Delta’s mileage-earning debit cards are issued by Suntrust bank. Sure, Suntrust is based in the Southeast and Delta is based at Atlanta. But for a supposedly national carrier, especially post-Northwest merger, one would expect a banking partner with greater reach.
At least Suntrust is aggressively pursuing customers with its signup bonus offers. The Platinum Check Card now comes with 15,000 bonus miles after first pin-based purchase made by December 31, and the business check card does as well. Both types of cards have $55 annual fees — and earn a full 1 mile per dollar which is generous by debit card standards.
I’m not a big debit card guy, because I prefer the consumer protections of credit cards and because I don’t like making checkbook entries purchase-by-purchase but rather once a month (and I’m obsessive about my check register). I’m also not a huge Skymiles kind of guy, as readers of this blog know. But since this is both a pretty good — and an improved — offer it seemed worth passing along.
Gary, it appears that all your recent posts (including this one about Delta, and the previous one about Continental) are being tagged as “Advice” rather than with the tags for those carriers. Is there a problem with the tagging system, or have just stopped using it?
Gary, I agree this partnership reflects very regional thinking on DL’s part. I just checked the cards T&C – former NW customersi n MI and MN are out of luck.
“The SunTrust SkyMiles® Check Cards are issued by SunTrust Banks, Inc., and the cards are available in AL, AR, FL, GA, MD, MS, NC, SC, TN, WV, VA, and DC”