Joining Credit Unions 4F&P

I’m considering it too, but with spotty data points on whether or not you can open an account outside of their area, I’m not sure it is worth applying.

FWIW, I opened this account on 1/4 from CA. 8 Amazon gift card reloads of 50 cents should do the trick if you want to simplify the transactions. One downside is EQ hard pull. That’s my least active CRA so it didn’t really matter to me.

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Go through the application, and it becomes much less spotty. First asks about your qualifying employer group, then about your qualifying location. If you meet neither criteria, the third option for eligibility is to become a volunteer fundraiser - which you meet by soliciting a donation from Orion to one of a handful of charities. Apparently they want everyone as members, and are willing to pay $10 per person to ensure everyone is eligible.

The bigger question is, does anyone know how long this account has been available? 4%/$30k seems on the high side; if it’s a new product, I’d be watching for them to roll back the cap some like most rewards checking accounts have done over the years.

And of course just to point out, “no direct deposit required” (from the DOC link) is misleading, the account does require a combined $500 in electronic deposits each month (other accounts typically state “direct deposit”, but also accept any ACH deposit towards the requirement). And one of the rewards is a fee waiver for the $5 monthly fee, so if you do not meet the requirements you will be charged in addition to not getting your interest.

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According to this comment it used to be 3% on up to 20K, then upped to 4% & 30K in Oct. I won’t be surprised if it doesn’t last.

Note regarding Orion FCU: Less than two weeks after opening and getting full access to my new account, it was frozen pending the submission of ID verification docs (license and SS card). Perfectly reasonable request, aside from the locking the account part which is asinine. Supposedly this only takes a day after they’re submitted, but the account was froze with no notice - I only know because online access is also blocked. Stupidity at it’s finest. At least after this there should be no further hurdles to clear, but we shall see…

Edit: This was in fact taken care of Tuesday morning (with Monday being a holiday). The whole process did jack up my debit card, which they had to reset so I could go through the activation process again as if it were a new card.

Another note regarding Orion FCU - despite meeting the requirements, my near-maximum balance earned a whopping $.63 interest this statement. This runs opposite of the typical rewards checking procedure, where everyone qualifies their first month regardless of the requirements. I’m hoping they’re just screwy and credit the rewards bonuses separately, but I’m waiting for a response to my inquiry.

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^^^ any updates on your inquiry?

Yes, they manually added the correct interest without issue, after an initial nonsense response merely reiterating the rewards requirements. No mention of why this happened, so I’m waiting for the end of this month to see if happens again.

My qualifying purchases were made prior to my account being froze for ID verification, after which the debit card needed reset before it would work. For now, I’m assuming that reset also reset the rewards qualifications. But we’ll see.