Yes, & thanks zzz for mentioning this one.
Easiest opening procedure, one day. Online opening for all. I used my Double Cash cc with a max of $1200 to open Checking & Savings accts. Actually, minimum $25 required to open.
Got my Member #, Vertical Checking & Share Savings # yesterday,
$20k 3.3%-- 15 Debit transactions-- 1 ACH
Signed into Online Banking today. Should get small deposits tomorrow for ACH transfers.
The other great thing about ETFCU is they give you a tracker right in your online banking. Makes it almost impossible to not achieve the rate by the end of the month.
One more thing I havenāt found out. 15 debit transaction, is there minimum amount? Hopefully not!
Everyone offering these Reward checking accounts do so expecting them to be used for day to day banking. Iāll say it again - if using them as a high yield savings account, I hope everyone at least considers doing more than the absolute minimum requirements. Do 17 or 18 debit purchases instead of 15, use an ATM to withdraw $20 occasionally, etc. Theyāre rewarding us with a great rate, throw them a bone and given them some account activity.
Nope, no minimum on the debit card transactions.
My problem with all the RCAs is that unless I engineer those debit card transactions specifically, I donāt have small credit card transactions (to be used as debit card transactions instead) and those are usually at 3-5% cashback. If I forgo $1k of CC purchases at 5% monthly ($50), Iām basically throwing away (after tax) more than the entire interest Iām earning on $20k. And Iām not going to go buy junk just to get transactions, or go to withdraw cash at ATM I donāt need to later deposit it back. Thatās just wasteful. So I just end engineering the required amount of small dollar debit card transactions. Itās lame but Iām not making the rules. If I used the RCA accounts normally, Iād lose money vs. not using them which defeats the purpose.
The popular method to meet RCA minimum transaction requirements is to charge a bunch of small Amazon gift card refills at random small amounts (e.g. $2 or less) so that you meet the transaction threshold but donāt spend too much money. I believe there are automated tools that let you do this.
Personally, I donāt bother with RCAs because all of this is way too much headache and CUs often hassle people that try to eek out requirements in this manner. For checking specifically, convenience and reliability are my top 2 criteria, and for that, Alliant wins.
The bank bonuses, otoh, are worth moving money around to random high-yield savings accounts, because you donāt care whether your account is shut down after you move your money out and into a different account, and the amounts of money are usually significantly higher than the interest delta that bears on something like $20k in an RCA vs a high-yield savings account.
I donāt think anyone (besides the banks offering the accounts!) is talking about spending over $1k each month. Even at $5 minimum purchases, youāll be well under $1k for the full year.
Youāre correct, even $5 minimum does not ruin the interest on $20k vs whatever 0.5% elsewhere.
Like I said, itās likely just my householdās spending. I just donāt have normally a ton of small transactionsā¦ more like $20+ left and right for slightly larger purchases. Especially now working from home and having fewer outing and social opportunities. Itād be different when I was working in the office with 50 cents milks and large choc chip cookies. Very easy to rack up 15 transactions in a week.
Thatās where gift cards come into play. Numerous small value gift card/reloads, with the giftcard then being applied to those larger purchases. Thereās a time factor involved, but itās minimal.
My country grocery store has 4-6 do it yourself checkout stands. Iām new at using these debit cards, but I pick up small items & check them out 1 at a time on my own. Takes time, but its working for me.
Hereās an example, 1 bag of carrots, 2 bananas, bag of mushrooms. check out each one separately.
You canāt be in a hurry with these Reward Checking cards. But for 3% on $25k- 12 debit. Iām doing it.
I also can pay two of my utility bills in small increments every few days. Just like these though, I put small amazon gift cards into the manufactured spending category though, not regular purchases I would routinely do. I can do that for a few other stores I shop at so clearly thereās a way to make those required monthly transactions but if Iām going to essentially engineer transactions, Iām not sure why Iād go way beyond 15. Itās extra effort for no clear gain but I see how it would attract suspicion more if you barely reach the minimum each month.
Did many RCA account bank take adverse action to specific accounts though in response to such behavior? I havenāt seen any for my RCA accounts in the past but thatās a small sample arguably.
Full disclosure, my other source of inertia is that I have more than $20k Iād like liquid and earning 3%. So Iād need to redo this for 2-3 accounts and to be honest, Iām the only one in our household interested in doing so. DH is steadfastly in the camp of this is not worth HIS time so Iād likely have to multiply MY time investment by 2-3. Potential gain is probably $100/month after tax. At my hourly rate, this is very questionably worth my time but it still bugs me to potentially leave money on the table by not partaking in the opportunity. LOL
I never suggested going way beyond the minimum. Just avoid doing the absolute minimum. Once youāve nailed down the ability to manufacture transaction counts, the burdon of doing 16 or 17 instead of 15 is negligible.
Buying $1.xx of gas and doing that several times in a row would also work and is similar to your self checkout idea.
I sort of calculate the excess interest into a dollar amount rebate per swipe, and then decide if I think itās worth fooling with.
Ie. 5% instead of 1% on 5000 annually is $200. 120 swipes per year is $1.66/swipe. No thanks.
Well I personally do 50 cent Amazon reloads since I spend money on Amazon regularly anyway. With that being said, I do acknowledge that I am losing 3% credit card rewards on $7.50 a month worth of reloads which equates to 23 cents a month or $2.76 a year for the ETFCU account. In return I get 3.3% on 20k of liquid money so that 23 cents is money well spent. I realize Amazon may not work for everyone however so there are other options such as 1.xx gas purchases. That amount could just as easily be 0.50 cent gas purchases. Small gas or grocery purchases are a whole lot more work than Amazon reloads though!
Thatās also $40 per transaction. My own experience lands that number at under 3-cents/swipe.
The Bauer CU star ratings for Q3 2020 were just released:
Now we await only Weiss.
sorry for the lateness but it seems it must be areal DD. Not one big bank coded as a DD as far as I know. Personally I transferred in from CIBC/CIT/WF/TD/PNC. All coded as P2P online deposit. SS code as DD. Also did a small xfer last week from Citizens Bank and coded as āelectronic transferā. But at least i got bonuses on the aforementioned banks!!!
Ohā¦I use Bradley for savings only so I do not withdraw. But I have set up WF if I need some $$.