Bank Account Closure: U.S. Bank
Earlier I covered the US Bank Checking account $300 bonus, which was one of the first bank bonuses I signed up for. This account became the first I closed as part of my bonus hustle. I ended up closing the account for a couple reasons, While I liked the prospect of having branches conveniently located, the banking interface under the hood was clunky and needs updating. The real trigger was the $3 outgoing ACH transfer fee, which no other account I had at the time was charging.
Closing the account was a little annoying since I had to call twice. They said I needed to call again during business hours to finalize the closure. I would try doing it with a secure message online if I were to do it again.
Since then, I found Bank of the West also charges this same $3 fee. There is an awkward work-around of sending payments to yourself to move money around. I wonder if that method would have worked for mimicking direct deposits, however, there is little data in the bank bonus community supporting the usefulness of the account for that activity.
I also didn’t like seeing a monthly fee charged for my account and then immediately reversed since I signed up for their “Because You’ve Earned It” program. It briefly raises my blood pressure to see a fee in my aggregated bank transactions list and is just a bad way of handling the free status of the account.