Bank of America Small Business Checking $200 Bonus

I logged out of my Bank of America business account and saw this $200 bonus for new business customers with relatively achievable requirements. (New means you don’t have an existing business account, and must have closed your old account at least 90 days ago.)

• Earn $150 when you deposit at least $750 per month into your new small business checking account for 3 consecutive months between September 20, 2010 and November 21, 2010.
• Earn another $50 when you pay at least 2 bills during one of those same 3 months through Online Bill Pay, accessed through Online Banking. You can pay virtually anyone, anytime, anywhere in the United States.

Offer expires 11/21/2010 and is available only when you open a new business checking account using SBESP10. The $17.00 monthly maintenance fee can be avoided with one of the following:

* Enrolling in Business Fundamentals and making a monthly qualifying purchase with your Business Check Card
* $3,000 minimum balance
* $10,000 average balance
* $10,000 combined minimum balance with other biz accounts
* $20,000 combined average balance with other biz accounts

By the way, the same rules about sole proprietorships being valid businesses here also apply to business checking accounts.

Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 2 Comments »

SmartyPig Upcoming Interest Rate Drop To 1.75% APY

Online savings site SmartyPig.com just announced that they will drop their interest rate from 2.15% APY to 1.75% APY on September 7th, 2010 (for balances up to $50,000, FDIC-insured). While this is sad news, and of course happened after I initiated a funds transfer over there, they do still offer one of the highest overall rates for an online liquid savings account. They compiled this rate history with other online bank like Ally Bank and ING Direct to show that they have remained very competitive over time:

The only bank with a higher rate and full liquidity is EverBank with their 2.25% Intro rate with an additional $25/$50 bonus on top if you open with $10k/$20k.

Although not set up exactly like the others, their online “piggy bank” model is interesting, and I wrote about tips on how to use it like a savings account with their flexible rules.

Posted in Banking | 14 Comments »

New Marketing Trick: Short-term FDIC-Insured Bank CDs With Really High Rates

If you still read newspapers like me, you may have come across an advertisement like this one recently touting an abnormally high 3-month or 6-month CD rate in last Sunday’s issue:

According to Bankrate, the current national average for a 6-month certificate of deposit is 0.37% APY, with their top yield being 1.25% APY. Highly-advertised Ally Bank offers less. So how can a tiny local non-bank that you’ve never heard of beat the rates of even online banks by over 2 whole percentage points?

It turns out that this is the newest version of the “free show tickets for timeshare presentations” marketing ploy. In this case, you must go into the office of an life insurance agent and listen to their sales pitch before getting the bank CD. Allan Roth over at CBS Marketwatch visited one of these offices and wrote about it. These non-bank salespeople are supplementing bank CDs from other FDIC-insured banks with their own money to reach the advertised rate. Questionable? Yes. Scam? Well, maybe not.

How It Works…

1. You respond to the newspaper ad, and the terms always require you to physically come over to their office.
2. After dealing with varying levels of life insurance and/or annuities salesmanship, you maintain your desire to open the account.
3. You write the check for the CD directly to an FDIC-insured bank, with which the sales office is not officially affiliated with. This CD has a realistic rate, say 1% APY or similar.
4. After a week or two, enough to make sure your funds cleared, the insurance people will cut you a check which together with the bank’s interest, add up to the advertised APY (assuming they are still in business).

How Much Extra Interest?

But really how much money are they losing on this? If you buy a six-month CD with an annual percentage yield (APY) of 3.35% and commit $25,000, you’ll earn approximately $418. With a APY of 1.25%, that is $156. The difference is $262. That’s basically the “bonus” that they are paying to get you into the door.

The article by Roth was initially published more than 8 months ago, so that would suggest that this marketing ploy is working and the word is spreading amongst insurance salespeople. Now, I’m sure some people will call about the CD and either not have the $25k or otherwise decided not to go for it, so that improves their bottom line. I am pretty certain that their ad targets those with large cash balances looking for income-type investments, so that they can pitch annuities with seemingly safe and high yields.

Warnings

If you still want to invest in one of these bank CDs + incentives, you should be prepared to be presented with annuities that will actually seem to yield even more that their advertised 3-month CDs. They will be carefully packaged to look like a good deal. They will be described as “insured” and “safe” because they will be backed by an insurance company. The actual yields will be computed by a formula too complex for most math PhDs to fully understand.

Next, you should check if the extra interest is really worth it due to the fact that you’ll have to deal with paper checks. If you are writing a check from a bank account that isn’t earning interest, that is some lost days of interest right there. Since you’ll be receiving the CD funds as a check as well, that’s another few business days of potential lost interest. Use my handy Ultimate Rate Chaser Calculator to see your net interest boost.

Finally, you should be sure to only write the check to an FDIC-insured institution. You should interact with them directly to ensure safe transfer of funds and proper opening of account. Double-check the CD renewal guidelines, so you are not stuck rolling the CD over for another 3 months.

Here’s a list of other companies that I found offering similar ads. Some are pretty shady in my opinion, and pretend to be an elite broker supplying high-yield bank CDs. Others are actually pretty transparent about the fact that they are offering a carrot for you to listen to their pitch. If you know of any others, please leave a comment below, and I’ll add it to the list.

• Sun Cities Financial Group (http://www.scfg.com)
• First Fidelity Tax & Insurance (http://www.firstfidelityamerica.com)
• American First Assurance (http://americanfirstassurance.com)
• Integrifirst USA (http://integrifirstusa.com)

I personally wouldn’t trust any of these guys with a $9.99 cut-n-paste GoDaddy website and a rented office with any of my personal details.

Posted in Annuities, Banking, Insurance | 10 Comments »

SmartyPig BBVA Compass $150 Checking Account Bonus

While clicking around on the SmartyPig site, I saw that their new partner BBVA Compass Bank has a $150 bonus for new accounts. It doesn’t seem to be limited specifically to SmartyPig users, although it is “only available in AL, AZ, CA, CO, FL, NM & TX where BBVA Compass has a market presence.” More details:

• Open a new “Build to Order” checking account.
• $75 bonus for setting up recurring direct deposit of at least $300.
• $75 for paying 5 bills via Online BillPay every month for 90 days.

“Build To Order” checking account have no monthly service charge, no minimum balance requirement, no direct deposit requirement (besides the stuff required for the bonuses above). Minimum $25 to open. Then there are several “premium” options to choose from, and you get two for free. Account must be opened online between 8/1/2010 and 08/31/2010. I am not sure if ACH transfers count as direct deposits.

Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 3 Comments »

Chase Checking Bonus: 100 Bucks For New Accounts

Chase has an online offer for a $100 bonus for opening a new Chase Checking account with $100 and either setting up direct deposit or making five debit card purchases within 60 days of opening. You can either open online or in-branch.

Ongoing, you keep the account open for 6 months and must continue either the monthly DD or 5 debits to avoid a monthly fee. Still, not a bad deal if you want to try out another megabank. Expires soon though – 8/14/10.

Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 2 Comments »

SmartyPig: Tips and Tricks To Use Like a Bank Account

In a previous post about 4 Stash Your Cash Deals Most People Haven’t Heard Of, I mentioned the new FDIC-insured savings site SmartyPig.com since they have consistently high yields, currently at 2.15% APY on balances up to $50,000 with no minimums or monthly fees. Funds are held at BBVA Compass Bank.

I also mentioned that even though they do have a some restrictions due to their “piggy bank” image, they have added enough flexibility (in response to user feedback, which should be applauded) that you can use it virtually like any other savings account. I got a few questions on what I actually meant by that statement, so here are a few “hacks” that I have used to increase the flexibility of my savings. I prefer to think of it as getting around their gentle nudges to keep saving.

Ground Rules

When transferring money into SmartyPig, you must do it in the form of Savings Goals. Your goal can be anywhere between $250 and $250,000, and you must transfer in at least $25 from a linked bank account to get it started. You can also schedule a recurring deposit of at least $10 a month towards the goal, but you don’t have to.

• You can make as many goals as you like.
• You can make additional one time, non-recurring contributions to a goal.
• You can end a goal at any time without penalty, but you will have to redeem the entire existing balance all at once. There are no partial redemptions.
• You can change your goal amount at any time.
• You can transfer funds in between goals instantly. There is a limit of five outgoing transfers per calendar month per goal. Accrued interest cannot be transferred and will remain in the goal where it was earned.

Emergency Fund / Partial Redemptions

Setting up SmartyPig as an emergency fund is straightforward. I set a big goal like $25,000, and then put in a regular contribution. But what if something comes up and I want to make a withdrawal of say $1,000 out of the $5,000 I’ve already set aside? According to the site, I must end the entire goal and cash it out completely. Not so fast. In this case, I would:

• Start a new goal, call it Emergency Fund 2.0.
• Transfer $4,000 from my original goal into the new 2.0 goal.
• Now, I should be left with $1,000 in my original goal, and I can cash it out by clicking on “Stop Goal”. I’ll also be cashing out all the remaining accrued interest.
• I am left with a new goal with $4,000 still earning 2.15% APY, and $1,000 is headed to my main checking account to pay for the unexpected expense.

“Boosted” Gift Cards to Multiple Retailers

Another perk of SmartyPig is the ability to redeem your cash goal for a retailer gift card with a “boost”. You can get a 1% bonus at Wal-mart, 3% at Lowes, 4% at Amazon.com (my fave), and 12% at Macy’s. So for a $250 goal, I could cash out for $260 at Amazon. By default, you can only redeem a goal for one retailer. But by using the method above, you can effectively split your goal balances into smaller chunks.

Posted in Banking | 22 Comments »

Everbank Online Check Deposit Review – FreeNet Checking and Yield Pledge Money Market Accounts

When I first heard about online check deposit a couple years ago, I was pretty excited. I loved the idea of scanning in checks from your home computer any time of day without the hassle of going to the bank or waiting for snail mail. But at the time only few banks offered it like selected credit unions and USAA, both of which had membership restrictions.

I actually forgot about it for a while, until I noticed last week that online bank EverBank started offering it on both their Yield Pledge Money Market and FreeNet Checking accounts. (See post on recent $75 bonus + 2.25% Intro APY at EverBank.) Since I already had an account, I immediately signed up, tried it out, and am now hooked. How about a review for the curious?

Application Process

To be eligible, you must have an existing personal account (see above), and a computer with a TWAIN-compliant scanner (pretty much anything bought within the last five years).

1. Download the application form and fill it out. Don’t forget to fill out the Security Code at the bottom, as my first form was rejected since I didn’t know what that referred to (had to call customer service).
2. Fax or mail the form in. I found it amusing that in order to get online check deposit, I had to use a fax machine. Well, not really, you could just use a service like faxzero.com since there is no extra-sensitive information required on the form.
3. Wait for the welcome e-mail, which should arrive within two business days. The title will be “You can start using Online Check Deposit” and inside will be your new login and temporary password.

Making An Online Deposit

Here’s a flash video with detailed instructions, but it’s really long and slow-paced. Just read this:

1. Log in to the special website at www.EverBankOnlineDeposit.com. This is not the usual Everbank website, but it checks out legit. Log in with your separate login and password.
2. Click on the “Make A Deposit” link on the left. A java applet will load. The software will look for attached scanners. Choose the one you wish to use. [screenshot 1]
3. Scan the front of your check and approve it. [screenshot 2]
4. Scan the back of your check and approve it. [screenshot 3]
5. Submit after confirming the deposit details. [screenshot 4]
6. You’ll receive one e-mail immediately that your deposit was received.
7. Wait for the e-mail will say it was approved and processed. This should arrive either the same day or next day. At this point, your check is considered deposited, and you are supposed to shred or destroy the physical check.

Other Details

Another advantage is that you can gain access to your funds sooner (and also start earning interest). Here are the details for funds availability. I think I read that any check over $5,000 will still be subject to holds.

Same business day credit for deposits scanned, submitted, and approved before 7 p.m. ET on a business day. Deposits made after 7 p.m. ET or on a non business day will be credited on the next business day. See the Funds Availability section of the Account Terms and Disclosures for information on access to funds.

I got this all to work fine on the first try on a Windows PC, but I could not get it to work on Mac OS X. I called customer service and they indicated that it was common for Macs to have problems with TWAIN drivers. While they said they could help me work through it, it would be a tedious process and may have to be repeated each time I wanted to make a deposit. (Basically, if you have a Windows computer, use it instead.)

In the end, after getting set up the first time it was a total snap. I often hold on to check for days if not weeks until I get around to going to the bank. Now, it just takes a minute. Scan, flip the check over, scan again, and I’m done. If needed, I can even use their free online fund transfers to move the money elsewhere. I can’t believe the mega-banks don’t provide this option already.

Posted in Banking | 22 Comments »

EverBank Yield Pledge Money Market & Checking: Good Offer For $10k+ Balances

Everbank has added a $50/$25 bonus on top of their existing 3-month bonus rates for their Yield Pledge Money Market and FreeNet Checking accounts. Both of these offers are targeted at new customers opening with at least $10,000, but in the end do offer some of the top rates available for an FDIC-insured bank account with these terms.

Yield Pledge Money Market

With a 3-month guaranteed introductory rate of 2.25% APY, this is higher than any available 3-month CD out there. After that, it is like other online savings accounts with a variable ongoing APY (currently 1.26%). If you deposit at least $20,000 as a new customer, you’ll get a additional $50 bonus on your 5th month’s statement.

The math is a bid tedious, but in the end the additional $50 bonus on a $20,000 balance effectively extends your 2.25% APY rate out to 6 months, which again is better than any 6-month CD offer out there.

This online savings account “pledges” to keep the yield on your account in the top 5% of competitive accounts as tracked by Bankrate. (Everbank has indeed ended up on lists of best banks with consistently high rates.) Since it is a savings account, you are still limited to 6 withdrawals or outgoing transfers each month. There is a minimum average balance of $5,000 to avoid a $8.95 monthly fee.

FreeNet Checking

A checking account version, this also has a a 3-month guaranteed introductory rate of 2.25% APY, with a tiered interest rate afterward. (Current tiers and ongoing Annual Percentage Yields are: $100,000 and up 1.26% APY, $50,000 – $99,999.99 1.20% APY, $25,000 – $49,999.99 1.16% APY, $10,000 – $24,999.99 0.70% APY and under $10,000 0.51% APY). There is no monthly fee.

If you deposit at least $10,000 as a new customer, you’ll get a $25 bonus on your 5th month’s statement. Again, if you do the math this effectively extends the bonus rate of 2.25% out to between 5 and 6 months on a $10,000 balance, which is still better than any other CD offer of the same length. This account also pledges to keep the yield on your account in the top 5% of competitive accounts, but remember in this case that checking accounts in general have slightly lower rates.

If you are looking to get high FDIC-insured interest rates on a sizable balance for between a couple months to a year, without having to jump through any hoops like required monthly transfers or 15 debit card purchases a month, then this continues to be one of the best rates out there.

Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 2 Comments »

FDIC and NCUA Insurance $250,000 Limits Now Permanent

The standard maximum insurance limits for both FDIC and NCUA-insured accounts have been permanently raised to $250,000 per depositor as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed July 21st, 2010. The limits were temporarily increased from $100,000 to $250,000 effective October 3, 2008, through December 31, 2010. On May 20, 2009, the temporary increase was extended again through December 31, 2013. (FDIC press release)

The FDIC insurance coverage limit applies per depositor, per insured depository institution for each account ownership category. You may actually have more than $250,000 of coverage, depending on how you have titled your accounts and where you hold multiple accounts. Here are the official online calculators:

NCUA Electronic Share Insurance Calculator (ESIC)
FDIC Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator (EDIE)

The new limits were made retroactive to 1/1/2008, which makes 9,500 people really happy who exceeded the FDIC limits between January 1st and October 3, 2008, which were only $100,000 at the time. Well, they got lucky. Don’t exceed the limits! (And congrats if this is still an issue for you…)

Posted in Banking | 3 Comments »

ING Direct Independence Day Offers

Online bank ING Direct has a few specials for Independence Day that (for some reason) are only good until midnight on Friday, July 2nd. In all cases, they are slightly better versions of offers that they regularly offer. Not a bad time to pounce if you’ve been on the fence. See INGDirect.com/independence/ for details. Thanks to reader Terry for the tip.

Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 1 Comment »

Perkstreet Checking with 2%/5% Cashback Debit Card

Perkstreet Financial is relatively new, but they’ve already tried a bunch of different ways to make their online checking account attractive, from sign-up bonuses to coffee awards. However, I think they’ve stumbled onto something with their new cashback debit card rewards structure that beats out any other online bank currently:

• Earn 2% cash back on all non-PIN debit card purchases when your checking account balance is $5,000 or more. For new accounts, you will earn 2% cash back no matter what your balance is for the first 3 months, starting on the day that your account is opened. (Otherwise if your balance that day is below $5k, you earn 1% cash back.)
• Earn 5% cash back at a rotating set of retailers. This appears to be the new trend amongst many rewards cards. For February 2012, you can get 5% cash back on H&R Block, Liberty Tax Service, Tax Slayer, Tax Hawk, TurboTax, Tax Club, Kohl’s.com and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
• There is no limit to the amount of cashback you can earn.

Fees. The account has no minimum balance requirement, but does require you to have some sort of activity each month to avoid a $4.50 inactivity fee. Be sure to have some sort of deposit/withdrawal (electronic transfer is fine), debit card purchase, online billpay, or a cleared check every month.

The checking account earns no interest, so you’ll have to account for that based on your usual average balances. On the website, it advertises that you could earn $600 in rewards each year. Here’s their rationale:

Making $601 in weekly non-PIN purchases will earn you $625 in perks annually (when you maintain a balance of $5,000). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American household spends $601 per week on purchases that could be put on a debit card, including stuff like utility bills or rent.

I’d adjust your expectations according to your own situation. I’ve never had a landlord that let me charge my rent on a debit/credit card, although I’m sure some are out there. Example: Charging $500 a month at 2% back would be $120 a year.

Opening an account. They do try to make it easy… you only need $25 to open, and you can even do your initial funding on a credit card for up to $500; they promise to run it as a purchase to avoid cash advance fees.

For folks who already have a their preferred set of cashback credit cards, this might not be enough to switch. However, this does serve as a nice alternative for the subset of folks who choose to avoid credit cards for whatever reason. I have lots of friends that prefer debit cards due to the sheer simplicity of it – they buy something, and the money gets taken out direct from the checking account. Done. No extra bills to pay. I just read that 50% of all charge card purchases this year will be done on debit cards, so they aren’t alone.

Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 11 Comments »

4 Stash Your Cash Deals Most People Haven’t Heard Of

Here are four places to stash your cash that aren’t advertised very heavily, so your co-workers probably haven’t heard of them. They are all FDIC-insured, and offer higher yields than most of their direct competitors. Each one is best depending on your investment time frame and deposit size.

Free Rewards Checking at DanversBank

DanversBank offers their Free Rewards Checking account paying 4.01% APY on balances up to $25,000, provided you satisfy the following each month:

* perform at least 12 debit card transactions (excluding ATMs);
* receive their monthly statement electronically;
* access Online Banking, and
* sign up for direct deposit or receive a recurring ACH.

There are no minimum balance requirement or fees, and ATM fees are refunded as well if you meet the above requirements. The branches are located in the Boston area, but accounts are open to anyone in the US. If you can be diligent every month (otherwise you get piddly interest), these types of account are great interest boosters.

Ally Bank 5-Year CD with Small Early-Withdrawal Penalty

Okay, so Ally does spend a lot of money on advertising, but a feature they rarely mention is actually the best reason to open an account with them. They only hit you with a early withdrawal penalty of 60-days of lost interest if you “break” a CD with them. The Ally Bank 5-year CD currently yields APY. Rates change constantly, but let’s assume you have a certificate of deposit from any bank paying 2.99% APY with an early withdrawal penalty of the last 60 days of interest. (2.99% APY ~= 2.95% rate compounded daily.) Here’s how your actual annualized interest rate would fluctuate given your holding period.

If you look carefully at this charts, you’ll see some great deals:

• After only 4 months, your annualized rate is 1.48%. (Essentially you 2 months out of 4, which is half of 3.04%). This isn’t bad at all, considering their liquid online savings accountis currently payingAPY.
• After 1 year, your annualized rate is 2.49%. You can’t find a better rate than this at any other bank for a 1-year CD. Likewise, after 2 years, your annualized rate is 2.87%, compared to Ally’s current 2-year CD atAPY, although it does have a “raise your rate” feature that lets you bump it up once if rates rise.
• After 3 years, your annualized rate is 2.83%, again a top rate. Thus, even opening a 5-year CD and holding for anywhere between four months and 3 years gets you a better rate than any other bank currently out there (including Ally itself). There’s also no minimum deposit required to open, so you can make each CD as small as you like!

SmartyPig FDIC-Insured Online Piggy Bank

I reviewed SmartyPig.com a while back when they had just broke onto the scene, but they have made a lot of improvements in response to customer feedback since then. You can think of them like an online piggy bank that helps you towards savings goals, but they’ve added so much flexibility that you can pretty much use them like any other savings account. The best part? They currently pay 2.15% APY on balances up to $50,000 (FDIC-insured). That’s better than any other savings account out there, with no additional requirements. No minimums, no maintenance fees.

An added feature is that if you set a savings goal and reach it, they offer “boosts” if you redeem your cash for a gift card in their mall. My favorite is the 4% boost at Amazon, which for example will get you a $260 gift card for $250 cash. Other highlights include Macy’s at 12% and Travelocity at 10% boost.

Sallie Mae Bank – Online Savings Account

Sallie Mae is best known as the huge student loan originator and servicer. Their new Sallie Mae Bank is an FDIC-insured bank that offers a very competitive 1.40% APY in their online savings account. Not a bad deal to lend out money to captive students at high interest rates, and pay much less as a bank! Hopefully this means that they can keep their rates higher than other banks.

The quickest way to describe it is as another clone of ING Direct (currently paying 1.10%). That means… liquid, no minimum balance, no minimum fees, and no deposit caps or tiers (just the $250k FDIC insurance limit to worry about). It’s designed to complement your existing accounts. You can link an unlimited amount of other bank accounts for easy online transfers, which take the usual 2-3 days to complete. Interest is compounded daily and credited monthly.

Also, if you have an account at Upromise, you can link your Sallie Mae account and have your Upromise earning deposited there. You can even get a 10% extra bonus if you do one of the following:

To be eligible for the 10% annual match on your Upromise earnings from Upromise you must link your High-Yield Savings Account to your Upromise Account and, within 90 days of opening your High-Yield Savings Account, either: (1) set up an Automatic Savings Plan with a monthly deposit of $25 or more, or (2) fund the account with $5,000 or more. Upromise will match 10% of your Upromise earnings posted as “funded” to your Upromise Account during the calendar year of January 1 through December 31. Your 10% annual match will be deposited into your High-Yield Savings Account in February of the following year provided that both accounts remain active and are in good standing at the time of transfer.

Posted in Banking, Deals & Offers | 23 Comments »