First and foremost, I love the new concept Perkstreet brings to the table. Good customer service, low hassle banking, and simple redeeming of rewards. It's a very nice concept and so far it has been good. However this bank has a few problems, one of which is VERY serious.

For those of us that have elected to have overdraft "protection", it is very important to note that Perkstreet counts "pending" transactions against your account balance and WILL CHARGE you overdraft fees the moment your available balance runs below zero, regardless of the fact that these pending transactions may not even settle and thus your bank account is actually in the green. Having banked with Chase for 5 years prior to switching to them, I am very disappointed with this because Chase never assessed any O/D fees unless it was for actual "settled" transactions that sent my account into the negative.

Another problem I have with Perkstreet is the long hold times for checks, 3 business days after having to wait nearly 4 days for receipt by mail or 48 hours for receipt via UPS is an agonizingly slow process, especially for those of us that work for employers that still do not offer direct deposit. A solution I have proposed is that the bank allows us to deposit checks at home using a scanner, similar to what USAA does and/or have an app on your phone that can take pictures of checks like Chase does.

Thirdly, the website Perkstreet uses is a bit... dated. It feels like ver 1.0 and Chase was at 4.0 in terms of features and interface.

And finally, my fourth problem is their cash rewards gift card, it would be much better if they could just direct deposit the funds into my bank account rather than mail me a gift card. I already had one get lost on the mail and it's a bit of a hassle.

Overall, Perkstreet is a very good bank and I believe if they continue to build upon the feedback they receive, they will change internet banking.

I opened an account with Perkstreet thinking I could electronically transfer some money each month to them as a way to keep the money somewhat out of reach from my local credit union.

I was able to ACH the initial $25 out of my credit union account to open the Perkstreet account.

The problems started right away when their system constantly declined my credit union's Visa card to transfer money. After NUMEROUS calls and several hours on the phone with both my credit union and Perkstreet, we were NEVER ABLE TO GET IT TO WORK.

So, this month, I decided that I was through messing with it and would close my Perkstreet account and get my $25 back. WRONG! Discovered it was all gone due to Perkstreet nibbling $2.50 a month away in "inactivity fees". Nice.

Yes, I'm sure it was in the agreement. But not exactly a pleasant discovery after the problems I had to find out that they had chipped away at my money.