Everyone has heard of credit cards that earn rewards. Now Washington Mutual is introducing a debit card that earns cash rewards with every purchase.But exactly how much do you get back?
*MOUSE PRINT: “Free Gold Debit MasterCard® with Rewards—get a $.03 reward for each debit purchase transaction up to $250 per year** **Applies to purchases made by phone, online, in person or by mail. If your account is open and in good standing on your anniversary date, you’ll receive a $.03 reward for each Debit MasterCard purchase transaction made within the last year up to a $250 reward.” [Washington Mutual website, May 16, 2006]
Thinking it must have been a typo, I read the disclosure to mean that you got back three percent (not three cents) for every purchase using their debit card. How generous! To double-check, I called WaMu’s customer service department. They explained that with every purchase you indeed would get back three cents.
MrConsumer asked: “Now let me get this straight, if I buy a $1000 refrigerator, you are going to give me back three cents?”
Customer service representative: “Yes.”
How generous, and what a great incentive to switch to WaMu. In order to receive the advertised maximum rebate of $250 per year, one would have to make 8333 separate purchases. A snap.
And the ATM owners even tell you at the beginning of the transaction you’re gonna be charged for it. So blame yourselves! not WAMU. Geesh
And for the person that’s so geeked up on BofA’s reward program. They actually take your own money, that you already have in your checking account, and transfer money from THAT to your savings. They don’t actually give you money from their bank. So really you could just go transfer the money yourself. WAMU actually gives you money from them. Better I would say.
Okay, So here’s one more pro-WaMu post. I have multiple accounts with WaMu. Savings, checking (personal & business), home loan, etc. Now here are a few tricks that I have learned from WaMu’s finest.
1. Don’t open accounts online. The customer service options, if there is a problem, are limited. (example – like some above, I have had a problem that caused an overdraft. Overdraft fee caused more overdraft, credit line kicked in, paid the overdrafts – not the fees. WaMu automatically waived one fee. There were almost $150 others.
When I walked into the branch to talk to my ‘friend’ he waived a few more. And told me that if I had opened the account at that branch, they could have tapped the branch’s profit center and refunded everything.)
Branches can do a lot, to keep a good customer. When you call the 800# all you are is an account number.
2.Sneeky little balance inquiry fee. Oh come on – This is just stupid. I only got 1 of those before I figured out the work around. This works on most ATMs especially branch and other bank owned machines. When you do an ATM transaction, it will ask if you would like a printed receipt – Yes, you do. Why? because your account balance and available balance will be printed on the bottom of the receipt – Free balance inquiry!
I like Washington Mutual, they do a good job, and when I have an issue, they fix it. Thats why they are my primary bank – and yes for various reasons I also have accounts at USBank, BofA, Citibank, & Wells Fargo, and I hate them all, well not citibank – They’re better than the others.
FYI, if anyone has an old “free checking” account, before they advertised “Wamu free checking” account. goto your bank and “upgrade” to the “WAMU FREE CHECKING” account. (once updated you will be eligible for the free checks and waive (1) overdraft fee per year.)
yea there’s a difference:
Free checking account(old)
Wamu Free checking account(new)
they won’t budge on the old and new accounts when you ask them why you see billboards saying one waiver overdraft a year, cause its not a “WAMU free checking account.” ….oh well
LOLOL
i have had a wamu account for about a year now. I like how they process things right then. as in ican deposit a check and when i go online within 30 minutes depositing its there unlike other banks. however that 3 cents thing is bogus. I have bought multiple things with my debti card and i only get 3 cents per week.
I dont understand what the big deal is. WAMU is giving you free money for doing what you would normally do anyway …. use your debit card. In this economy you’d think people would be grateful for that and stop complaining. Back in the day you could use your card and get absolutely nothing for it. In my opinion I think we need to revisit the word graditude.
Quote– “So if you spend thousands of dollars, they’ll give you enough to buy a gumball. WOW! Thanks WAMU!
Give us all a break.
When this idiot bank gets eaten up by the bigger banks, I’m gonna throw a party. I’m counting down the days.
Comment by Ze — September 27, 2006 @ 4:06 am”
wow you called it Ze… you def called it 2 years ago…
Hey people, Stop complaining, is free money.. You are going to do what you normally do with your card. So free is free. O r what about if you find 5 or even a dollar on the street you are not going to pick it up just because is a dollar?
I only use my card as a “credit” card (I don’t enter my PIN ever) and I still acrue the .03 reward per purchase. Just a heads up for everyone.
Who is surprised they went out of business, raise your hand? When I moved I asked if I needed to transfer my account to my new state. They said no. No the account I’ve had for years and YEARS would remain the same. Count 5 years later and I try to sign up for a savings account to get the relationship interest rate. The web site says it can’t link the accounts. Instead of forging ahead, I called and asked if they would be able to link my accounts after the fact. Sure! So I did it. And I called, and they said, “No, we can’t. Your accounts are in two different states.” Why should that matter? I said for get it and asked them to please cancel the initial deposit transaction. SHe reminds me all I have to do is open a new checking account. Fat chance. I had that account through three mergers and it’s the principle of it all. I find later, she canceled the application, but put in an additional deposit for an account that doesn’t exist!
Then the Chase thing comes up. The “free” checking account has different requirements than WaMu, so I drop a specific, easy to read note that gets in return a bunch of “rah rah” doublespeak about Chase. They don’t answer the question. I try again. Same response. SHortly after I get an enticing ad from Capital One for a checking account, their savings account is decent (not great) and I already have their credit card. WHat do you think I did?
I gotta start making purchases quick! xD
Maybe if I buy from a foreign country I can get 8333 of something for less than 3 cents each.
I’ll be a millionaire.
we should all try an experiment to buy 8333 for under 250 total..
WOW! In an economy where everything is going to the dogs, you are all going to gripe about getting a few extra bucks back from a now defunct bank that offers free checking. It is something, so stop complaining. Also, anyone who “finds out” the real story months or even years after opening up an account is plain stupid and should have done their research. Don’t complain over a decision YOU made. I have Wamu / chase and it is fine. 99% of the problems listed in here can be chalked up to 1) user stupidity & 2) not reading the fine print.
Take some personal responsibility for your actions. Lack of personal responsibility and accountability is why this country is in the quagmire it is in today. Smarten up.
I have a “free” checking account with WaMu. They charge me $20.00 per month for it, but then they re-imburse me. (HUH???) This month, I did not receive any interest like usualy, even though my average daily balance was over $800 per day.
Regarding the MasterCard I have with them, I have never recieved payment on their WaMu® Cash Rewards. I’m *supposed* to get 1% cashback for every purchase, but they have NEVER sent me any money or applied that cash to my statement.
This WaMu M/C also has Chase Flexible Rewards, and I have 1,678 points accumulated, but they REFUSE to let me cash them in on a 1,500 gift card.
And now that JPMorgan Chase has acquired WaMu, my Chase MasterCard had a credit on it and they “converted” it to a Finance Charge when the credit has been there for over three months.
What a disappointment! I have cleaned out my savings account and am looking for another bank.
My wife and I have WaMu/Chase. Two Debit cards. Reward prgram works very well for our joint account. Only had the account 2 months and already have $6 in rewards. 3 cents is 3 cents. If someone offered to give you 3 cents you would laugh, but if they offered to give you $60 after you knew them for a year, and that $60 was just because you knew them… why not.
Even if you only get $10 after a year, i’d like someone to honestly tell me they’d turn it down because “it wasn’t enough”.
Better then paying THEM 0.03 cents everytime I used my debit card.
Yeah, money is money. The first year I didn’t know about it, so I was happily surprised to get an extra $20 in my account. The second year, knowing about it, I intentionally used my debit card where I wouldn’t normally (smaller purchases, etc…) and increased it by $10. I’ve never had any other bank give me money just for using their services. That, on top of free checking, is a win-win for me.
I left HSBC in January because I found out that my branch decided independantly how to handle my money. My branch manager was such a fraud, he had allowed a check that was almost a year old, that I had put a stop payment on to be cashed when it was finally “found” in the mail… $700 something later in overdraft fees after everything else in my life went through, I decided to go to Wamu. I say three cents back is better than getting raped by the place that is supposed to be “managing” my money and helping me feel more secure. I’ve racked up a “whopping” 8 dollars so far, but who cares? I say thank you Wamu for giving me something back.
All I ever got from HSBC was a headache.
I think people neglect to see that banks are not NON-PROFIT organizations. They give free checking with no minimum balances. Free Bill Pay, free Online Banking, and afree Visa/Mastercard Debit card. All that stuff costs money for banks to maintain and still people complain because banks charge fees for other services they provide. Do you go to the corner store and expect free candybars, soda, and gas? NO! So why would you think you wouldn’t have to pay for products and services at a bank?
the only problem that ive had with wamu is the running balance updates online. When i opened my account with them 3 years ago i specifically asked them about online banking and how it works and every other question i could possibly think of because i dont keep a running ledger of all my purchases its just not feesible for me…if i were to try and keep a ledger id forget anyhow. For some reason though if you have a CREDIT charge of 10 dollars but you only have 5 in the account then that charge will expedite itself as fast as possible and wouldnt show online until it had posted and overdrawn my account but if you have a credit charge for 5 dollars when you have 10 in the account then itll show online immediately by the time i get home and it takes the usually 3 or 4 days to actually post to my account. Other than that i think WAMU is a fabulous bank.
it amazes me that people would even try and complain about someone giving them free money…wether its 5 dollars a year or 250 dollars its still money that you didnt have before they gave it to you for doing the exact thing you would be doing with that card wether they gave you money back or not.