Earlier this month we received an email from the PerkStreet Financial CEO, Don O’Mally, regarding some changes to the PerkStreet program. If you recall, PerkStreet is an awesome way to earn cash back by using their PerkStreet FinancialSM debit card – something we learned about from Dave Ramsey and have loved just how much money we have earned! But two things blew us out of the water with his email. The first is PerkStreet’s commitment to provide more customers access to more benefits (see below). The second was Don O’Mally’s request for us to email him personally with any questions we have regarding the changes. That is a company that knows how to serve their customers – personal service and availability when we have a concern or even simply a question.
But back to the changes in benefits we had mentioned. The original offer provided 2% cash back for every non-PIN transaction if your balance exceeded $5,000 and 1% back for balances less than that. Many of you commented how difficult it is to just have $5,000 sitting in an account just for the additional benefit. We get that. And more than that, PerkStreet gets that to.
With this, there are two main changes PerkStreet has made to their program:
1. Giving more people the ability to earn more cash back
This is probably the main thrust of their changes – trying to give more benefits to more customers because they mentioned that over 90% of their customers were receiving 1% for each purchase. Here’s the new ways to earn:
As you note, at certain stores and in certain situations (e.g., having dinner with friends) you will be able to make 2% back on many purchases just because you are making a non-PIN charge. There’s no need to have $5,000 in your account for those purchases. And just as before, you still get those 5% PowerPerks – which means for certain stores that you vote on each month you will get 5% of your purchase back to you! Just this month any purchase at Dollar General, Barnes & Noble, or NewEgg.com will yield you those 5% benefits; plus right now you can even vote to choose your April PowerPerks (signing up? vote away!) with stores such as Groupon, OfficeMax, and Ace Hardware to name a few.
2. PerkStreet is offering more ways to redeem your perks
When you earn those 1%, 2% and 5% rewards, you are actually earning “Perks” – mean that for each dollar of perks you earn you get $1 of perks to spend! And what PerkStreet is doing is expanding their number of ways you can redeem those perks, including:
| Amazon.com | Applebee’s | Best Buy | Walmart |
| Chili’s | Dunkin’ Donuts | GAP | iTunes / Apple |
| Macy’s | Marshall’s | Olive Garden | Sears |
| Starbucks | Target | T.G.I. Fridays | T.J. Maxx |
Yep, when you earn those perks you’ll get more choices to redeem those perks for an even better selection of gift cards. You are now even provided the option to have those perks deposited right into your account ($22 perks for $20 deposit). What this does is gives you the purchasing power to buy more for less at a later point while giving you more for your budget!
What we love
Remember that what we love about this is that you have full control of your budget by paying all your bills and everyday expenses just by using a new card – not a credit card but rather a debit card. In our minds, there’s something that mentally clicks when you are spending money out of your balance rather than watching a credit card balance pile up through the month. It just seems to make it easier for us to keep to our budget.
We will continue to occasionally include our savings in our shopping trips and other places we save – because remember those perks you earn count as savings off your total bill as well! We would love to hear from you – do these changes make it more likely for you and your family to sign up and start earning these perks?
And if you want a secret from us: We love redeeming our perks for Amazon.com gift cards – we just apply the balance to our Amazon account and never have to think about it again. Then when we buy items (see our Best Deals on Amazon) on Amazon, that balance is ready for us to use!
Click HERE to go directly to PerkStreet FinancialSM and sign up for FREE!
The PerkStreet FinancialSM Debit MasterCard® is issued by The Bancorp Bank pursuant to license from MasterCard International Incorporated.
Ashley
I’m so excited about this! I have thought about it a lot since I read a post you did about it. Thanks!
Sarah
I was really interested in a Perkstreet account (we love Dave!) until I found out that the benefits were vastly better for high balances… which we don’t have since we’re paying off debt! But now –!! Thanks so much for posting this!
Beth Beal
I tried to follow links about the Perk Street debit card and they didn’t work. I did a search and found that the company ceased business in September 2013 because it could not pay the rewards people earned.
Cassie
Thank you for that update Beth. That is really too bad to hear! We used them for a few years and never had issues receiving our rewards and it was a blessing to go this route. We used them until last year when we found a different local option. We will update! Thank you for your update Beth!