Originally Posted by
RichMSN
Has anyone else found it difficult to get one of these accounts?
Yes, although probably for a different reason.
At the time, I had a home "on paper" in Seattle (specifically, my girlfriend's condo). Since I knew I'd be moving to Seattle soon, and U.S. Bank has branches here, I decided to move all of my banking to U.S. Bank and start getting debit card miles. I applied online for a checking account, and got a rejection letter in the mail. When I called the telephone number on the letter, I was told that I'd been rejected because my Seattle address didn't appear on any of my credit reports.
I pointed out that just a few months ago, they'd issued me the WorldPerks Platinum
credit card at my Seattle address without any problems, and so they could verify the address by looking
in their own records. But no, that wasn't good enough for them.
So, a week or two later, I went to Seattle and opened the account at a branch in person. They were able to see my Seattle address in their computers because of the credit card. Although they did ask if I had any further documentation of the address, and I had none (besides my girlfriend, who was with me), they nonetheless were happy to open the account.
Maybe with the annual fee of $90 I'm better off not being accepted, but it's still somewhat perplexing.
I think it's $55 for the Gold Visa debit. $90 is the annual fee for the Visa Signature credit card.