Banks Remain Committed to Reward Checking Accounts
February 15, 2008
The 175-point rate cut in 2008 has wreaked havoc on bank deposit rates with 5.50% and 5.75% online bank rate deals evaporating into 4.25% and 4.50% rate deals. Lost in the shuffle has been that the rates on the nation's top paying Reward Checking Accounts have not fallen by as much. Money-rates.com has a list of banks from over 20 states offering from 4.41% to 6.25% on reward checking accounts. The monthly requirements to be paid the top yield vary from bank-to-bank, but in general include online statements, auto-debit or direct deposit activity, and debit or check card activity.
Reward checking accounts require some work to set up and maintain, but the yields earned can more than pay off for the extra work, especially for large-balance checking accounts where the interest rate differential can be hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year when compared to a local bank's checking account.
Anonymous
8 August 2008 at 1:27 pm
My experience with Coulee has been very bad. I tried diligently to meet all the requirements and even specifically asked near the end of the month if I had. Mary Horstman, a CSR, told me that I had. Turns out she lied. When the statement closed, I was notified that I hadn't qualified for "bonus interest" after all. I had assumed two trial deposits from an external account would satisfy the direct deposit requirement, but after it was too late, Horstman told me that there was a $1 minimum. I've never seen this fact before, not on their website or on anything I received in the mail. I don't know if Coulee is deceitful or just incompetent, but regardless, I pulled my money out. They're scumbags as far as I'm concerned.
Anonymous
3 June 2008 at 8:11 am
Coulee Bank ( http://www.couleebank.net ) offers an incredible 6.01% APY with their Rewards Checking account. The rate is easy to earn. All you have to do is make 10 check card transactions a month, use e-statements, and do 1 automatic payment a month (they call it ACH). Coulee Bank pays 6.01% on the first $25,000 and 1.01% on anything above that. The best thing about this account besides the rate is it is FREE, you can apply online, and it is from a great bank with real people that answer the phone. And as they like to say, Banking Green has its Rewards. The Rewards Checking account saves paper and preserves our natural resources. No wonder I feel good about recommending this to everyone I know. Check it out. I guarantee you will love it.
Anonymous
3 June 2008 at 8:10 am
Coulee Bank ( http://www.couleebank.net ) offers an incredible 6.01% APY with their Rewards Checking account. The rate is easy to earn. All you have to do is make 10 check card transactions a month, use e-statements, and do 1 automatic payment a month (they call it ACH). Coulee Bank pays 6.01% on the first $25,000 and 1.01% on anything above that. The best thing about this account besides the rate is it is FREE, you can apply online, and it is from a great bank with real people that answer the phone. And as they like to say, Banking Green has its Rewards. The Rewards Checking account saves paper and preserves our natural resources. No wonder I feel good about recommending this to everyone I know. Check it out. I guarantee you will love it.