Agree. I do pretty much the same. BD's customer service has indeed gone a little downhill in the past few months but, I couldn't care less as long as the miles are posted on a monthly basis. Serves my yearly award travel needs just fine.

Why is BankDirect refusing to open new accounts?
 

It is your money. Why is it a mistake to close your BankDirect account?
Shouldn't you be able to do what you want with your investments?

What is the reason that BankDirect told you that they are now refusing to open a new account and continue to do business with you?

It seems unusual that BankDirect is currently offering a mileage bonus for helping bring BankDirect new business and, at the same time, this bank wants to turn away new account business.

Listed below are some government agencies who may help you with BankDirect refusing to open your account and take your deposit.

http://www.helpwithmybank.gov

http://www.occ.gov/topics/dispute-re...omplaints.html

http://www.dob.texas.gov/bnt/banks_h...bankregulation

Regarding the inability to do ACH transfers: on the Bill Pay interface, there is a tab Transfers. Under that tab there is an option Add Transfer Account where it is asking for routing number, account number, and so forth. This looks like interface to do ACH transfers to me. Am I wrong?

You can ACH out of BD but not into BD.

Usually there isn't a fee to ACH from sending or receiving ends, but I can't seem to find info about it from BankDirect's site. If I enter the info routing # & account # on BankDirect, will it be an ACH and will it incur any fees? It's OK if it's just ACH out of BankDirect for me.

They said:

Your previous account closed in August of 2010. At this time you do not qualify to open an AA mileage checking or AA mileage money market account.

I am unclear... I just transferred some $ from my Citibank and credit union into my BD account. Took all off approx 3 days.

If you do not qualify to open an AA mileage checking or AA mileage money market account at this time, BankDirect should be able to tell you at what time you would qualify to open this account. BankDirect should also be able to provide written documentation of the requirement needed to open an account with this bank.

It appears that BankDirect is attempting to enforce an undisclosed term and condition and penalizing customers for choosing to close a BankDirect account. Looking over the paperwork generated on my account opening, I can't find any language stating you would not be able to open a new BankDirect account if you closed an account. There is however, a published disclosure about a maximum of two AA mileage accounts per houseshold. If a bank issued a penalty or an account restriction to me which was not disclosed, I would file a complaint with the banking commission or banking regulators if I could not resolve it with the bank.

Please ask BankDirect to elaborate and share their response here.

If your account was in good standing when you closed your account, I would think any bank would warmly welcome you a previous account holder.

Maybe they just don't want you to earn the account opening bonus a second time? Given the relatively primitive systems they seem to have in place, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have a mechanism in place to allow you to open the account without awarding you the bonus.

Last month's miles are showing up on BD's site.

Is this a lifetime limit? When I opened my first account they mistakenly opened the wrong type of account. So after a little back and forth they closed it and opened the correct mileage checking account. So now that I closed that account , do they see I have used up my lifetime limit of two account?

So we seem to be back to the normal schedule of mileage posting this month:

Miles show on the BD site on the second business day of the month, then get uploaded to AA on the third business day.

So something positive from these guys.

Today they have:

So, this time, at least they acknowledge that it's down.

Maybe that means it was really planned? Maybe we'll see an interface and functionality update? Doubt it, but I can dream.

I just found out about the BankDirect AA offer. It seems a no brainer to move my money earning piddling interest rates at WTDirect.com, FNBO.com, Ingdirect.com and emigrant direct.com (have split it under old FDIC limits) to bank direct to earn AA miles for Intl travel.

Any tips or pitfalls from existing users for someone like me who is about to open an account? I presume I should move only 250k due to FDIC limit, correct? I can use a referral so pls let me know. Thanks

see separate thread to get referrals. They will PM you quickly.

You should also investigate Fidelity offer if you haven't already.