Southbridge Savings Bank

Kasasa Cash RCA At Southbridge Savings Bank

I opened a "Kasasa Cash with Saver" account here in the summer of 2012. (It's actually a pair of accounts: checking and savings.) My previous reward checking rate at another bank had fallen below 2%, and Southbridge Savings Bank was advertising a rate of 3% at the time. Opening the account via the bank's web site was fairly routine. I did have to print and mail a couple of signature forms. I was a little disappointed that I could only initially fund $20k ($10k checking, $10k savings) even though the reward limit on the checking account is $25k. This made it impossible to transfer over all of my existing RCA funds in one step, but was not a dealbreaker as I was able to deposit the remaining funds in person a few days later. I could have also sent the additional deposit by mail or ACH transfer once the account was set up.

One nice benefit of this account is that for each month that the checking account qualifies for the reward interest rate (currently 2.5%) the savings account also qualifies for a lesser reward rate, but still quite competitive compared to other savings accounts (currently 1%). This is beneficial if you've maxed out the RCA but still have additional cash you want to save.

A few annoyances to be aware of, though none of them are dealbreakers for me:
SSB does not offer an ACH transfer feature for personal accounts. You'll need an external ACH-capable account to push/pull from. The checking account interest is automatically swept into the savings account at the end of every month. I would prefer it to remain in the checking account, but was informed there is no way to disable this. So I have to manually transfer it back each month. The online banking system can only export transactions in QuickBooks (IIF) and CSV format (no OFX, QFX, or QIF). So it's more difficult for me to import transactions into my personal finance software. However, the site is compatible with Mint.com.