Review on PerkStreet Financial

Author: Brian Jackson | Posted in Reviews 14 Comments

I have been wanting to do a review on PerkStreet Financial for a while now and so here it is.

Perkstreet Offers:

Free personal Checking (no minimum requirement)
No monthly fees
Free online Bill Pay
Two free checkbooks
Free mail deposit envelopes
FDIC insured (Bancorp Bank) up to $250,000
1% cash back on all debit card purchases (swiped as credit)
2% cash back on all debit card purchases if you have $5,000 or more in your checking (swiped as credit)
No limit on cash back/perks you can earn
24/7 Customer Service via phone

Pros

A well designed banking website: This is very important to me, and something that US Bank, Chase, etc. just can’t seem to get right. I banked with Chase for a couple years and had numerous problems with their website, either being offline, or changing addresses didn’t work. PerkStreet’s website is layed out very well, easy to use and actually looks nice.
Very active Facebook community: I had some questions when I was starting out with PerkStreet and I visited their Facebook page, posted some questions and received my answers within a few hours. It’s also fun to see the PerkStreet employees interacting with the consumers.
Cash Back on your debit card: This is just an amazing feature and one of the main reasons I originally signed up. I don’t like using credit cards and so to get cash back on things I would normally buy with my debit card is awesome! I earned $31 in the first month of being signed up with them. It’s literally free money people!!
Depositing Money without a branch: I have to admit this was a little weird at first, but thankfully PerkStreet offers several options. My personal favorite is depositing money via MoneyGram. MoneyGram is a money transfer service that can be found at many locations including Wal-Marts, Albertsons, etc. Since I shop at Albertsons for my groceries anyways, it was very convenient to also deposit money there. Two birds with one stone. The MoneyGram service does charge a fee, but being a PerkStreet customer you aren’t charged that fee, they pick it up. PerkStreet also offers UPS overnight deposits and free mail deposit envelopes.
Withdrawing Money: This is another area where PerkStreet is far superior to that of normal banks. They have a surcharge-free network of over 37,000 ATMs nationwide. Just in my small city alone, there is about 25 places I could withdraw money for free; including gas stations, supermarkets, etc.

Cons

Opening your account: There aren’t very many cons to mention about PerkStreet. The only one for me was that it took about 30 days to actually get my VISA debit card in the mail. However, this was not PerkStreet’s fault. Over the holidays, USPS actually lost my mail and so PerkStreet had to cancel my card and send a new one.

Conclusion

If you are still having some doubts, feel free to post a question or comment and I will do my best to answer it. In all I think anyone would be crazy not to give PerkStreet a try. I originally found them after reading that Dave Ramsey recommended Perkstreet.

Visit them Now at http://www.perkstreet.com

Update as of 04.23.11

I have now earned over $100 in perks and can’t say enough great things about PerkStreet!

Incoming search terms:

ally and perkstreet
bancorp and perkstreet fina
can i put money in my perkstreet account with moneygram
how long for deposit to post perkstreet
how to deposit money on perkstreet
im a new customer with perkstreet when will i get my debit card
maximum purchase with my perkstreet
perkstreet moneygram receiving code
withdraw money now from perkstreet account

Tags:Banking, Checking, PerkStreet Financial

About Author

Brian Jackson

My name is Brian Lee Jackson. I am an IT guru and web developer. I love working as a Systems Administrator and playing with the newest Microsoft products.

Pingback: Tweets that mention Review on PerkStreet Financial - theitbros.com -- Topsy.com
Matt Laurenzano

I have a Perkstreet account too, and I think it is great. How long MoneyGram deposits take to post to your account?
http://www.theitbros.com Brian Jackson

@Matt: The MoneyGram deposits take 3 business days to post to your account. So it isn’t super speedy, but then again I don’t often have checks. It is nice though to be able to do it while I am at the grocery store.
- Matt Laurenzano
  
  Thanks for sharing your experience. I just did my first deposit with MoneyGram.
Carl

WARNING ON PERKSTREET: If you take the “cash” rewards option they send you a visa check card. If you never receive or lose your check card YOUR MONEY IS GONE AND THEY CANNOT REPLACE IT. I just got off the phone with a PerkStreet customer service rep because this happened to me. A $50 card never arrived (although I did successfully receive two $100 cards prior to this). I was apologetically told there was nothing they could do. Essentially, someone in their shipping department can take the cards, list them as shipped and you are S.O.L.

I’m quite pissed.

For those who do keep your account (I’m going to kill mine), you should take the amazon.com gift cards. The codes are supposedly emailed.
http://www.theitbros.com Brian Jackson

@Carl… Thank you for your comment and the heads up. I am definitely going to look into this more because that is a huge problem. I use the “cash” rewards myself and so now I am a little worried.
TheGooch

Would you consider “Visa Gift cards” to be cash? I wouldn’t. Cash is something you can put into your saving account, your wallet, hide in your mattress, give to strippers, etc. A Visa gift card is a perk, but don’t call it “Cash Back” if it isn’t cash.
- http://www.theitbros.com Brian Jackson
  
  Well it is cash back the way I use it I take my Visa gift card, use the square device, give myself back the money off of the card right back into my bank account. The fee after all is over is $0.50. So out of $50.00, i get $49.50. I will take the loss of $0.50 to have actual cash. I agree with you on the cash part. I don’t like gift cards either. Along with the square device, you could then hide the money under your mattress or use it for savings
  - Bryan Marriott
    
    Brian what do you mean by the square device ? And how are you getting the money off of the card ?
http://www.theitbros.com Brian Jackson

The square device is a cellphone reader that is completely free. https://squareup.com/ I plug the device into my cellphone, swipe the PerkStreet card with my $50 on it and it deposits it into my bank account (PerkStreet). They did raise their rate a little to 2.75% per swipe. But you are still left with $48.63 right back into your bank account. I still use this method because I hate gift cards and usually end up leaving amounts on them.. I would rather put the money back into PerkStreet and then spend it with my PerkStreet debit card.
Debbie

Any thoughts on how Perkstreet measures up against Ally and USAA. I’m an oldtime ING Direct customer who is upset over the impending sale to Cap One. I opened an ALLY account, and have found that sometimes the Ally Perks are credited to your account and sometimes they aren’t. A major pain and time waster to have to fight this battle. I have heard good things about USAA and opened an account there, only to find out when I got my debit card that there is a $3,000.00 maximum per day purchase on the debit card. This is not a lot of money if you’re purchasing camera equipment or other large-ticket items. It is simply not acceptable to the way I do business.
Now I’m wondering about PerkStreet.
- Brian Jackson
  
  I have had an Ally account and never had any issues… But I also didn’t make as much money back… With Perkstreet I have already doubled in 6 months in perks what I have made from any other bank I have been with… I have had Chase, Washington Mutual, US Bank, Ally, Citi, etc… none of them have compared to what Perkstreet has been giving me. Also, I know when you open your account there is a $1,500 a day maximum for purchase. However, you can simply contact PerkStreet and ask them to raise… I don’t know of any other bank that will let you do that . Perkstreet has always been very flexible and its nice, at least for me, to be able to send them a tweet, and get a quick response… There phone support is pretty good too. But again, the rate in perks you get back simply can’t be beat.
J D

I’ve checked out the website but clicking on ‘OPEN ACCOUNT’ leads to reloading the page in a new window. Been trying for a few hours with same results.
Not a good sign !
Charlie Dyer

You’re either being paid by Perkstreet to write nice things about them or you’re a fake site to make it seem like you’re “just a couple guys doing the work for you.” Not so much. You complain about US Bank twice but fail to disclose that Perkstreet Financial in all it’s banking guises IS actually US Bank listed as Bancorp Bank above. If you were a real person actually doing real work you’d look up Perkstreet like I just did to let visitors know that it’s not a bank or even a financial services company. They’re a software development company. I can’t tell you how they make their money but methinks US Bank’s name is on the checks they cash to stay in business. Entrusting one’s hard earned cash to a software company pretending to be a bank is just stupid.
- http://www.theitbros.com Brian Jackson
  
  Great bank and nope, not paid for the review. I love blogging and like sharing knowledge with everyone. In fact none of our posts are paid. We do run ads on our site to help a little of the hosting costs, but other than that we don’t make any money.
  
  And your comment about them being a software development company, well they are doing better than the banks are. Giving perks back to the consumers is what the bigger banks lack.
  And it is FDIC insured, just like any other bank.