PerkStreet Financial Review – The Best Online Checking Account
Regardless if you have thousands of dollars in your investment accounts, or are simply working to build your $1,000 emergency fund, choosing the best online checking account that fits your needs is important for every person.
While some people seek interest-bearing checking accounts, PerkStreet Financial offers the best online rewards checking account on the market. With their Cash Back Rewards Debit Card, PerkStreet has given consumers the opportunity to earn at least 1% rewards on ALL of their non-pin debit card purchases.
Check out my comparison between the best online banks (savings, checking, and CDs).
This year alone, I’ve racked up over $500 in cash back rewards through my PerkStreet checking account and I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the overall service and performance this online bank offers.
Is a PerkStreet Checking Account For You?
If you’ve grown tired of not receiving any financial benefits from you local banks and credit unions, then it’s time you consider following the growing trend and opening up an account with an online bank. A PerkStreet Rewards Checking Account is also a great alternative for people that struggle with handling debt or controlling spending on credit cards. While credit cards may be bad, you can completely avoid them and instead earn similar rewards with the PerkStreet Debit Card and not have to go into debt while doing it!
Ultimately, determining whether or not PerkStreet makes sense for you will come down to analyzing the benefits that come with their accounts:
- FDIC Insured (up to $250,000)
- Free Online Banking and Bill Pay
- No fees as long as you use your account
- Easy deposit options – direct deposit, free online transfers (from an existing bank account to your PerkStreet Financial checking account), mailing checks via free overnight delivery provided by UPS (paid for by PerkStreet), or you can deposit cash free of charge at MoneyGram Express locations. I personally use the overnight option via UPS as my employer doesn’t offer direct deposit.
- Excellent customer service (available 24/7) – after having an account with PerkStreet for over 9 months, I can say that I have only experienced exceptional customer service. Whether it was questions in regards to opening my account or figuring out how to order new checks, their staff is tremendous and calling into their 800 number is fast and easy.
- Rewards, rewards, and more rewards – as a PerkStreet account holder, your checking account will be eligible for 1% rewards on ALL non-pin purchases that you make. On top of that, you can earn 2% (limited to $2,500 worth of purchases) on online purchases through retailers such as Amazon, iTunes, Target, Walmart, or Best Buy, while also earning 2% on in-store purchases at the same places!
- In addition, PerkStreet just launched a new program, PowerPerks 2.0, which offers weekly opportunities to earn 25% (or more) in rewards at leading retailers!
- Easy to use, easy to understand. – whether or not your technically savvy, PerkStreet makes it easy to sign up and navigate through their online system.
How to Sign Up for a PerkStreet Account
Signing up for a PerkStreet Financial checking account couldn’t be easier. The process literally takes about 3 minutes! However, instead of taking my word for it, let’s walk through the process:
1. Visit the PerkStreet Financial website by clicking HERE.
2. Click the “Sign Up” button.
3. Fill out your information – after clicking the “sign up” button, a pop-up window will open. As with opening any checking account, PerkStreet is going to ask for some of your personal information. The screen will look as follows:
4. Fund your account – after filling out your name, SSN, DOB, address, phone number, and selecting a few account options, PerkStreet will then direct you to fund your account.
You can do this in one of two ways: (1) using a debit or credit card or (2) transferring money online from one of your existing bank accounts. The minimum to open a PerkStreet Financial Checking Account is $25.
After your account has been opened and funded, PerkStreet will mail you a few documents confirming your new account and providing your online account login information. The packet will include your account number, 50 checks, and will also include a document in which you’re to sign and return to them.
Earning & Redeeming Rewards is Easy!
After you’ve opened your PerkStreet Financial online checking account, then all you have to do is spend money to earn rewards (or cash back). Whether it’s gas, groceries, or Christmas presents, the more non-pin purchases you make, the more you’re going to earn.
Once your account has been opened and funded, you’ll be able to easily view your account information by logging online. Once online, the PerkStreet dashboard is easy to navigate and will give you access to a bunch of options:
1. Account Activity
2. Setting up Online Bill Pay
3. Accessing Your Perks (i.e. Rewards and Cash Back)
Once you’ve navigated to the Rewards/Perks dashboard, then you’ll be able to review the rewards you’ve accumulated in addition to determining how you want to redeem all of the money you’ve earned! PerkStreet gives you two options for redeeming your cash back rewards:
Option #1: Have cash added back to your PerkStreet Checking account.
Option #2: Redeem in the form of gift cards to places such as: Amazon, Target, Macy’s, iTunes, Best Buy, Sears, Gap, Starbucks, Dunkin Doughnuts, Applebee’s, and Olive Garden!
Through the rewards dashboard (image below), you’ll easily be able to dictate how to redeem your cash back rewards. As you can see, I currently have $46 in rewards that I’ve yet to redeem. Earlier in the year we decided to redeem about $400 of rewards in Best Buy gift cards! We used the money at that time to purchase a new camera, and the $46 you see below will be added to our credit cards rewards to buy a new washer and dryer later this month!
Conclusion
I’ve been completely satisfied with my PerkStreet Financial checking account and would recommend them to all of the WSL readers.
Due to their unique rewards debit card, the excellent customer service, wide network of ATMs, easy deposit options, and easy-to-use online dashboard, PerkStreet has the best rewards checking account for the average consumer and is easily one of the best online bank accounts available today.
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Bank smarter with a PerkStreet Rewards Checking Account – open an account today! |
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Terrible Experience, Lots of headache, Horrible Customer service on the phone ( no one knows whats going on) regret opening an account with them.
Here is what happened to me,
I opened a checking and saving accounts with them 3 weeks ago and transfer $50 from my Wells Fargo account. I have heard both good and bad things about Perkstreet but I decided that I would give it a try since they offer high cash back percentage.
It took about a WEEK for the $50 to show on my Perkstreet checking account. and another week until I received my debit card. I activated my card right away and DID NOT use it for ANYTHING at all. Two days later I was going to purchase something online so i logged on to my ebanking account and guess what, there is an UNAUTHORIZED activity that took $30 from my account. I sent an email to the customer service right away and made a phone call the next day to report an unauthorized activity and filed the dispute. They said the dispute regarding unauthorized transaction has been filed and I should receive a phone call from them in a few days. A few day past, NOTHING happens. I waited about 3 days then I called again to find out whats going on about the case. The lady picked up told me she is BUSY and she will give me a call back in a couple hours. The whole day passed, NO ONE called. I called again on Friday. They said the fraud or whatever department that is taking care of the case is closed I should call back on Monday.
I called on Monday expecting for some update about the case and here is the most frustrated part. No one knows what’s going on. No one had filed the disputed charge about the transaction. The guy put me on hold at least 3 times for about 15-20 minutes each time. Only to give me another phone number at the end and hung up. So I called the number. This guy is rude, unprofessional and was not very helpful at all. He basically said there was no record that i filed the dispute, therefore, I have to fill out the form and write down the reason why. Then mail them back with USPS then after they received the form they can go from there. To get my money back, it would probably about 5- 10 business days after they received the form.I asked if I could just email the form back so they will receive it faster and he said no. I asked if there is anyway I could shorten the process. He said I could go to the closet branch and talk to someone there. I asked him to locate the closet back for me and give me the address, he put me on hold for 10 minutes and came back and said “sorry, we are unable to locate any branch around your location”. I am in Los Angeles for gosh sake. Its not like I am in the middle of nowhere. Then he gave me ANOTHER phone number to call!
I tried calling that number. I remember thinking to myself this is the last freaking time I am trying with this phone call games. Someone picked up and same thing there is nothing he could do. He was the only one who actually apologized about the whole situation. But again I had to fill out the form and write out an essay explaining why.
At that point, I blew up. I told him how frustrated and disappointed I was. I opened an account with them LESS than a month and I already had to deal with all this crap! I told him I have a bank account with Wells Fargo, Paypal and BoA and I understand sometimes it could happen due to the system error or whatever. I got charge twice before from Wells Fargo and someone used my paypal for gambling and as soon as i called and reported the problem. There were able to solve the issues and credit my money back right away in just ONE phone call and I only had to talk to ONE person! No essay was required. No waiting. No bull*. The whole process to get the money back from Perkstreet is so much of a headache and complicated and take such a LONG LONG time that I almost feel like they do it on purpose so that I could be tired of it and just let it go.
I told him all I want is to get my money back, withdraw all my money out ,close the account and be done with it.
After listening to all my complaint, the last Perkstreet representative I talked to was actually very helpful and professional comparing to the others I previously dealt with. He said I could fill out the form and just write “Unauthorized Transaction” , the name of the company that took the money, and the date on the essay section and email it back to them. Thank gosh!
Before I hung up he apologized for the situation and I told him I was sorry he had to be the one who listen to me but after what I have been dealing with. It was my last draw!
Today I received the $30 credit back to my account but can’t do anything about it yet because my debit card got canceled and I was trying to add an external bank into my perkstreet account last week so I can just transfer the money. Until today the verify process still pending.
Got an email saying my new Perkstreet debit card will be delivered in about a week. Ugh!
I can’t wait to withdraw /transfer all my money out of this bank and close the account.
Hopefully my BoA account could be verified tomorrow or my debit card arrived tomorrow so it will all be over!
I am writing an honest review based on what I saw, what I heard and what I have had to deal with.
Whether or not you wanna try Perkstreet, the decision is yours…
Me, personally, I extremely regret my decision. It was a waste of time!
I’ve been with PerkStreet for over a year and couldn’t be more happy. I treat it like a credit card but since it’s a checking account, I’m really spending what I have. You’ll be surprised how perks add up. I could easily earn $6 perks a week (seriously, when was the last time you earned more than $1 in interests?) simply by paying bills online (make sure the website doesn’t charge you a fee for using a ‘credit card’ to pay), pay gas, groceries, etc.
I do agree that the downside is that it doesn’t have remote deposit. It really doesn’t affect me because I have an account with a Credit Union which offers that functionality. I can easily deposit it there and then transfer the $$ over to Perkstreet. Otherwise, Perkstreet can still handle your day to day banking needs.
When I reach $110 perks, I normally cash it out and then make an extra payment towards my car loan. Who doesn’t love that!?
i thought they dont reward customers for bill pay… I sure love to be able to pay my mortgage and get rewarded
Cristian, sorry if my post was misleading but you only get rewards if you charge something on your “debit” card and run it as credit. If your mortgage company then allows you to pay the bill via credit then you can certainly earn rewards. Otherwise, you’re correct, PerkStreet does not give you any rewards for simply paying bills through your online checking account.
I wonder that with the Durbin law, banks can’t charge fees on debit. However, they can charge merchant more on debit card swiped as a credit. PerkStreet must be passing some of that to the consumer.
I really like overall benefits.
I don’t have an account with Perkstreet, but they seem pretty bad ass! I can’t wait until interest rates go back up, and then we really see what they can do.
We use ING Direct for our online account. Great evaluation….I think with all the changes over there it’s time to swap.
I’ve never thought about using Perk Street because I use my credit card for everything then pay it off in full at the end of the month. I’ll be sending a link to this post to my dad. He’s never been great with credit cards so this might just be perfect for him.
Thanks KK! I hope it works for him. For people that can be responsible with credit cards, then I think that’s the route to go. However, there are certainly some (such as your dad) who would prefer to avoid the temptations of debt while still earning free money in return (the rewards). Before I started using credit cards again, this debit card was the only thing I swiped.
This sounds like an interesting idea. I appreciate the info on this option which I always thought was something to consider in the future, but maybe I need to move up my thoughts about it.
Really good review of Perkstreet Andy. I have been looking into them for some time, but I already have accounts with a traditional bank along with accounts with a credit union. I was looking at getting rewards for one of my accounts, but then realized that I wouldn’t really use my debit card as much, so that is the reason why I went with the credit union. They give me interest only if I add money to my account on a monthly basis.
I think Perkstreet is a good company and there is nothing wrong with getting rewards for using your cash.
DR, PerkStreet’s rewards checking account certainly would have little value if you didn’t use the debit card much. I think for my Dave Ramsey fans out there this would be an issue as they mostly rely on cash. However, I personally noticed that as I gained control of my finances, I was able to let go of the cash system a bit and use credit cards and debit cards again.
It’s hard to pass up all of the free money that the various institutions offer!
Really interesting concept, Andy.. I am going to have to look into this further.. I use a rewards credit card currently, by paying it off as soon as I get home.. But we still use our debit card more than anything.. I will check these guys out.
I thought reward debit cards had gone the way of the dinosaur. I am trying to get points for anything I buy, so this is an interesting option. Thanks for the review.
I’ve never actually heard of it, but appreciate your thorough review. Something to check out when I get home
We always use our credit cards so we can get points to redeem for whatever we need. In Canada the best account for us is the one that charges us nothing in terms of fees. I wasn’t used to all the silly fees when I moved to Canada and thought it was ridiculous since they are using our money to make loads of money and pay us peanuts back. Great stuff though with this account… Mr.CBB
I have never heard of this but it sounds awesome. I am going to check it out. Have a great week!
How is their website as for ease of use, transferring money, bill pay? I use a credit union right now, and get a great interest rate (6% on first $500 for both accounts), but I have not earned anywhere near the $500 you have.
6% on $500 is a great deal, however by doing the math it looks like that is only $30/year. So the question is whether or not you’ll spend $3,000/year (would be less if you’re able to take advantage of the 2% or 5% categories).
Overall, it’s very easy to transfer money and setup bill pay. My only complaint with transferring money is there is a monthly limit that they cannot adjust. It adjusts automatically based on how much you use the feature. I setup the account for my business and was transferring large amounts of money; once I realized it capped me at $1500/month then I simply had to use the overnight delivery feature. That sounds like it could be a hassle, but it’s really not and PerkStreet pays for the entire thing.
Actually, the cap goes up over time and use (to avoid fraud). My limit to move money IN using their site was bumped to 5k after about 9 mos. they cap moving money OUT at $500. This is the other reason I keep the brick and mortar…the limits only apply to transactions initiated on their site. If you push/pull funds from other accounts (brick&mortar or ING) you can move whatever you want. Again I have an advantage bc I am not charged fees, since I am an employee so this is fine for me, the best advice is to read though all FAQs on the site. You should do this for any financial product you buy of course!
Great to know., thanks.
Great review! I will definitely be thinking about this.
It is cool that you can get rewards via checking accounts now. It does make me wonder how they can afford that since with debit transactions they are not charging merchants a big fee. I guess they just want people to sign up for their other services. Personally I can’t remember the last time I used debit to pay for anything. I use credit cards whenever possible.
The way they make money is when the consumer swipes and chooses “credit”. If you use your pin, you do not earn perks. You must run it as a credit (which you can do with any debit card with the Visa/MasterCard logo), so they still earn the “swipe fees” allowing them to pay great perks.
Great point! Thanks for getting to this before I could!
I think PerkStreet fits for a lot of people that (1) don’t have the option to use credit cards or (2) are weary of using credit cards because of previous bad decisions or (3) just don’t like credit card companies and would prefer to do their business with a bank and still get rewards from it.
This is a great review of Perk Street Financial. I’ve been interested in changing my checking account since US Bank ended my rewards debit card and I no longer get any incentive to use it….
Now I may have to go and check out Perk Street. Thanks Andy!
No problem, Andy! I hope you have a great experience such as I’ve had!
I’m a long time Perkstreet customer and love them . As mentioned above, the only thing I seem to be missing is the remote deposit option. Luckily i can do remote deposit with my ING or Ally savings accounts, and then transfer over. Doesn’t usually take long. I’ve gotten hundreds in cash back since opening my Perkstreet account, it’s great!
Thanks for the testimony, Peter! I wish they had remote deposit, but since I don’t have a smartphone it wouldn’t matter much.
The overnight deposit option through UPS has been really easy for me and takes me about 5 minutes to do. I thought it was going to be a hassle but it really is a minor issue compared to the rewards you receive.
I’ve done the overnight UPS deposit a couple of times, and it works fine if you need to do a quicker deposit. Normally I’m not in that much of a hurry though.
Very good point! Typically the checks I was depositing was more than my transfer limit, so I gave up and just decided to stick with the overnight option.
Seems like a great option. I never use my debit card though and ALWAYS use my credit card so I think I’m going to pass on them for now. Great for people who use debit cards though!
I’ve gone a little more of the credit card route, but I see no purpose of using a credit card that only offers 1% when PerkStreet gives you the same thing and you have one less transaction to worry about (paying your credit card bill).
They have been working on an app for a while…for me once we got the direct deposit set up it has been smooth sailing. I still have a brick and mortar because I’m employed by them so its free AND I’m able to easily pay rent to my landlords through their Send Money capability. I can access cash this way too…but ALL my other banking gets done through the Perkstreet account. I just celebrated one year with them and have earned over $500 in perks. Just cashed in $350 for my christmas shopping!
One other positive is Perkstreet is VERY active on their social media pages. They respond to questions and issues on their FB and Twitter pages 24/7 and they are very nice to deal with.
Coming from the financial world, dealing with Perkstreet is the most pleasurable experience!
I LOVE how somebody that works for a bank uses PerkStreet. What a great testimony to their service and business model!
Thanks for your $.02, Momof2PG! It’s nice to be able to get your Christmas shopping with the rewards that you’ve earned! I used the bulk of my rewards to buy a new camera earlier in the year; it was pretty fun using somebody else’s money to buy it!
You know the geek I am, so I have to ask: Can you deposit via smart phone app?
Unfortunately they do not currently have that option. If there is any downside to PerkStreet it would be their deposit options. I’ve used the overnight delivery and haven’t had any issues, but it would certainly be easier if they offered smartphone deposit. I’m sure that will come with time.