Comments on: High Interest Checking Accounts

By: william

william — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 06:03:32 +0000

These accounts drop the rate quickly, usually around three months to six. But keep one or two and you can make a decent interest rate of about 4.5% now. Havn’t seen any 7% out there?

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:34:34 +0000

Nick, if you have $25K then the difference betwen 5% and the highest yield of a typical bank is about $800/year (5% – 1.8% * $25,000. I’ll deal with some monkey business for that.

By: Elaine

Elaine — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:36:10 +0000

I’d be interested in knowing which banks pay higher interest – - and are they safe? Thx

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:20:36 +0000

Anyone know any more checking accounts above 5%? I opened my account in Feb with Bank of Little Rock – originally at 5%, but now it’s at 4% as of today. I want to switch to a higher interest checking account but cannot seem to find one.

By: NICK

NICK — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:29:45 +0000

G thank you all, but you realize they are making us do this monkey do this monkey do that just to have what amounts to a measly return that I doubt it even keeps up with the gas prices increases. I got the urge to tell them to shove it and go on and to something more sensible with myself, my money and my free/king time. But then again I am not an Einstein.

By: Alex Apples

Alex Apples — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 13:54:49 +0000

Don’t know what to think of a high interest cd I found in http://themoneymakers.org/englishindex.html Are there others who know the company MoneyMakers International?

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:32:51 +0000

I wouldn’t be trying to make $1 transactions on your rewards checking, I would mix it up a bit. I eat out for lunch every day I work so I use my card then. I have two cards I have to get 10 charges each with. I cut out two thin pieces of card that are the same size as my credit cards and place them together in my wallet. Each time I charge I write 1, 2, 3 etc. on the card. That way when I reach 10 I can switch to my money back credit card. My Voip provider bills me $3.50 each month on the card so this counts as a transaction.

When I eat I have a friend use one of my cards and I use the other. Places like Wendys just swipe the card. After a few lunches he pays me back. When my children fill up with gas they will take the card and use it. Then they electronically transfer the money back to my account (they are in the same credit union).

There are probably many other ways to make sure you get the transactions. The important thing is good but simple record keeping.

By: ReaganB

ReaganB — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:36:27 +0000

Bank of America? Looks like they’re paying 0.05% for checking accounts keeping a minimum of a $5,000 daily balance and 2.33% for savings accounts above $5,000. ING Orange is quite a bit better with automatic transfers from savings to checking, etc.

These accounts at 5% require some work, but with a $25k balance, it’s worth it.

By: KushMoney

KushMoney — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 05:01:00 +0000

5% is higher than my savings account with Bank Of America (BOA). I will have to look at this website. Thanks for posting it.

By: Dax Desai

Dax Desai — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:39:10 +0000

To get around the $25K limit just open an account for your spouse and another for yourself.

By: Online Dividends

Online Dividends — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:01:38 +0000

Deepali,

In order for the transaction to qualify it has to be a POS transaction. In other words if you pay your utility bill you have to swipe the card; otherwise if you pay the bill online it doesn’t count.

By: Cheapo

Cheapo — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:39:06 +0000

Deepali,

You could pay your rewards card’s bill, but I don’t think you would earn any reward points just for paying the bill. You can initiate the payment from the credit cards site as it will withdraw the amount from your specified checking account. These checking accounts do also usually have a bill pay system, so that could be used as well.

By: deepali

deepali — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:11:02 +0000

how about $1 transactions to pay the rewards credit card bill?

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:39:59 +0000

Scott,

CheckingFinder is how I found one of my rewards checking banks. It is at https://www.checkingfinder.com/

By: Scott @ The Passive Dad

Scott @ The Passive Dad — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:35:08 +0000

I’ve never heard of checkingfinder. I’ll have to check out the link. I just signed up with ING and really like the easy interface and ability to link to my current checking account. At 6% interest, that beats any cd or money market account.

By: Matt_C

Matt_C — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:23:45 +0000

@ Matt w/ the $0.01 paypal donations idea.

I discussed this w/ Midwest American a few weeks ago and they discouraged me from doing small electronic transactions. Have you successfully done these transactions without penalty? Also, which donations qualify? Like charities or someone’s blog?

By: Kym

Kym — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:49:57 +0000

I also have Charter, this is my 3rd month with them and I love it. I do the 10 items in the self-checkout method to get my 10 debit purchases in, but I like the idea of 10 $1 transactions to pay a bill! I didn’t order their checks and instead bought my own mega-cute checks for $14 shipped for 2 boxes. With Charter, they allow both “debit” and “credit” transactions to count towards your 10 debit transactions for the month, so no worries about which way the card is processed. I’ve also spent less than $1 on transactions and they have counted. Highly recommend! Great customer service.

By: Lazy Man

Lazy Man — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:30:29 +0000

Appfunds, do you have an alternative? Much of our stock markets are down. Investing overseas (short of mutual funds and ETFs) is often very difficult to do directly due to international laws.

Plus it seems like that 6% that people are getting here is probably up there with inflation (if you look at inflation in the long term – i.e. over a ten-year average).

By: appfunds

appfunds — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:08:26 +0000

I wonder why people in America allow their FED and banks to keep their deposits interest rates so low while inflation hits the ceiling?
Are you happy with deposits below inflation rate?

By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:52:15 +0000

I have two out of state rewards checking accounts both paying 6.01%. Make sure on your required transactions that they use the credit part of the card. When you swipe the card and the reader wants to bill as a debit, just hit cancel and it will charge as credit. Also, some banks don’t count charges less than a dollar towards your total. I reviewed both of my rewards checking accounts, if anyone is interested:

http://www.rickety.us/2008/07/rewards-checking/
http://www.rickety.us/2008/07/rewards-checking-lee-county-bank-and-trust/