North Fork Bank Debit Perks program
 

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right forum.

But anyway, I recently saw an ad for the Debit Perks program with North Fork Bank. Now I really don't know a lot about banking, so I was just wondering what other people thought of this, if its a good deal or not.

http://www.northforkbank.com/free/

There is a $20 membership fee every year, except for the first year and they also give you 500 bonus points.

I'm just wondering what people think.

North Fork is owned by Capital One now. Can't be all bad.

Why would you pay $20 for what looks like a 1% rebate card? Why not just use a credit card instead, there are many that offer at least 1% rebate with no annual fee.

Plenty of info about free credit cards with rebates at creditcardgoodies.com or bankrate.com. My Fidelity mastercard rebates 1.5% to my fidelity account for example. Or you can get a Citibank card that gives you 2% back on gas and groceries, and 1% on everything else. And if you search around(like on fatwallet or slickdeals), you can often find lucrative signup bonuses for rebate cards, often $100 or even more. That compares favorably with the measly $5 that NFB seems to be offering.

I've banked with North Fork for years and was in the same program for free until June. They discontinued it and offered the terms you posted. Since it's not worth paying for (but I had some points already), I opted for the free year and I'll cash out and cancel right before the year's up.

My 2¢. :)