After US Bank completely changed the terms of their Smartly Rewards credit card less than 6 months after application, I have nearly completed , including bank accounts, credit cards, and brokerage accounts. The process was relatively simple, and you don’t need to visit a branch or call them on the phone if you don’t want to. You can close your account online using the Live Chat feature on their website. Simply type in “close account” into their Smart Assistant search bar, and then they will ask which account you want to close. After you select it, you will be presented with the following popup options. These may be different based on their daytime/weekday business hours, but I was able to reach someone in less than a minute. The Live Chat agent closed things efficiently while I did other stuff on my computer.
If you have a US Bank credit card with an annual fee that was charged to your account within the last 30 days, the annual fee will be automatically refunded after you close the credit card account. In other words, you can wait until you actually see the new annual fee charged to the account before you close the account (if you want). That may give you more time to redeem all your rewards (which will be lost upon closure) and use up all the perks like a travel statement credit or TSA PreCheck/Global Entry application fee. In the past, US Bank has also offered “retention” offers in order to keep your business, but I was not offered anything this time when canceling. Perhaps if you call into a human, they might be more likely to offer something, I don’t know.
For the US Bank brokerage account, I had moved in over $100k in assets to qualify for their highest loyalty tier. Well, that loyalty was not rewarded, so I was off again looking for the best place for my assets. I thought about the for 1-year hold, but the reward-to-risk ratio just wasn’t there for me. The current regulatory environment is not pro-consumer, and I didn’t feel comfortable with possible having to beg and plead for my $100k back if Kraken blew themselves up in a crypto meltdown. I also didn’t like how the “up to” 2% bonus was contingent on outside factors. I’ll still take the easy crypto money, though!
In the end, I chose this , which is a $400 bonus on $100k transferred (0.4%) with a much shorter 90-day hold. I already have an account with Merrill and Preferred Rewards status, and I find them reliable and professional. Merrill Edge will also reimburse me for the $95 outgoing transfer fee charged by US Bank. Thankfully, this offer is also valid for existing customers. If one bank isn’t meeting your needs, there is most likely a better offer out there.
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