High Interest Rate Rewards Checking Account

Now that I have enough cash to consider it an emergency fund, I’ve decided to open a rewards checking account. I previously blogged about high interest rate checking accounts. I’ve been thinking about opening one up for awhile and decided that it was necessary since the highest online savings accounts are only hovering around the 2% range. After doing some research, I decided to open an Elite Checking Account from the Members Choice Community Credit Union. It comes with a 5.51% APY for the first $25,000 and 1.01% APY for the funds above $25,000. This great rate doesn’t come with some requirements.

Requirements

• Make 12 Visa Debit purchases per month.
• Have one Direct Deposit or authorize one automatic payment per month.
• Receive electronic statements.
• Access online banking.

The last two requirements are super easy as I do this with my current accounts anyways. Making 12 debit purchases per month should be easy as well. I go out to lunch at work and normally pay with my AMEX true earnings business card, which nets me 3% cash back. For the first 12 lunches of the month I will pay with the debit card and then switch to the AMEX card for the remainder. The last requirement should be easy as well. I will probably switch most of my automatic payments to this account anyways.

Account Setup

So far I’ve only filled out one page online with the standard information: address, name, social, email, etc. I will be contacted within one business day to arrange the completion of the account setup. At that point I will transfer some money into the account and begin transferring my automatic payments to that account. Once all of my automatic payments are coming out of my high interest rate rewards checking account, I will transfer nearly all of my cash into this account to take advantage of the 5.51% APY.

Other Benefits

As long as you fulfill the requirements each month, I will receive the 5.51% APY and $25 in ATM reimbursements. If I don’t fulfill the requirements for a month I will only receive a 0.10% APY and no reimbursements for that month. There is no minimum balance requirements and there are no monthly fees. They have online bill pay. From what I can gather they provide all the bells and whistles of your standard checking account. Additionally, my account is insured up to $250,000 until 2013 and $100,000 afterward by the NCUA (National Credit Union Administration).

After my account setup is complete I’ll post an update that will include what I plan on doing with my remaining accounts. Here’s to having a smooth account setup.