[This post is written and copyrighted by FIRE Finance (http://firefinance.blogspot.com).]
We had opened a free checking account with Wachovia Bank. They were offering a $25 bonus for their champion banking product, the free checking account, which has been ranked no. 1 by various financial authorities. The bonus was offered as a $25 visa credit card which was to be mailed out by 10/31/2006. Well for us, 31st October came and went and there was no sign of any gift card! We called Wachovia and they said that 5 business days were needed for the cards to reach their customers. The reason was justified so we waited patiently. Finally during Christmas we ran out of our patience and sent out a couple of emails to their customer service. After investigation they credited $25 to our checking account! Well, we sweated a bit for this $25 bonus but overall we are quite satisfied with Wachovia's Free Checking account.