Recently active topics in Washington Mutual tagged with rewards program

Summary: While I love my WaMu checking and savings accounts, I am throughly disappointed in their credit card. Just stay away -- there are plenty of better offers out there.

I switched my savings and checking accounts to WaMu about three months ago and couldn't be happier. The online banking is the best I've seen, everyone I've dealt with in the three branches I visit is friendly and helpful, and email/online customer support is fast. Thinking a WaMu credit card would be equally if not more stellar, I applied for a one the last time I visited a branch. Wow, am I disappointed so far.

Things started out looking very good. The application process was easy -- the teller asked for the required information and put it into the computer. I didn't need to fill out any forms, which was awesome. She explained everything clearly, I signed the privacy policy and I was done. Simple.

The credit card division has its own website. Once the card arrived, I registered for this website and got my account setup. I immediately run into problems because wamucards.com says my Gmail address with a plus sign is invalid. It’s actually perfectly valid, and the funny thing is that the wamu.com banking website accepted it without complaint. After creating my account with another email address, I immediately fired off a polite complaint. They responded by saying that their system considers my email address invalid. After all of the other quirks I’ve experienced already (below) I responded that I expect their webite to be fixed or I will take my business elsewhere.

After logging in to my online account, I am discovered that WaMu’s credit cards do not have online statements. Gross! What is wrong with you, WaMu credit cards!? Your banking division has online statements in all kinds of formats and for all eternity – I can pull up my first statement years later – so why can’t your credit cards have this? An email to customer service confirmed that their company is not acquainted with paperless statements.

Next I look at the payments section of the website and discover the weirdest automatic monthly payment service I’ve ever seen. After indicating online that you want to set up recurring automatic monthly payments, instead of seeing the usual “Thanks for enrolling in automatic payments”, you are informed that the company will be mailing you a form within 10 business days. You have to fill out the form, attach a voided check, and mail it back. Wow, this is totally unacceptable. There is no reason why I should have to mail anything. On top of this, to cancel or change your automatic payment requires calling or writing customer service – you cannot change it online. At least they do let me make one-time payments online without any of this crap.

Lastly, the rewards program is misleading. It is point-based (I get 1.5 points for every dollar spent) with the option to redeem points for statement credits (or merchandise or travel or other crap that I don't care about). It sounds like a good deal -- 1.5 points per dollar -- but the points do not convert to statement credits one-for-one. I calculated that I would have to spend $667 to get a $5 statement credit. With my existing Capital One card (1.25% cash back) I would only need to spend $400 to get a $5 statement credit. Additionally, I can get statement credit at any amount from Capital One, but the WaMu card make me redeem in increments of 1000 points. Points also expire after a number of years, whereas my Chase and Capital One rewards never expire.

Overall, I’ve only has the card for a few days and I’m already disappointed with what I’ve seen. This has been quite a different experience and frankly I don’t see why WaMu even offers credit cards. In my eyes, all that’s been accomplished so far by WaMu's credit card division is reflecting poorly on the company.