Last Friday I stopped by the Georgetown branch of SunTrust bank to open up a business and personal checking account. Although there are no SunTrusts in Southern California or Phladelphia, the two cities I spend most of my time in, I do hope to get back to Washington, DC one day and more importantly, SunTrust is currently offering 25,000 Delta Skymiles for opening up a business checking account and up to 15,000 miles for opening up a personal checking account.
I dropped in without an appointment and a loan specialist sitting on the right side of the circular building welcomed me and asked is she could be of assistance. She was well aware of the Delta promotion and gave me a small form to fill out. After filling that out, presenting two forms of ID, and my business license (you can use your SSN if your business is not an LLC or incorporated), she got to work inputting all the information on her computer.
Twenty minutes later, my accounts were set-up, my PIN and online account access were set up, I signed all the requisite forms, and made initial deposits. Only $100 is required to open an account, though you need to maintain at least $1,000 in your business account to avoid a $36 maintenance fee.
Here’s where it gets interesting: You can add up to six additional authorized users to your account. Each one must fill out a one-page form, present two forms of identification (this info can be faxed), and be accessed the $55 annual fee for the business account (or $20-55 annual fee for the personal account [$20 gets you 7,500 miles and $55 gets you $15,000 miles]), but each person on your account is eligible for the bonus and your Skymiles number can be designated for each person.
So for $330 you can add six authorized users to your business account and rack up an additional 150,000 SkyMiles. You can do the same for your personal account.
While I am not enthusiastic about collecting SkyPesos, availability is decent on V Australia and I still am holding out some hope that I can score at least an economy ticket to Tahiti on Air France or Air Tahiti Nui next spring.
I definitely need to get in gear and do this promotion. I could use 150,000 skymiles for V Australia! Now I just need to figure out the six people to add to my account!
Thanks for the report, Matthew. Seems like there’s quite a bit of discussion about whether or not the miles would post for additional cardmembers, and I haven’t seen a definite answer on FlyerTalk. Did the person you were dealing with indeed confirm that they would get the bonus for everyone linked?
@Lucky: the lady who set up my account told me that I could either put in a different delta for each person or place my number in for each person. Obviously, the miles haven’t posted yet, but the bank rep. did not even hesitate when confirming that I could be the beneficiary of everyone’s bonus miles. I’ll edit my post if it I come to find out I am not eligible for all the bonus miles.
@Halothane: Read Lucky’s comment and my response above. I guess we’ll have to wait a couple weeks and see if the miles actually post.
I think I am going to wait and see if you get your miles from all or not =)
@Halothane: Good idea.
Matthew,
Have you received your debit cards yet? I’m anxious to know!
@Halothane: I had them sent to my Calif. address–haven’t checked in a couple days. I’ll post as soon as I get them.
Hey Matthew…I know you’re super busy but was hoping you could provide an update if there’s anything to update. Thanks!
@Tim: No updates yet, but I promise as soon as the miles post (if they post) I will blog about it!
I doutbt they will give the miles for each additional authorized signature. Also, the sky miles number should match the name of the person on the accounts. If you think about it, that is why each person flying must have their own sky miles account or forfeit the miles altogether….it sounds good, but can you imagine giving 300,000 for $660 that equates to .002/mile…they have way too many financial analysts to figure these out…but, who knows, it could be a mistake….
@Robear336: I’m still waiting to see what happens, but I know they have in the past I don’t see why they would not credit the bonus miles to my Delta account. For each account, a Delta account number is manually inputed and does not (perceivably) go to Delta–it remain in the SunTrust system.
But until the miles post, we’ll just have to wait!
I hope you get those miles soon since the promotion ends 12/31. I think I remember the fine print states the miles take 6-8 weeks to post. Do you remember when you got the check cards and made the first purchases? Both of you (Matthew and Robear336) make good points about whether the miles will post or not from different check cards. I’m inclined to believe they will post the miles but with Christmas nearing, I’m hesitant to drop the $330 for 6 authorized user check cards before hearing of your success! Thanks as always for the updates!
Just to provide an update–my financial manager royally screwed up and my SunTrust accounts are in disarray. One has been closed and the other authorized user applications never went through.
The old adage, if you want something right, do it yourself holds true…
I am going to down to Washington next week to try to get the problem sorted out, but that explains why it has been nearly two months and the miles have not posted yet.
While I’m livid at my financial manager, I’m even more angry at myself for not insuring this was done right in the first place…