100% agreeed

If there were any alternative, I would shift from BD in a heartbeat. Do not like the new bad cop, bad cop setup

I hate to sound like a broken record, repeating myself and agreeing with others, but these new guys are truly awful.

To say they don't want our business is an understatement.

I'm considering just yanking it all and paying my mortgage off. Short term, I'd clearly be better off.

Plus, two fewer painful financial companies I'd have to deal with.

I wonder who got fired by these bad cops for making it so that we get 10K miles for making one direct deposit and switching our DD back to our old bank.

With ceicoc's kind help, I looked at that Michigan Mercantile deal and it is better than most I've seen. As I recall they only want 5 debit transactions a month plus one direct deposit or other ACH transfer in to have fees waived and 2.5% on a balance up to $75,000, leave anytime you want. I haven't done it yet but it's still on my mind.

Same here. I actually emailed the bank to ask for clarification of the direct deposit and ACH in. I am still not quite sure what qualifies as ACH In but the ACH debit seems quite clear as bill pay function, so it is an easy 0.5% bump, and the 5 debit card transactions are very painless as well.
The 2.5% conditions are 3 fold: 75K balance gets you 1.5%, Add DD or ACH In or ACH debit, got another 0.5%, and 5 debit card transactions another 0.5%, for a total of 2.5%. All are relatively painless to perform.

Today I did 3 and 4 Non PIN debit card transactions at CVS on our Chase business checking accounts initially opened for the 25K CO bonus miles but now the accounts are worth to keep as it carries a free personal checking and then earns me extra bonus UR points on Freedom card. The UR pts can transfer to Sapphire's pool which then can transfer to either Hyatt or CO / BA at 1:1 ratio (not that I care for BA but just throw it out here as one of the options).

I did receive BD's debit cards yesterday but haven't activated them yet. May be this weekend and start early next month as it needs to have 12! transactions to earn the 5K after 3 consecutive months doing the chore...

The miles from BD are nice, but as you said, they will be at the bottom of the current balance and would be the last to use - i.e. a few years from now... while cash is cash... This Michigan bank is a serious contender to compete the funds set for BD in my opinion.

If you have two BD debit cards, that implies two BD accounts.

If both of your accounts send miles to the same AA account, you cannot get the 5K miles twice. I just went through that with the wonderful customer service personnel over there.

2 debit cards for 1 checking account and only 1 5K bonus. Sorry for the confusion.

The lady asked me if we wanted debit card for each owner of the JT account and I said yes. She made it clear that only 1 5K bonus could be earned and I told her I understood.

She also said the debit card transactions can be either PIN or NON-PIN, it does not matter.

Is this the case? Do you all do the PIN transactions? or you do the Non PIN transactions? Or a mix of both?

Does anybody have recent experience with this? I'm doing DD into BD, but certainly it's not 100% of my salary... you know - taxes, health care, 401K, etc.

The wording of that does not make it clear if I'm OK or not.

I did all non-PIN. Not really sure why I'd ever enter a PIN.

It should be the pay you take home after all your deductions, just like any other bank. BD's definition of 'direct deposit' shouldn't be any different than what any other bank deems as so, regardless of their aggressive language about it on their site.

I'm having similar issues too
 

I can't get past the first application page after I complete my info ('submit' link doesn't do anything). I tried with multiple browsers with the same result. Connection did NOT time out in each instance.
Does anyone with more experience with BD think this is a temporary issue?

I would hope it is a temporary BankDirect issue as they probably do not want to infurate new potential clients. I wonder if BankDirect had a change in management in March or April as their bank policies and earning rates are not as customer friendly as they were in the beginning of this year.

At Mercantile Bank, I use my debit card 5 times each month, usually in one day to qualify for the bonus interest. I swipe it through the merchant terminal at the register and, even though it is a debit card, press credit. Approval usually is received in five seconds or less.

If you want to open a Mercantile Bank of Michigan account, if you PM me, I would be glad to refer you.

Thanks for the response, I figured it could be a temporary website hiccup; happens to the best of them.
I'll try again later tonight, if I don't get anywhere then, I'll call them tomorrow.
Unless the Mercantile Bank of Michigan gives away AAdvantage miles, I'll pass on your kind offer. Thanks though. :D

Thank you for clarification. I just want to make sure WHICH kind of debit card transaction would surely work given BD is so vague and all verbal!

Generally unfriendly...
 

I gave up trying to work with them as they were very intrusive and seemed to care less about having another new account. Also, their web site kept crashing after entering numerous pages of data.