“You’ll receive some of the best that Chase has to offer, including special interest rates”

https://apply.chase.com/oao/ViewDisclosures.aspx?type=PER

Chase Premier Platinum Checking
$0 – $24,999 0.01%
$25,000 – $49,999 0.01%
$50,000+ 0.01%

Chase Premier Checking
$0 – $9,999 0.01%
$10,000 – $24,999 0.01%
$25,000+ 0.01%

The rest I use my Schwab Visa card with 2% cash back. I made $40 last month off unexpected car expenses! (Yea, at least something exciting about your holidays present being a new a clutch for your car. Ha.)

As for Incredible Bank, sounds like a good deal for the signup. $10k @ 2% (Schwab VISA) is a $200 bonus just for opening up the account.

The Everbank and Ally offerings both look good. The Everbank rates have dropped slightly but the offering still looks to be slightly better when calculated over one year – it averages out at around 1.51% APY against the 1.49% offered by Ally. However, the Everbank promo rate applies to balances up to a maximum of $50,000. Additional funds attract interest at 1.25%.

On the other hand, the Ally offering has no cap, and applies to your entire balance. So the Ally offering will improve over the Everbank deal on larger sums of money over the longer term.

So when deciding on which savings account to choose for your cash holdings, consider – among other factors such as fees – whether a cap applies to the promotional rate, how much money you wish to hold in cash and for how long.

What stinks about current interest rates is they aren’t keeping up with inflation even without taxes (you can avoid them in a tax free account as well). Despite government claims, the cost of living is rising, not falling.

http://www.capital-flow-analys.....g_cpi.html

You likely didn’t need a website to tell you that even though CPI was negative you still felt like you couldn’t buy as much with the same amount of money.

So if you’re looking for a free checking account and don’t care about the high yield, you may still want to consider reward checking. Plus, most also offer automatic ATM surcharge refunds. However, you typically have to meet the monthly requirements to qualify for those.

All for a great rate that could disappear tomorrow.

This is the kicker for me. Time is money and right now I still need to sever ties with the last few banks I went to for a purely temporary good rate or a smoking promotional offer. Some of them still have my money because I’ve been too busy to pull it out or because of minimum balance fees. I really just need a long-term, no fuss, very liquid investment.

I will look into the Costco one some more. Thanks.

Earning 3% with no inflation IS NOT the same thing as earning 8% with 5% inflation. Why?

In the first scenario, you pay taxes on 3%. In the second scenario, you pay taxes on 8%.

Not only is wealth eroded by inflation (which is caused directly by the Federal Reserve and US Federal Gov) – but we are taxed for it too! Even if you don’t save any money – if inflation goes up 10% and your wages go up 10% (wages rise slower than inflation in recent times), you are now paying 10% more taxes even though your purchasing power stays the same. Sure – the government changes the taxes a little bit to account for inflation, but the true inflation numbers are hidden by using funny numbers. Look at shadowstats.com to see what I mean.

All the rewards checking are only for 25k now, which can be a lot of work for more than 1 acct… Damn these low rates. Debase the dollar and can’t even earn 2% on savings.

@balor123: thanks for the update on that CostCo acct, that’s a decent rate.

For those who are skeptical about having to jump through the hoops, it’s really not that hard. Like I mentioned above, if you go to the gas pump or grocery store with self checkout during non peak hours, you should be able to get in 12 transactions with small dollar amounts in ONE TRIP, without even going out of your way (most people purchase gasoline and groceries…). The other limitation is the cieling of 25,000.00. Any balance above that earns .25% for the month. This could be a problem for people with more than that but I am not yet in that category . Also, if you fail to meet the requirements, the entire balance earns .25%.