New(er) changes to Walmart point-of-sale systems

Background

Just a few weeks ago, I noted that the point-of-sale (POS) software had been updated at my local Walmart, such that I selected any cash back amount before entering my pin, instead of after. Reader Serion presciently advised me in the comments:

"My WM got the update you're talking about a few weeks ago. However, they just got ANOTHER update ~2 days ago. With this update, it won't allow them to split debit payments. Everytime they key in $500 debit, the system beeps and says transaction type not allowed. Has anyone else ran into this. Know any way around it? (It'll allow you to run a single $500 debit purchase w/o a problem)"

That update has now been rolled out to my Walmart, and while it is somewhat annoying that they keep changing the procedure (and making us retrain their cashiers), I'm happy to report that we can still conduct all of our favorite transactions. Here's how.

Old system: cashier goes first

With the old POS software, after the final total was calculated for your purchase, the cashier had the option of typing in a split-tender amount on the physical keypad located to the right of the screen.

After typing in the amount, he or she would press the physical "debit" button, also located on the right side of the terminal.

Then, the customer could swipe a debit card, select the amount of cash back desired, if any, and type in their PIN.

This procedure could be repeated up to 4 times total (3 times if loading a Bluebird card).

New system: customer goes first

Once your Walmart receives the updated POS software, the process is reversed.

Now, after the final total is calculated for the purchase, the customer can swipe a debit card, select a cash back amount, and enter their PIN.

After the PIN is entered, the customer-facing keypad will read "Waiting for Cashier," and only then can the cashier type in the amount to be charged to the swiped debit card and push the "debit" button, again using the physical key located on the right side of the screen.

In fact, the cashier can type in the amount of the split tender before the customer swipes a debit card – what triggered reader Serion's repeated error was the cashier pressing the "debit" button before he had swiped his debit card and entered his PIN.

This procedure can still be repeated at least 4 times (that's how many swipes I did this morning).

Conclusion

The new POS software has been reported to have something to do with making Walmart registers compatible with chip-enabled credit and debit cards. I don't know anything about that – my Walmart registers are most decidedly not compatible with chip-enabled cards, but already have the new software.

In any case, I was fortunate enough, because they know and trust me, to be able to do multiple laps with my cashiers until we figured out the pattern that worked. Since my readers may be dealing with less cooperative cashiers, I want them to know how to get through this process as painlessly as possible.

However, you should still expect some confusion, frustration, and delays the first few times you go through this process with each new cashier.

[updated] Who decides what the best credit card offer is?

[update 4/30/14 11:21 pm: I see that the 30,000 mile offer with anniversary bonus has been publicly posted on FlyerTalk, so I've included a direct link to it below]

Background

• Background: (non-affiliate) 40,000 mile Barclaycard US Airways offer, with no anniversary bonus and an $89 annual fee (not waived the first year).
• Background: my exchange with The Points Guy and our followers (read the whole thing, since we discuss some issues in more detail).
• Background: [update 4/30/14 11:21 pm] 30,000 mile Barclaycard US Airways offer with 10,000 mile anniversary bonus and no annual fee the first year.

This afternoon I got into what turned into a very interesting discussion on Twitter with The Points Guy over the new BarclayCard US Airways MasterCard link that you may have spotted on all your favorite blogs this morning.

I signed up for the card in January as part of my Blue Cash application cycle and received 35,000 US Airways miles after my first purchase. Historically, there have been a lot of signup offers available for this card, and I felt that was the best one for me, given that I basically never fly US Airways and will never put another dollar in spend on the card.

Who wants an anniversary bonus?

The discussion arose because Barclaycard has issued a new affiliate link for the US Airways MasterCard, offering 40,000 miles after first purchase but with no 10,000 mile anniversary bonus.

Amazingly, Mommy Points was the only one of 4 bloggers I saw writing about this offer today who saw fit to mention that there's no anniversary bonus, which has been a feature of this card for years now.

Which led me to ask the following question on Twitter:

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What's the difference?

As The Points Guy points out, both the 40,000 mile and 30,000 mile offer give a companion ticket on the account anniversary, meaning for the first two years of card membership, the only difference is that the 40,000 mile offer gives you 40,000 miles after first purchase, whereas the 30,000 mile offer requires you to wait a year to collect the last 10,000 miles (as reader Paul points out, you can cancel the card and not pay the second year's annual fee, while still collecting your anniversary miles).

The difference comes in the third and subsequent years — and yes, that means after the card has been reissued as an American AAdvantage MasterCard, probably sometime next year and after new applications stop being accepted. Those of us with the "anniversary bonus" version of the card will still be earning 10,000 AAdvantage miles per year, two $118 companion tickets, and be able to earn 10,000 Elite Qualifying Miles by spending $25,000 on the card each calendar year.

While those who sign up with The Points Guy's link will have canceled their card years before.

Who decides what the best offer is?

Lots of people criticize affiliate bloggers for promoting their own links at the expense of better, non-commissioned application offers, but I actually find that to be a vanishingly rare phenomenon (promoting cards that no one should actually carry is a different, and serious, issue).

While they usually won't link to better offers directly, at least the top bloggers understand the reputational consequences of promoting a strictly inferior link, so will send readers off to other blogs or forums where those applications can be found.

But what about situations where the offers are so different that a strict comparison is impossible? In those situations, my gut would tell me to give my readers the options together with my analysis, and let them decide for themselves.

Conclusion

Since this is my blog, I'll do the gentlemanly thing and give The Points Guy the last word:

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Update: Do refundable Arrival reservations justify keeping Sapphire Preferred?

Background

In the most recent of my periodic, blistering attacks on the Chase Sapphire Preferred, I explained why I consider the "travel" bonus category to be a red herring:

• "The Barclaycard Arrival isn't superior in earnings to the Sapphire Preferred for travel purchases;
• "It's superior to the Sapphire Preferred for travel purchases because that's how you can leverage its dominant 2.22% cash back earning rate on all non-bonused (manufactured) spend."

Developments

Then on Sunday, when I wrote my wrap-up post on Frequent Traveler University, I shared something mentioned in one of the sessions on manufactured spend (and which had previously been shared with me by a few readers privately):

"Speaking of which, Barclaycard allows Arrival redemptions against purchases that are later refunded (tread lightly here)."

In response to a reader question, I explained that neither airlines nor credit card companies like to see a repeated pattern of refunded purchases, but that doing so occasionally in order to maximize your rewards probably wouldn't pose a risk of account closure.

While I did (accidentally) do this once, the fact is that I actually do spend a lot of money on travel, and I'm happy to capture my 60-70% discount by putting manufactured spend on my Arrival card and redeeming Arrival miles against those real travel purchases.

Updated Analysis

The fact that you can redeem manufactured spend against manufactured transactions undermines the first proposition I laid out: that travel purchases have to be put on the Arrival in order to leverage its high earning rate. The most extreme case would be saving up your manufactured Arrival miles until the end of the year and buying a single, $15,000 refundable first class ticket.

That way you would be able to put all the travel reservations you intend to honor on a Chase Sapphire Preferred and earn 2 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar on those purchases.

However, even without that analysis, my first argument, regarding the annual fee, still stands:

"Consider how much you'll have to spend in order to recoup the Sapphire Preferred's $95 annual fee:

• At 2.5 cents back per dollar, you'll need to spend $3,800 in travel categories in order to earn back the value of the annual fee.
• But it'll take another $3,040 to recover the $76 in value you would have earned from putting the initial $3,800 in travel spend on a no-annual-fee 2% cash back card!
• With the conservative valuation of 2.5 cents back per dollar spent in bonused travel categories, you'll need to spend $6,840 before you start showing a profit."

This is obviously an attainable sum for very, very many of my readers.

And if you prefer to take the Sapphire Preferred's 7% annual dividend into account, just $3,551 covers the annual fee and $2,655 covers the foregone 2% cash back on that amount.

Whether you're using $6,840 or $6,206 as your "true" break-even point, a business traveler might spend that amount in just two or three business trips, while even a leisure traveler who has to buy tickets and hotel rooms for a family could easily anticipate spending that amount in a year on bonused travel purchases.

Was I wrong?

Sorry, but I'm not about to go that far.

While the Sapphire Preferred's 50,000 Ultimate Rewards signup bonus is terrific, the possibility of asking for a product change from the Sapphire Preferred to a second, third, or fourth Freedom card means that by keeping the Sapphire Preferred for an additional, paid, year you're foregoing (using this year's bonus categories as an example) 15,000 Ultimate Rewards points at gas stations, 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points at restaurants, and 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points at Amazon.com.

All while paying $95 for the privilege.

In which I go to FTU so you don't have to

If you've been following me on Twitter this weekend, you know I've been attending the Frequent Traveler University event in Seattle, Washington. To paint in broad strokes, these are periodic events where people associated with Randy Peterson's points-and-miles empire give presentations to a paying audience of frequent flyers. Many, but not all, of the speakers are Boarding Area bloggers, along with miscellaneous folk like Scott from Hack my Trip and Daraius of bow-tie fame.

Getting there

To get to Seattle, I redeemed 20,000 US Bank Flexpoints for a non-stop Alaska Airlines flight from Boston Friday morning. The flight cost about $380, making it pretty close to the ideal Flexperks redemption.

Whenever you make a Flexperks flight redemption, you also receive a $25 credit that can be used for incidentals on the ticketing airline during your trip. Since Alaska sells online gift certificates starting at $25, my original plan was to buy one of those, and then call in to have a statement credit applied to my account.

Then I got on my flight at 8 am Friday morning and realized I hadn't had breakfast, so I bought one of the Alaska Airlines breakfast sandwiches, instead. It was a good plan, though.

I'll be flying back on the red eye tonight, and ordering enough junk from the flight attendant to max out my $25 credit!

Staying there

I booked the event's group rate at the Seattle Airport Marriott with my Barclaycard Arrival. Thanks to my having booked a stay for my mom a month or so ago, I actually have an odd number of stays with Marriott during the current MegaBonus promotion, which means this paid stay will trigger the payout of another free night certificate. Lucky me.

The community

Let's start with the good: travel hacking can obviously be a pretty lonesome hobby. Sure, we have online communities like FlyerTalk, and there are lots of discussions that take place in the comments section of this blog and others, but most travel hackers don't know more than one or two other people in real life who have the slightest interest in this game.

The genius of Frequent Traveler University is letting people pay to be a part of a real world community. Just like a trade conference, everyone is walking around with name tags, talking, asking each other questions, and so on. And the fact that people pay to do it may make them more comfortable striking up conversations with strangers. There are free or semi-free alternatives, like the DO's which are regularly organized on FlyerTalk, but some people may be more comfortable in a more structured environment, and it's great that this option exists.

The Presentations

Now the bad.

The fundamental problem with FTU, for me, is that it's a conference of bloggers. Bloggers, for good and for ill, are great at writing blog posts. And every presentation I went to gave me the extremely vivid impression of hearing someone read a blog post out loud.

I'm trying to keep this post focused on FTU and save my comments on affiliate blogging and affiliate bloggers for a later post, but here is the crux of the issue: affiliate bloggers are businessmen and women – but their business is not giving good advice to their readers. Giving advice to readers is a modality by which they conduct their business: selling credit card products.

And that was painfully obvious in (almost) every FTU presentation I went to. If you could insert an affiliate link into a PowerPoint presentation, these guys would have done it.

I do want to highlight one amazing exception to that: Sam Weiler did a dynamite presentation on dialing in Priceline "Name Your Own Price" bids. It was information I suppose I already new, but his presentation was an incredible summary of literally dozens of tips and tricks for paying the absolute minimum price possible for hotel stays, and there was time for a live demo at the end which was very fun to watch.

Then on the other side, Gary and Lucky spent two sessions of "Advanced Q&A" doing...well, I'm not sure what they were doing. I called it "banter" on Twitter. My favorite line came from Lucky about halfway through the first session, regarding the numerous, well-known vulnerabilities in the AvianaTaca Lifemiles program:

"Most of us are trying not to talk too openly about it."

I can totally appreciate that sentiment. I don't talk too openly about it either. But I also don't charge people a hundred bucks to hear me tell them I don't talk too openly about it. So that struck me as weird and offensive as a thing to say to an audience that in principle came to hear you share your unique insight and knowledge. Or whatever.

The Goodies

Alright, enough of that. The presentations weren't very dense with new information, but people did mention a number of things I either didn't know, had forgotten, or was just pleasantly surprised to be reminded of. I may or may not turn some of these into full blog posts later, depending on reader interest:

• Make Evolve Money bill payments to the same payee from multiple accounts;
• You can buy gift cards with gift cards at Staples (I used to do this to turn un-resellable gift cards into resellable gift cards – some sites won't allow you to resell cards you originally bought through their site);
• The Fare Deal Alert and Skyscanner are competitors of The Flight Deal, and offer slightly different services, but both seem fun and useful at first glance;
• Use http://matrix.itasoftware.com/?showPricePerMile=true to view CPM on revenue flights (I don't use this often since it doesn't compute 500-mile minimums);
• Wideroe still apparently allows flights to be booked without fuel surcharges – sometimes;
• Lufthansa, Delta, and AviancaTaca all process their own mileage sale transactions, meaning they trigger airline category bonuses and are eligible for Barclaycard Arrival redemptions (be careful of foreign transaction fees though);
• Speaking of which, Barclaycard allows Arrival redemptions against purchases that are later refunded (tread lightly here);
• American Airlines will give original routing credit for "trips in vain;"
• Amex for Target: still a thing;
• Kiva: still a thing;
• If a Starwood Preferred Guest upgrade certificate doesn't clear 5 days out, it'll still put you at the front of the upgrade queue (maybe);
• Earn Ultimate Rewards points for reservations made at hotels.com (if you want);
• Companions on Alaska companion tickets can credit their miles to a different program (kind of obvious, but good to know);
• Are you an IBM partner (Starwood corporate rate code: 18000; Hyatt corporate rate code: 13717)?

Conclusion

One of the things Matt really stressed when he was putting together the idea for our get together in Charlotte in two weeks was keeping the event small. Well, the word he used was "intimate," but you get the idea.

I don't dare predict that the Charlotte DO is going to be some kind of fantastical success – I'm still nervous about presenting there! But now that I've made it through one of these sprawling FTU events, I think the general idea – that an event should be small enough that bloggers and readers can learn from each other – is a good one.

And I hope that Charlotte is an amazing success! If it is, I'll start hounding Matt to hold another event or two for folks who aren't able to make it out in May.

Mid-week roundup from around the web

I periodically like to clear out my RSS reader and pass along the most interesting news that has recently crossed my desk. Here's today's roundup:

• Chasing the Points ruins everything for everyone;
• Frequent Miler reminds us that (5 – 1) >> 2;
• Delta Points point out that FlexPerks phone agents have access to fare classes that aren't bookable in the online engine, so if you're shy of your target redemption value, book a higher fare class over the phone;
• View from the Wing wants you to put some damn clothes on;
• In a rare double appearance in the roundup, Delta Points also passes along a $25 Uber signup bonus with promo code DELTA25. The latest reports are that referral bonuses can't be combined with new user promo codes, so you may have to decide whether to support your favorite blogger or pocket the extra $5 for yourself. Decisions, decisions...
• And Free-quent Flyer wants your suggestions on how to make a living as a writer. Wish him luck, it's a tough racket.

You call it a slow news week, I say no news is good news. See you in the comments.

Reminder: double dip with portals & cardholder promotions

Today I was reminded of an old marketing aphorism: "I know half my advertising budget is a complete waste. I just don't know which half."

I was reminded of this because I'm in the market for a pair of running shoes.

Whenever I log into my Bank of America online account, I'm reminded that one of their current BankAmeriDeals® (I kid you not) is for 10% cash back on one purchase of up to $175 at the Sports Authority.

If you're not familiar with BankAmeriDeals, they work exactly like (most of) American Express's "Offers For You:" you "add" them to your card, and then if you make an eligible purchase you automatically receive the offer amount as a statement credit.

The cool thing about these offers is that since they're triggered solely by the amount of your purchase, you can combine them with online shopping portals. That enables at least double dips, and sometimes triple or quadruple dips if a merchant also participates in a marketing program like Plink.

Anyway, back to my running shoes. Bank of America is offering 10% cash back, which is nice, but American Express is also offering an "Offer For You" (Offer For Me?) at the Sports Authority (in-store only): $10 back on a purchase of $50 or more – a 20% discount on a purchase of exactly $50!

Let me guess: you already see where this is going.

That's right, by buying a $50 gift card in store, then using it on an online purchase (paying the balance with a BankAmericard), you can earn between 10% and 20% cash back on your entire purchase (up to $175, at least).

But wait: there's more. As I mentioned, since these deals are triggered by your credit card activity, you can combine them with shopping portal bonuses, like the one currently offered by ShopDiscover:

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I know what you're thinking: who cares, right? I'm the one buying the running shoes, after all, not you.

But I'm also the one who had some free time this afternoon to put together this table:

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This isn't totally exhaustive since I may not have been selected for every linked offer. But it's probably pretty close! I didn't verify most of the evreward portal payouts, although I did check the ones that seemed way out of line (15 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on berries!).

Are you starting to pity the company whose marketing department got the brilliant idea of running simultaneous, stackable promotions? Don't bother. After all, to get a full 25% off at Crate & Barrel, for instance, you'd need to buy something that cost exactly $50. And the markup on Crate & Barrel objects that cost exactly $50 is probably close to 100%.

Biggest Discounts

Here are a few of the biggest discounts. Enjoy your shoes, jeans, flowers and...pet food?

• iTunes: 100% off $5
• Reebok.com: 39% off $60
• Diesel.com: 39% off $150
• Personal Creations: 38.6% off $49
• Shari's Berries: 35% off $50
• FTD: 35% up to $175
• Henri Bendel: 30% off $200
• Sports Authority: 30% off $50
• Petco: 30% off $25

Reminder: you can load Emerald cards at Walmart (but probably shouldn't – yet)

Today I finally got around to running an experiment I'd been thinking about for a few months. When you log into your HR Block Emerald card's online account, you'll see on the right-hand side of the screen the following reminder:

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I don't know about you, but when I see the words "swipe" and "reload" right next to each other like that, the gears start turning.

Emerald cards can't be loaded with PIN-based debit cards at (my) 7-Elevens

Unfortunately, although I was able to find a cashier willing to try, I found that the registers at my local 7-Eleven store locations do not allow PIN-based debit cards to be used to pay for swipe reload transactions.

Let me stress that this doesn't mean they aren't allowed at any store locations. One of my compulsive habits is attempting to buy PayPal My Cash cards at 7-Elevens when I'm traveling, and I succeed about 25% of the time, although they've been hard-coded for cash only in my town for many months now.

So this may be another "Your Miles May Vary" situation.

Emerald cards can be loaded at Walmart

Walmart administers a reload network they call "Rapid Reload." A single swipe reload costs $3.74, and can be performed at any Walmart register.

This has never been a good value, and still isn't while money orders for up to $1,000 can be purchased for $0.70 and bill payments in any amount up to $9,999 cost $1.88 or less (although additional reporting requirements are triggered by transactions exceeding $2,500 – or even less at some store locations).

So no, you shouldn't wake up tomorrow morning, change your whole miles-and-points strategy, and start paying 4 times more for the same amount of manufactured spend.

But allow me to point out that there are readily available techniques that are still lucrative after adding $3.74 per load of up to $999.99.

And if your store or district manager decides to play Carl Hanratty, you might decide it's worth keeping your head down and paying a little more to avoid the eagle-eyed agents at the Customer Service or Money Centers.

Conclusion

Everything is still running smoothly in my sleepy New England town.

But when I think about the end of our current "golden age" of manufactured spend, this is the future I see: one where we'll have to work a little bit harder and pay a little bit more in order to earn the same amount.

And those who handle the transition best are going to be those who are already aware of all the options available now, before that day finally comes.

Do this now: Hilton HHonors early summer promotion

Registration is now live for Hilton's first summer promotion, whereby you can earn double points or double miles for all paid stays between May 1 and July 31, 2014.

Once you've made your selection, upon registration, it can't be changed later.

The Points Guy helpfully reminds us that since January, the only two Hilton HHonors earning options have been "Points & Points" and "Points & Miles."

So whichever version of the promotion you choose, make sure you have the corresponding earning preference selected!

In any case, register now, before you forget.

Everything (nothing) is changing

Why I started travel hacking

The year my father died, I accidentally got elite status. I was living in Russia and flew back to the US for my brother's wedding. A few months later, my father passed and I flew back again for his funeral and to be with my family. Aeroflot, the Russian national carrier, is a member of Skyteam, and together with a few other domestic flights, those Medallion Qualifying Miles were enough to get me Silver Medallion status.

And I loved it. I was upgraded on my first flight after making Silver Medallion, and have always kind of suspected that Delta makes sure every newly-minted Silver Medallion is upgraded on their first flight, to cement in their mind the benefits of loyalty.

Curiously, my father was also a "travel hacker," but of the old school. He always wore beautiful suits to the airport and politely asked if there was any space available in first class. He never hesitated to add a stopover in order to get more segments hopping around on short-hauls in the Pacific Northwest.

I suspect a lot of people get started like I did. They see they've just made entry-level elite status and start searching the web to find out what the benefits are. And naturally, they come across the carefully search-engine-optimized blog posts telling them what credit cards they have to sign up for in order to maximize their rewards.

And I played that version of the game for perhaps a year.

Why I started blogging

It was only after I had dutifully followed the instructions of the "top" blogs for a few months, and had signed up for their recommended credit cards, and took a look around, that I realized it was all a con.

Not that travel hacking is a con – travel hacking is amazing. But that blogging in the travel hacking space is dominated by people whose interests don't align with the interests of their readers.

You can laugh at my naïveté, but I promise you, it really isn't obvious to someone doing a search for "Medallion Qualifying Miles" that someone like René promotes the American Express Delta cards whether their signup bonuses are unusually high or unusually low – or even if there's a better signup bonus available elsewhere.

Fortunately, it's the 21st century. So I wrote an ebook, and I started a website, and I started blogging.

And, as incredible as it sounds, people started reading.

What's next

So far, this blog has been a labor of love. I saw a need, and I did my best to meet it. I write what I want to write, whenever I want to write it, and I love it.

Last year, I think I just about broke even – financially – between book sales, $1 Venmo referrals, and my lonely few PayPal subscriptions. In other words, I donated a few thousand hours of my time to this site.

But in a few weeks, I'm going to be leaving my current lightly-paid position to move halfway across the country to be with my partner. And frankly, I like blogging and travel hacking a whole hell of a lot more than I like any other job I've ever had. So I'm going to see if I can't make a go of it doing this full-time.

Usually when a travel blogger tells you he's going to start blogging full-time, it means he's earning enough from affiliate revenue that he can afford to quit his day job.

Needless to say, that's not the case around here. I'm just making a bet: that I can produce enough original content, and attract enough readers willing to voluntarily pay for that content, that I can afford to pay the rent.

The Cylons had a plan; me, not so much

While I've given this a lot of thought, I frankly have no idea whether it's going to work out. Here's my general plan for how I'll make ends meet:

• Recently I've gotten a lot of enthusiasm for my PayPal and Amazon Payments subscriptions (which I appreciate tremendously!). Hopefully that enthusiasm will continue and more readers will find what I write to be worth paying for;
• As I passed along on April 14th, I've been able to write a couple paid pieces for a website called "Credit Card Insider." If that continues, it'll provide some kind of occasional income (and I'll be open to any other paid writing gigs that come along!);
• Unlike in my current New England residence, Amazon allows affiliate links in the state I'm moving to. My guess is that there's only a minimal chance of me being corrupted by the awesome power of Amazon affiliate links ("Read more books!"), so hopefully some readers will click through an Amazon link and that will provide some kind of revenue stream as well;
• And of course my income from travel hacking itself.

Suggestions needed

But I also need suggestions from my readers: are there ways you think I can make money from my expertise, analysis, and honesty that won't detract from the experience of coming here and getting my straightforward reporting on everything taking place in this game we play?

Let me make one point up front: I love hearing from my readers, and I love answering questions, and I love helping them optimize their strategies. I do this by e-mail, in the comments to the blog, and on FlyerTalk. None of these suggestions would replace that, because I love doing that!

Having said that, would any of these ideas have any appeal to any of my readers?

• Some kind of e-mail or phone or Skype consultancy. You're getting started, you want some advice, you pay an hourly fee or a monthly/yearly "retainer" to be able to get in touch with me and bounce ideas around.
• Some kind of in-person consultancy. Firms that have a lot of employees who travel for work might pay me to do a presentation about the best ways to maximize their travel rewards. Crazier things have happened.
• Some kind of "premium" content. This could be a forum where subscribers can chat with each other and me about lesser-known techniques, or a more expensive and comprehensive version of my subscriber newsletter.

Conclusion

So, that's it!

Sometime in the middle of next month, you can expect to see more frequent posts here on the blog and perhaps some other announcements, depending on how ridiculous you folks find my suggestions and how awesome your suggestions are.

See you in the comments!

Suntrust online banking errors are a feature, not bug

Ten days ago, I passed along a working link to a signup page for the Suntrust Delta Skymiles World Check Card. When I shared that link, I had just called the number on that page to open a "balanced banking" account over the phone.

Today, my account is finally up and running, and I wanted to share the timeline for opening new accounts in case anyone else is as confused by it as I was.

Wednesday, April 9

10 days ago I:

• Called and opened a "balanced banking" account over the phone;
• Was told to wait for a "signature card" to arrive in the mail, sign it, and mail it back in the provided envelop;
• Was given an online banking "password" to configure my online profile;
• Set up an online username and password;
• But was unable to log into my new account. Instead, I received an error stating that "This service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

Monday, April 14

On Monday:

• I received, signed, and mailed back my signature card;
• I was still unable to log into Suntrust's online banking.

Tuesday, April 15

On Tuesday:

• I received my Delta Skymiles World Check card;
• I was still unable to log into Suntrust's online banking;
• And I was unable to call into their phone system for help, because that required my PIN number, which I hadn't yet received.

Thursday, April 17

On Thursday:

• I was still unable to log into Suntrust's online banking;
• I received my PIN number in the mail, and attempted to call into the Suntrust phone tree, but after entering my check card number and PIN was not connected to a representative;

I used the online banking "live chat" feature and had the following conversation with a customer service representative, "Tera:"

Tera: Good afternoon. Thank you for contacting SunTrust. How may I assist you today?

Free-quent Flyer: I am not able to set up my online account. At Step 3: Services & Agreement I just get an error page: "This service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." This has been going on for a week or so

Tera: It sounds like your temporary internet files and cookies need to be deleted. Do you know how to clear those?

Free-quent Flyer: Yes, I've already done so multiple times

Tera: Are you making sure to close the browser after clearing those then open a new one?

Free-quent Flyer: Yes, and I've tried private and incognito browsing as well

Tera: There is something in your browser that is causing the page to do that. Are you able to use a different browser such as Internet Explorer or FireFox?

Free-quent Flyer: I get an identical error in Chrome and Safari and Firefox

Tera: Our services are not down. Your browsers seem to have a bad file that is blocking the site. Let me set up the profile for you. So that I may bring up your profile may I please have your full account or card number and the last four digits of your Social Security Number?

Free-quent Flyer: [numbers]

Tera: Thank you, let me pull up your profile. I will be right back with you.

Tera: Your profile has already been created. You will need to log in through www.suntrust.com using the user id and password that you chose however that will not be accessible until the "no debit" status is removed from your account. That will be removed once we receive your signature cards.

Free-quent Flyer: I am logging in using the user id and password I chose

Free-quent Flyer: That brings me to this error screen

Tera: I'm sorry, I thought you mentioned you were just setting that up. Sorry for the confusion. The Online Banking is set up however you will not be able to log in until the "no debit" status is removed from your account.

Free-quent Flyer: So I'm supposed to be receiving this error screen? Perhaps the text could be changed so it doesn't look like a generic error page

Free-quent Flyer: Will I be notified when you receive my signature cards? Or am I supposed to just try every day until one day it suddenly works?

Tera: Yes, I am sorry. I will submit your feedback on that. Sorry for the confusion.

Tera: You will not be notified when those are received.

Saturday, April 19

I was able to log into my Suntrust online banking account, and everything looks to be correctly configured.

Conclusion

As frustrating and ridiculous as it seems, this appears to simply be Suntrust's standard operating procedure for new accounts. Instead of a specific error message telling you to wait until your signature cards have been processed, they return what looks like a website error.

The take-home advice from this is: wait at least 10 days, and perhaps as long as 12-14 days, to have online access to your Suntrust account. And try not to worry too much about it in the meantime!