. I checked this out myself and found 4 ATMs within a 3 minute drive of my home. Again, there is no surcharge for this service. Nice.
What about checks?
In terms of writing checks, PerkStreet has you covered as well. They give you your first two books of checks for free. If you run out, you can order more blank checks from PerkStreet for dirt cheap or you can use any vendor you like. And speaking about checks, you can even get overdraft protection on your account if you have the need. Considerate.
What if you want to talk to a human being?
PerkStreet offers 24/7 customer service and all the calls are answered in the United States. That means you won’t have any trouble understanding the nice people on the other end of the phone. In fact, customer service is one thing PerkStreet really prides itself on. I took this for a test ride and called them a few times. They picked up my call within 2 minutes and answered all my questions. I was actually blown away by the professional level of service. What a refreshing change.
Can anyone open an account?
This is actually another plus for PerkStreet. The company doesn’t run a credit check before they agree to open your account. That means if you are trying to rebuild your financial life, PerkStreet is a wonderful partner for you. Even if you’ve experienced credit problems and/or even bankruptcy, these people will do business with you.
Just about the only people Perk Street won’t tango with are those who have run afoul of the Chexsystem program. These are people who have butt heads with banks in the past. So if you have an unresolved issue (like a history of bouncing checks or other problems) you won’t find a welcome mat at Perk Street. But other than that, Perk Street is a good financial partner to consider. Again, this is true even if you struggle with credit card debt.
How does the rewards program work?
This is where the magic happens. They encourage you to use your debit card whenever you can. You will receive 1% cash back on all purchases using the debit card and 2% cash back on purchases from specific major online retailers. (See below for a partial list of vendors.)
The only caveat is that your purchases must be made without using your pin number. In other words, when you present your debit card to the merchant and she asks you “credit or debit” you have to say “credit”.
The reason for this is Perk Street was able to negotiate some sweet deals with MasterCard who processes the transactions this way. Since it’s much cheaper for Perk Street to process transactions through them they pass those benefits on to you.
If a transaction is processed as a debit, they don’t save much money and they can’t pass those savings on to you in the form of cash back. That’s why you have to use your card as a credit card even though it’s a debit card. It’s no big deal because it doesn’t cost you a dime to process the transaction as a credit card (in most cases) but it’s just something you need to keep in mind.
PerkStreet has another cute little deal going. They currently provide 2% cash back on any purchase you make with your PerkStreet debit card as long as another Perk Street debit card is used at the same location within an hour. This is their way of promoting referrals from you. If you and your pals go out and you get them to use their Perk Street debit card when you split the bill, you’ll each get 2% back. Of course there is the added benefit that you won’t have to pick up the whole tab too since your pal is picking up her share of the bill for once. Oh la la.
You can get more points too if that’s your thing. For example, if you keep a $5000 balance in your checking account, you get that 2% cash back for in-store purchases at certain retailers. And every month, PerkStreet asks the users to select favorite retailers. Once everyone votes the “winners” are chosen. Then if you use your debit card at one of those retailers that month, you’ll get 5% cash back. How sweet it is! Here is a table that summarizes the rewards points program:
How do you redeem your cash back rewards points?
You can redeem your points in one of two ways. First, you can get a gift card at select retailers. You just go online and select the denomination and the retailer and PerkStreet will send out your card. It will take about 3 to 5 days for the card to arrive.
If you prefer cash, you can get that money directly deposited into your account. But if you go for cash, the amount will be 9% less than the face value. That’s because PerkStreet buys those gift cards at a discount. If you go for cash, it’s no problem but the bank has no discount to pass on so they have to put a little less into your account. Make sense?
Here’s a list of retailers you can get those gift cards for:
How do you open an account?
You open your account by simply following this link. It will take you about 5 minutes and you’ll be all set. You can see by the screen below that the process is super simple.
PerkStreet is an FDIC insurance bank. That means your account is insured up to $250,000 per account.
In addition, any transactions you make using your debit card are protected. In fact, since the card is actually a MasterCard, you have the same safeguards as a credit card. If there are fraudulent charges on the debit card they will be investigated and reversed. The same goes with vendor disputes. It’s nice to know that PerkStreet has your back.
What are the fees?
Of course nobody works for free and PerkStreet is no different. Of course they make money when they invest the money you deposit in your checking account. This is known as the “spread” and every bank does this. Remember, there is never a maintenance fee for your checking account no matter how much or little you have on deposit. And you’ll never pay a fee to use your debit card either. The do have other costs but they are completely avoidable. In other words, if you don’t want to pay anything, you don’t have to. Here is a summary of those charges:
- Overdraft fee – $32 per item
- Returned item fee – $32 per item
- Inactivity fee – $4.50 (as long as you have SOME activity, any activity, they won’t charge you this)
- Research Fee – $25 per hour, $10 minimum
- Bank or Cashier’s check fee – $8 per check
- Expedited replacement debit card fee – $50 per request
- Stop payment fee -$15 per request
- Incoming wire transfer fee / Credit card funding fee 2.5% of funds loaded if and only if the credit card company charges PerkStreet a fee.
- Deposit item returned fee- $7 per item
- ATM surcharge/Non-network ATM fee -$2.00 per transaction if the ATM is out of the STARsf® system. There are currently
- Foreign Exchange Fee -1% of transaction amount
- Outgoing wire transfer fee – $12 Domestic/$45 International
I like the fact that PerkStreet is very transparent when it comes to fees. They are explained in large blue letters on their website – not hidden away in tiny fonts no human could read. Also, you can Google “PerkStreet Fees” and their fee disclosure (summarized above) is first on the page.
In summary, here’s what I like about PerkStreet
- They don’t rip you off with hidden fees.
- They provide a free checking account with no minimum balances and no maintenance fees.
- You can wire money into your account, set up direct deposit, make online transfers and set up ACH transfers for free.
- You can use any STAR ATM for free and easily find those machines.
- You can download all your transactions from PerkStreet and import the data into QuickBooks or YNAB most other budget tracking software.
- Perkstreet has some great free resources to help savers get their financial house in order through their
- You can speak to a human being fast if you want to. Also, and this could be just me but I consider it a huge benefit that the person speaks English well.
- Free bill pay. This will save you lots of time and I love this feature.
Here’s what I am not crazy about
- I need a bank that will help me with my personal account and my business. Right now, PerkStreet isn’t set up for business accounts. As a result, I could not use this service.
- I don’t like the idea of having to use other companies to deposit cash into my account. Truth be told, I don’t deal with cash a great deal. I don’t see it as a huge problem but it just isn’t something I’m really comfortable with. I like one-stop shopping.
- I personally don’t go nuts for rewards. I could be short-sighted but that’s me. I put a higher premium on convenience and the rewards system seems a little convoluted. I just like things very simple and I like to be able to spend my rewards wherever I like. I appreciate the new policy of putting cash in my account. It’s good that they now allow customers to redeem rewards for credit back to their own account.
- When you call, they don’t tell you to press “0” in order to speak to a human. I wish they put that on the menu. Pet peeve. Sorry. Once I figured this out I got to speak to a human quickly and the people I spoke with were super professional. I just wish that option was made more apparent.
Who PerkStreet is good for
If you shop a lot at the retailers who provide the 2% cash back rewards, this card is a no-brainer. Nobody else is going to reward you so generously. Also, if you don’t have a business and don’t deal with cash a lot, this is a good fit. If you have a very straight-forward banking need yet your current bank is nickel and diming you to death, PerkStreet could be your answer.
Who PerkStreet is no good for
If you deposit cash quite often this would not be my first choice. Also, if you are a business owner and want to use one bank for both personal and business, this wouldn’t work. Finally, if you need a credit card rather than a debit card, this is not a solution for you.
As a parting note, I did some research on “PerkStreet Complaints” and found a few people who complained about extended hold times on their checks when they opened an account. I spoke with PerkStreet about this and found this indeed can be a problem if you have sketchy checks. As it turns out all the banks have scammers who make this complaint and it’s not just PerkStreet. I know that you would never try to pull a fast one. But make sure that if you do business with PerkStreet – or any bank – you ask how long the initial hold is going to be on the checks you deposit.
Have you done business with PerkStreet? What has your experience been so far?
OK – I told you I”d be delighted to send you a free copy of my ebook “Money Academy For Couples” and here’s the deal. If you happen to open an account with Perkstreet leave me a comment and tell me about your experience. I want to hear the good, bad and ugly. You let me know how it goes and I’ll send you the ebook immediately.
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{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
I just opened an account at PS. I haven’t had any problems. One thing to note is that STAR ATMs and STARsf ATMs are not always the same, even if they are the same network. You can’t make free withdrawals at every Star ATM it has to be a “STARsf (surcharge free) ATM. There are fewer STARsf ATMs. You can find out where the STARsf machines are in your area by going to the STAR website. Quite a few of the ATMs in my area are in places I typically don’t go, like nightclubs & bars.
Ed. Thanks for that update. I am going to check on this one and get back to you. What do they charge you? Also, the PS site has a place where you can check on the ATM nearest you. I would assume those would be commission free. Have you tried that and still found this result of ATM’s that charge you?
Well, what I noticed when I was looking over PS web site (before I opened an account) It always referred to the no fee ATMs as “STARsf” ATMs, instead of just STAR ATMs. So I went to STAR’s web site and did a search for STAR ATMs in my area, then on STAR’s site you can filter those results to show only surcharge free ATM’s. After I filtered the search results, STAR’s website gives me the same ATM locations as PS web site does for free/no fee ATMs in my area. And this also reduced the number of available ATMs in my area. So I assumed there is a difference between STARsf & STAR ATMs. As of now I haven’t had any need to make any ATM withdrawals.
Your article is very good, it gave a lot of details. Thanks!
Ed. I forwarded the comment and asked PS to respond. I hope they will do so shortly.
Thanks for your kind words sir. Very much appreciated!
Neal
Neal and Ed,
My name is Kyle and I work on PerkStreet’s public relations team. I’m happy to see this conversation unfolding in the comments of this great review, because this is something that can be tough to clarify for customers — in part because our ATM partner (STAR) makes it so hard to differentiate between STARsf and STAR ATMs in-person.
Ed is 100% correct. PerkStreet’s current network of 42,000+ free ATMs is the STARsf network.
I can also say this is not a question that comes up often. In fact, I just spoke with our director of email customer service and he said he’s never seen someone ask about it. Here’s why: In the vast majority of cases, our customers tend to use the same ATMs over and over again. Hypothetically, these are the machines nearest to their homes or places of business. Once you find an in-network ATM, chances are it’s convenient enough that you don’t need to go hunting around for them unless you’re on vacation.
Our communications manual encourages customer service reps to direct customers to our ATM locator tool (http://www.perkstreet.com/atm.aspx), which only features ATMs on the STARsf network. Any out-of-network ATM usage results in a fee of $2.00 at PerkStreet.
Hope this helps,
-Kyle
I recently opened an account with Perkstreet Financial, a division of The Bancorp Bank, because I was enticed by their cash back on debit card transactions offer. After a couple of weeks, I inquired with them why I had not yet received by account information or debit card, and that’s when I found out they were not using my correct address. They had left off my apartment number. I asked them to correct it, and they made me email them copies of all my personal identifying documents including my driver’s license and passport, along with proof of my address. It was their mistake, but I went through the steps to correct it anyway.
I finally received my debit card and checks, and wire transferred money from my other bank to start utilizing the cash back program. My second transaction, on my first day using the card, was declined while I was trying to pay for dinner I just ate at a restaurant. I called and they told me my account had been frozen, because they received returned mail from the address I told them was incorrect in the first place since they left off the apartment number. I asked to speak with a supervisor to have the hold removed, so I could pay for my transaction and was told it was not possible to remove the hold or speak with a supervisor. If the restaurant had not allowed me time to get funds from my other bank, I would have been arrested for theft of services.
Is it legal for Bancorp to hold a customer’s money hostage without a legal order? I don’t mean a check, I mean cash that was wired into the account through the Federal Reserve wire system and was received and applied to the account. And is it best practice to demand customers send private information through unsecured email? At this point I want my money sent back to my other bank, so I can close my Perkstreet/Bancorp account, and I would like their actions investigated to determine if they are within the law and are acting ethically.
Hey Joshua and Neal-
It’s Kyle from PerkStreet. I should begin by making it clear that PerkStreet is in no way a “division” of the Bancorp Bank. That institution is our partner and provides our FDIC insurance, but we are fully autonomous and act entirely as our own company. Federal law requires that PerkStreet (and all other financial services companies offering bank accounts) accurately verify the identities of our customers in order to protect against fraud. One way we do this is by sending them materials to the addresses they give us in their account applications. When that mail comes back to us, we have no choice but to put holds on the account for your protection.
Please understand that there are a great many people in this country looking to defraud banks and private individuals alike. These new customer verifications processes are not only allowed by law, they are required. If we weren’t very careful with these kinds of scenarios we would be jeopardizing the identities of individuals who might not even be aware that accounts were opened in their names. What’s worse, if we simply abandoned our ID verification procedures every time a fraudster called us pretending to be someone else and demanding that the holds on their accounts be lifted, we would become a target for this kind of activity.
Joshua, I’m sorry about your situation. I’m sure on the surface that we made a poor first impression by appearing not to trust you. I hope our wariness about folks with whom we have no previous relationship and our strict verification procedures are evidence of our dedication to protecting customers and their money. Our Head of Customer Experience, Brendan Carroll, sent you an email regarding your specific situation. If you have any more questions , please email Brendan directly at bcarroll (at) perkstreet.com.
We value you as a customer and hope you give us a chance to see how awesome PerkStreet can be.
Best,
Kyle
Kyle,
Thanks for your detailed response. As I suspected, once certain protocols were violated, your security kicked in. It made sense to me but I can also see how Joshua could feel frustrated. Bottom line – sounds like Perksteet is really trying to safeguard client assets. Thanks, Neal
Kyle,
You are correct, this is a new relationship. What you say makes sense. It is sad to hear that the ACH system is not as secure as I thought. I truly believe that if I posted a comment about my other banks I would not get the response I have from the Perkstreet family. You guys have made every effort to explain and help me understand in an open forum and that is worthy of a second chance. Thank you for your help.
Grace be with you,
Don
Joshua, Thanks for sharing your experience. My sense is that Perkstreet took these actions because they wanted to protect you rather than steal your money.
That said, it does sound like a lot feel through the cracks. I understand that large institutions must have procedures and given the address mistake (something I think happens to every large company) the remaining inconveniences befell upon you. This happened to me with Citi Card. I travel overseas a lot. I always call them and tell them before I go but they always freeze the account anyway when they see transactions coming in outside the USA at first. This is a true pain but I understand what is behind it and I don’t get too upset.
You certainly have a right to be mad but I would suggest (and hope) they’ve gotten their heads straight around your account and things will go much smoother for you. Keep me in the loop man.
I have had PerkStreet for 2 years now and I really like it. I like earning the rewards and buying something special for myself. I ususally wait and save at least $50 in rewards before cashing in. Amazon is a great choice because they email you your card code within hours and do not have to wait for a card to come in the mail.
Thanks for the great review and I have to agree with most of what you said. I have not had any bad expereiences with them yet and I do not anticipate that happening.
I am delighted your experiences have been so positive. I did a good deal of research for this post and didn’t find any skeletons in the closet but it’s far more important to hear from people who have actual experience. Thanks!
Great review and thanks for being so thorough. I’m looking to ditch my traditional brick & mortar bank, which I haven’t been inside the brick & mortar in over a year. Have u heard any update to a mobile app? I searched the apple App Store and got no hits for perkstreet. That would be the one thing holding me back, i would love to be able to use mobile check depositing(as I do now) with the occasional physical check, check on my balance and every once in a great while find a nearby ATM.
Thanks again for a great review.
PerkStreet has to be the worst financial institution I have ever worked with. I try to do as much as I can online. I was so excited to get my PerkStreet Account going. I initially trasfered over $25. No problem.
Then I wanted to fund my account. I went online to transfer funds and everything worked great. Or so I thought. I transferd $1500 to PerkStreet. The trasaction hit my bank winthin 24 hours. Then it took PerkStreet 3 days to clear the transaction and show it part of my balance. But wait, that was just my balance, not my available. They told me it would take 10 days for my money to become available. Are you kidding me? I am sure they are more than happy to use my money while it is on hold, I just cannot.
Do not be taken in by the appearence of a high tech company. PerkStreet is the worst financial institution you will ever work with. Unless you do not care about your money, then it will be awesome for you.
Don, I am all for honest and fair criticism and I am sorry you had this experience. But there isn’t a bank on earth that won’t put a hold on your funds when you start your relationship. Where was your check from? Out of state? Have you had a problem in the past? Banks use these techniques to safeguard depositors. I am no apologist for anybody but I just think you have to put your experience in perspective. Have you had a different outcome with a different bank? I would be interested to learn more.
I would agree if this was a check. I avoid checks if at all possible. This was an electronic transfer from BBVA Compass to Perkstreet that I used the Perkstreet Online tool to initiate. I set the bank up a couple weeks ago and then verified with their online tool also. My major beef is I did everything the way they said to do it and still had the problem. I have done these tranfers between banks before without any issues like this. I think the bottom line is, I am not comfortable with this type of hold. You can hide under the veil of “we are just protecting you” for so long. They had no problem removing my money the night I put in the request. Their problem came when they had to let go. It just feels very shady to me.
Fair enough Don. I want all the Pilgrims to know the truth about your experience so I’m glad you shared. With your permission, I’m going to ask Perkstreet to respond as well.
They have actually been reaching out to me already. I have no issue with their customer service. They are very poilte and answer very fast. I wish the company well and hope my experience may prompt them to change on this particular issue. Thanks for your follow-up.
Don and Neal-
It’s Kyle from PerkStreet. Thanks much for having this discourse in public where folks can hear more about it and learn from it. Check fraud and ACH fraud are unfortunately incredibly common in our industry, as are holds on both types of transactions when a banking relationship is still being established.
I also want to explain that when a user initiates an ACH transfer from one institution to another, whether money’s being pulled in from another account or pushed out to another, the institution who initiates the transaction is liable for any fraud associated with the transaction. This means that if someone initiates an ACH transfer into PerkStreet from the PerkStreet transfer tool, and PerkStreet releases the funds to our customer before verifying the money is there with the institution it came from, then PerkStreet is not only liable for any fraud associated with our own accounts, but also those of the institution sending the funds.
The ACH system which clears through the Fed, is fairly archaic and it takes institutions days to verify funds despite the fact that we all have online transfer tools that appear to make this process instantaneous. It’s a frustrating situation for customers and institutions alike, and one that’s very much in need of some innovation. Unfortunately, what matters to everyone involved is that money is kept safe. As inconvenient as it is, the current system is fairly well guarded and incredibly well established.
I hope this helps you guys understand what happened in Don’s particular case. Don, as I wrote to you on our blog, and as I know our founding COO Jason wrote to you on Facebook, we regret that this happened. We understand your frustration. And we’d love the opportunity to continue building a strong relationship with you. If you’d give us another chance, I’m sure you’ll see that PerkStreet is a reputable business and that we always try to take care of our customers. Our mantra is that we win when you win. Unfortunately, in this particular case, I think it sounds like both PerkStreet and you lost. For that, I’m sorry.
All the best,
-Kyle
Kyle Psaty
PerkStreet Financial
*This comment has been updated from the one I submitted last night in an effort to clarify the part about risk and liability.
Kyle,
Thanks loads for getting back to me and posting your response to us all. My experience was been really positive with your institution. I realize that the process can frustrate people when they start out – but that is likely going to be the case regardless of who we do business with.
Thanks for proving again your commitment to your customers.
I opened an account with Perkstreet about a month ago because my wife and I use our Debit Card for EVERYTHING so I figured this would be a great way to make some extra money with the rewards. So far I am overall pretty pleased. I was a little annoyed about the $1500 transfer limit but I am getting Direct deposit set up now so that should stop that problem. There are a couple more things I still would like to see change from Perkstreet though, and I would really love an answer from Kyle or another Perkstreet Rep.
1. Whenever I email customer support for any issue, I do not hear back from them for 4 or 5 days. This seems a little outrageous, is anything being done to fix this issue?
2. I tried calling the customer service number and just wanted to talk to a person and all I got was a menu and automated answers. I got frustrated and never called back. I just found out from this review that I could have simply hit “0″ to talk to real person. Why on earth am I finding this out from a review rather than from that automated message. Can this be fixed so others know to press “0″?
3. Is there a Perkstreet App coming where I can deposit my checks by taking pictures of them like I do with my Chase account? I certainly hope so as that would keep me using Perkstreet longterm. Is there a date for this release, if it is going to happen?
Again, overall I am satisfied, but these are some issues that I think Perkstreet should fix and shouldn’t be that hard to do so.
Keith-
Thanks for the comments. I’m glad you’re having a good experience and I think what you’re asking for is totally reasonable. See my answers in-line below.
1) We take a lot of pride in fast customer service using plain language, Keith. We’re people too and we expect people-grade communication on regular-people time, if that makes sense. The vast majority of our email responses happen the same business day. I would say, most happen within an hour or two. For the fastest response rate, make sure you email us at help@perkstreet.com. Sorry you got lost in the shuffle a few times; I hope this doesn’t happen to you again.
2) Most companies like ours use automated voice systems on their hotlines, to some degree, to help customers without connecting them to a live customer service rep. We do it to trim costs so we can keep our rewards levels high, quite honestly. But now you know that pressing “0″ will get you a person if you need one. I believe our automated response system notifies people of this option, but I’m not sure at what stages. Sorry this was hard to figure out.
3) YES. The apps are being developed for iOS and Android and they’re coming soon. We’re trying to get them out the door and into the hands of our customers ASAP, and we appreciate your patience. Just to be totally clear, these apps DO allow photo remote deposit, though that feature might not be available immediately to new customers, because of the fraud risk involved. (As you might imagine, it’s easier to fake an image of a check than a watermarked, real paper check.)
I hope this response helps. Again, hit us up at help(at)perkstreet(dot)com with any questions anytime. You can also ask questions at Facebook.com/perkstreet and get a super fast response if you ever have basic questions or feedback like the above.
Thanks again. Have a great day.
-Kyle
I have been wanting to change banks for a long time. I recently got the push I needed when I quit my job to go back to school and started getting monthly service fees because I no longer had direct deposits. So about a month ago I began researching. I was told about PerkStreet by a friend who listens to Dave Ramsey; however, this friend was not a PerkStreet member and could not answer a lot of the questions I had. I read many conflicting reviews online until I found this article. I was immediately convinced. I signed up for PerkStreet that very day.
The sign-up was simple and I received my card in the mail quickly. I have called customer support twice and both times someone answered right away – I have never been on hold. When I received the letter for my signature it came with two business reply envelopes to two different places (one in Delaware and one in Wisconsin). I called to ask which one to send it in – they said Delaware. About a week later I got another letter saying they never received my signature card. This time there was only one business reply envelope and it was addressed to Wisconsin (and also already sealed shut). So I called again and was told they received the original one two days before.
Other than that little bit of confusion everything has been wonderful so far! I am very happy with my decision to switch. =)
Glad you’ve had a great experience so far. Keep us all posted please!
Neal and friends,
Kyle from PerkStreet here. I just wanted to drop in and let you know that we have made some announcements about new features, including a new mobile app and savings account. This announcement came out today. I’ll likely see comments left on the PerkStreet blog sooner, but of course, feel free to ask questions or comment here on Neal’s blog as well.
Here’s the announcement on our blog: http://dailyperk.perkstreet.com/perkstreet-mobile-app-savings-account-catcust/
-Kyle
My husband and I have been using Perkstreet for the last year and a half (or so) as our day-to-day checking account. For the most part, I like them, but there are a few quirks to be aware of if you’re considering opening an account.
(1) Direct deposit is your best bet if you want to know for sure a certain sum of money will get there by a certain date. When we first opened the account we would transfer funds over semi-monthly, but between the transfer limit and the delay between request and processing it became a huge pain.
(2) Sign up for the daily account balance emails and NOT the emails flagging you when your account balance falls below a certain level. I cannot tell you how many times we thought our account balance was one thing only to discover it was far lower/overdraw the account. Getting the daily balance emails has been MUCH better and make the other notification emails a bit redundant.
(3) Perkstreet’s fraud protection/monitoring has A LOT of room for improvement. Recently, my husband’s wallet was stolen and the thief went on a spending spree purchasing public transportation cards for our local system. My husband had three cards in his wallet at the time it was stolen. One was his personal Bank of America debit/credit card, one was our joint Chase credit card, and the other was our joint Perkstreet debit/credit card. Immediately after the thief used the BoA card to load $80 onto a subway card, BoA called my husband to confirm the charge. He explained what happened and the card was shut down, the thief was able to make no further purchases using that card. The thief then proceeded to use the Chase card to continue making his purchases. After the thief made two similar $96 subway pass purchases, Chase put a freeze on card and called me. I explained what happened, Chase cancelled the cards and reversed the transactions. Having heard nothing from Perkstreet at this point, but pretty certain that my husband’s Perkstreet card was in his wallet at the time of the theft, I logged onto our online account. At that point, I noticed that our account had been overdrawn. The thief had made FOUR separate $96 subway pass purchases and totally drained our Perkstreet account (which previously had ~$375 in it), yet Perkstreet hadn’t called or emailed or done anything to confirm that everything was kosher. In a panic, I called to explain what happened and report the unauthorized transactions. The woman I spoke with, while generally nice was nowhere near as responsive as BoA or Chase. All she was able to do was cancel my husband’s card and confirm that there were four identical transactions and now our account was overdrawn. She recommended I call the vendor (the city’s public transportation administration?!) and ask them to cancel the charges since they were showing as “pending” otherwise, we would need to wait for those charges to be processed. Once they were processed, then we must file a written complaint detailing everything I just told her and either mail it or fax it in. Once Perkstreet received it, they would investigate and if it all checked out we could expect to get the money back in approx. 14 days of them receiving the letter. Obviously, we’ll do that because $400 is not nothing, but you can imagine my disappointment with just how difficult it will be to sort out our Perkstreet account when both BoA and Chase have made it so easy.
Much like one of the commenters above, I too am currently experiencing an extended hold on money that is out of my other bank account and sitting at PerkStreet! Nowhere on any page when you make a transfer does it say that you will have a 7 business day hold on your transfer. It clearly said 3-4 business days. I was eager to take advantage of my new card and as soon as my external checking account was verified I transferred, on March 6th, what I have now found out is the maximum monthly amount of $1500 only to see it leave my other bank account on March 8th and find out I won’t be able to use that money until March 15th! Then while talking to customer service, I find out that if I want to add more money I can send a check but she recommended that I wait until the 21st (for what reason, I don’t know) and then she proceeds to tell me that there is a 9 BUSINESS DAY HOLD on all checks! WTF? Can you make this any less convenient? There is no way in h*ll I’m going to direct deposit into this account at this point!
As soon as my $1500 deposit becomes available it is getting transferred right back into my other account which will probably take another 10 business days the way this is going! Don’t bother with these jokers. There is a reason it’s free and they pay you! This whole hassle is hardly worth the 1% cash back. I’d rather pay a monthly fee for a checking account than deal with all of this hassle.
Make sure you read all of the fine print! Incase you don’t see it on their website, please take note of the 9 business day hold on all deposited checks and a maximum transfer amount of $1500 per month both of which basically render this account useless if you plan on spending thousands each month on your debit card.
Jeremy-
Kyle from PerkStreet again. First of all, let me admit that the maximum transfer amount is a problem for some customers, and it has made it hard for certain users to get up and running with us. For that reason, we’ve made an extra effort to improve our fraud protection with regard to transfers on our new technology, which rolled out to new customers on March 6. All new accounts created after 3/6/13 now have a $5,000 daily transfer limit ($10,000 monthly). I know this probably offers little comfort to you, Jeremy, but people are probably reading this and considering PerkStreet, too, so I had to share that.
Now, as for the holds, they are not something we can really shorten — in fact they’re 5 business days for all accounts created after 3/6. The risk is just too great. I know this is not you, but each year, thousands of people rob banks the old fashioned way, and 100 times as many try to rob banks using ACH (transfer) fraud, card skimming, and about a dozen other tactics. The only way to truly combat those attempts is to wait for the transactions to clear and give potential victims (and other institutions) a chance to notice.
In the beginning of a new relationship, we tend to be extra careful. While you’re trying to decide whether to bank with us, we’re trying to make sure you’re a real person who’s using our accounts the way they were intended — and not a fraudster. It sounds pretty terrible, but in order to protect our business and our longtime customers, it’s just part of what needs to happen. If you give us a chance to get to know you, you should see your hold times drop significantly after a few weeks.
Finally, you should know that direct deposits post the very same day they are sent from your employer, and they are extremely rarely subject to holds. (I’ve never even heard of it happening.) I know we haven’t exactly impressed you out of the gates here, but I can say that direct depositing customers rarely complain about convenience issues, because direct deposit is so well verified and flows very reliably.
This stinks, Jeremy. I’m sorry we’ve gotten off to such a lackluster start with you. And I understand if you feel this isn’t going to work. But I felt I had to explain that this is a familiarization process for us, too. Of course, we value your business and appreciate your efforts to switch to PerkStreet. We’d love to serve you well if you give us a second chance.
All the best,
Kyle
Thank you for your thorough review. We just opened our a count with PS. I had no idea the cashback would be reduced by 9% if deposited directly into our account.
Now is the offer for the free mega e-Book still available?
Did you click through to open your account using my link? If so, please email me at neal DOT pilgrim AT gmail dot com and I’ll happily send you the book. Thanks….
“5. You can download all your transactions from PerkStreet and import the data into QuickBooks or YNAB most other budget tracking software.”
We are a business. And no you cannot download banking monthly transactions directly into QuickBooks 2013. Short of jumping through hoops to create the IIF. If anyone knows differently I would love to hear it.
After you click add account button, instead of typing PerkStreet Financial, type “The Bancorp Bank” into the add bank input field. This should work. Have you tried it?
Neal:
the Perk Street support states outright that they only support Quicken and not Quickbooks because in their words ‘our accounts are only personal; not business!”
The options available for banks in Quickbooks are:
Bancorp – Business
Bancorp South
I chose Bancorp Business and an external page for Sign into TotalCash® Manager pops up with Company ID and User ID.
Is this correct? I don’t know what the user ID would be and do not want to randomly enter info.
What did the support at Perkstreet say?
See the first paragraph in previous post
I just opened a new account today. PS came with some very reputable endorsements, so I’m optimistic, but I have to say, so far I have some concerns. I called 3 times with various questions before I pulled the trigger and opened the account, and each time the rep that answered the phone (after pushing “0″ for a live person) did not know the answer. These were rather simple questions. Ie, for the 2% cash back in stores with a 5k minimum balance, is that cumulative of all accounts you hold with PS (if I put my savings there as well) or does it all need to be in checking? I’m waiting for someone from some area that handles escalated, more difficult questions to call me back. Happened again when my deposit did not appear in my new account, not even under “pending” transactions. She said it should be instant and did not know why. Ummm well I just deposited $500 so can you look my account up in your database and see if you can tell why, or can you transfer me to someone who can? Again, wait for a call back from the super-secret Oz people. The verdict is still out on whether I’ll stay move my account over to these guys or close it and stay where I’m at.
Hope,
Kyle from PerkStreet (one of those Oz people you mentioned haha). Thanks much for sharing your experience. We are currently training a handful of new call center reps, which may have been why you didn’t get answers to your questions right away.
Your funding deposit will take 2 business days (on average) to settle and appear in your account. Just like when you swipe your card at a local merchant, the funds take time to be released and settle. As for your question about $5K balances, those funds all need to be in the same checking account. Then, only purchases from that checking account will receive 2% cash back at the specific retailers listed at PerkStreet.com. Hope this helps!
-Kyle