Many years ago, I forgot to report a 1099-INT and got penalized.
Actually, if you itemize it does work. You can fully deduct the interest for the loan used for investment purposes. You just have to be able to chart out that you’ve moved the funds from the loan into the investment if you’re audited. (I don’t remember the timing, I think within 30 days, or similar).
Your post made me go back to double check:
You need to withdraw the $169 overage and move those funds almost anywhere else.
It’s a great account earning 6.17% APY on your first thousand. However:
On anything over that you are earning a paltry 0.25% APY!!
So no sense leaving anything above $1000 at DFCU. Just ACH the $169 overage to Alliant.
I usually clean out my own overage at DFCU every quarter.
I wrote that. Now I can offer proof positive:
However, I can respond to this:
It’s a reasonable point being made there. But you get into sort of a groove. I have been doing this DFCU thing for at least the last five years, perhaps longer. During all that time: no problems or changes . . . except they kept on raising my interest rate on the money!
So maybe it has gotten to the point, after so long, where I’ve just taken this free money for granted. In support of scripta’s point, as interest rates continue to plunge, this is costing DFCU more and more money. I mean, you have to figure nearly every member has one of these accounts! So at some point the Fed might succeed in killing this golden goose.
A $1000 deposits in an account brings in no money for the bank, no matter the outside interest rates – It’s a net-loser account. With the $1k limit, their losses are capped at $5 a month plus any administrative costs to keep the account open (probably >$100 or so “cost” per year). Those net costs aren’t being increased significantly. 2% or 0% interest rates is only a max of $20 change, it doesn’t make any real difference to the bank.
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Patriot’s ongoing rate is currently at 1.40% so actually pretty good all things considered. We’ll see if it holds up.
Well that’s not exactly true if you’re disregarding rewards checking accounts. You may make $60 a year on 1k at 6% from DFCU but I make $55 a month on 20k at 3.3% from ETFCU. I get that you don’t have to do anything for yours other than move the amount over 1k out every month but all I have to do is push money from Alliant once a month and do 15 debit card transactions(this last month I made fifteen $1 payments to my Dish bill which I timed and took me less than 15 minutes).
I’m not here to knock your RCAs. Especially not since you already conceded their key drawback.
Heck, scripta already criticized my DFCU deal because you have to tend to it a few times each year. I can live easily with that. But all those transactions every month! It would be more hassle than even I am willing to tolerate. However:
I’m certainly not gonna criticize you for taking on your RCA. More power to you. Go for it!! And best of luck to you. 
I was just making the point that you are choosing to turn down free money!
Seems to me that “free” money comes at the price of too much of my time. Just sayin’.
Time is money. 
Haha, you spent more than 15 minutes on here this month arguing with others upthread, just sayin
I’m sorry if you thought I was criticizing it. It’s a great deal. I was only trying to point out that opening and maintaining a bank account has a time cost, and the maximum benefit is $60/yr in taxable income. I specifically said it wasn’t worth my time. I didn’t say it was a bad deal or that it’s not worth anyone’s time.
You said it yourself:
It seems we’re arguing over how much time is needed or warranted to maintain these special accounts. This will be different for everyone, no point in arguing.
Thank you.
Agreed.
Scripta, this is your thread. Could you comment, or rule, please on RCA account discussion generally. Is discussion of RCA accounts on topic here?
Yes, the Quick Summary contains RCAs, though I don’t know if they’ve been updated. The topic is “Nationally Available High APY Liquid Accounts”, which RCAs are. Although the goal is to keep up with the rates and accounts themselves and many would prefer any detailed discussions in their own threads, we have a pretty small membership here and discussions are usually not very long, so I think it’s fine.
But it’s not “my” thread, it belongs to the people
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Disagreements over “time” and “free” money aside, for anyone considering DCU, be aware that it is a hard pull to open an account there. Every hard pull I take is worth a minimum of $200-$300 tax free money as a credit card sign up bonus. In order to recoup the lost $200-$300 from a hard pull you would have to keep this account for 6+ years. I try to the very best of my ability to avoid banks and credit unions that force hard pulls on customers in order to open accounts where you are not borrowing money. It’s a matter of principle for one but I also view it as a matter of lost tax free bonus money.
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Today’s drops:
Able Bank Personal Money Market was 1.25% now 1.05%
Popular Bank Ultimate Savings was 1.20% now 1.05%
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That is a very noble attitude, scripta. And I’m confident you will agree people here come in all sorts and varieties. In particular, we have “people of means” together with those who might not be so wealthy. This post is for those in the latter category.
Persons without “big money”, but who still would like to earn a fair return on their liquid funds, and who might prefer for whatever reason not to join Digital FCU, can consider:
Netspend Savings
But first, fair warning:
While I participate personally in the Digital FCU 6% deal posted up thread, I do not participate personally in this Netspend savings 5% deal. Hence I must ask you, please, to consider this post as an advice only, not as a recommendation. This Netspend savings deal could have flaws or pitfalls of which I’m unaware. You will have to investigate this for yourself:
Netspend savings offers 5% APY on first $1000
ETA
Final note: the money you place with Netspend savings is FDIC insured.
Netspend savings requires the Netspend prepaid debit card. It’s not a traditional savings account, because you can’t take money out without paying some kind of fee (monthly, per-purchase, or ATM), and there’s no ACH. There’s also an inactivity fee. It’s a huge PITA.
Also they’re pretty aggressive – 5 or 6 years back when they were one of the easier MS methods (and the savings account earned 5% on $5000), they closed my account without explanation or recourse within 3 months of opening.
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Today’s drops:
Nationwide(Axos) My Savings was 1.40% now 1.15%
Nationwide(Axos) High Yield Savings was 1.30% now 1.00%
Nationwide(Axos) Regular Savings was 1.30% now 1.00%
Dollar Savings Direct Savings was 1.10% now 1.00%
Sallie Mae Money Market was 1.10% now 0.99%
CIT Bank Money Market was 1.06% now 1.00%
Northfield Bank Platinum Savings was 1.05% now 0.85%
CIT Bank Savings Builder was 1.01% now 0.95%
My Savings Direct My Savings was 0.85% now 0.75%
Tomorrow is the 1st and will likely bring more drops although these may reflect the majority of them. I will be checking Alliant first thing in the morning. I am guessing we will see a drop to 0.75% or 0.70% there. Maybe we’ll get lucky and get a reprieve.
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Understood. I respect your ruling. And our prescience is duly noted in that only hours following your post, Ken went up on his blog with a giant RCA “only game in town” feature. Ken’s exposé is pretty good for RCA fanciers.