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.