Update 7/04/09: The top rate has fallen to 3.01% APY. No new accounts are being accepted at this time. The date that this account will be available again is still undetermined.
United Heritage Credit Union is offering a reward checking account called Heritage Checking that pays 3.01% APY on balances up to $25K (1.01% on portions over $25K). It also offers automatic ATM reimbursements. The 3.01% and ATM refunds require the typical monthly reward checking conditions: 10 debit card transactions, direct deposit or auto debit ACH and receiving eStatements. Regardless of these conditions, there are no minimum balance requirements or monthly fees. Also, there is no minimum opening balance requirement.
Update 4/08/09: The number of accounts allowed is now limited to 3 per member.
Field of membership includes those who live, work or attend school in Travis, Williamson, Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Smith or Wood County, Texas. You can also be eligible via family or select employer groups. See site for details. Membership requires a minimum deposit of $1 into the savings account.
Branches are located in Austin, Cedar Park, Georgetown and Round Rock in Central Texas and in Tyler in Northeast Texas. The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 68251). It has $481.5 million in assets and 50,024 members.
For a list of similar reward checking accounts in other parts of the country, please refer to my best checking account post. Thanks to the reader Nabil who mentioned this new checking account in the finding deals post.
Edit 10/06/07: The Board of Directors of United Heritage Credit Union has reduced the par share value required for membership from $25 to $1 and eliminated the $2 membership fee.
Rate History:
07/01/09: 3.01% APY
04/01/09: 4.01% APY, accounts limited to 3 per member
02/10/09: Credit union suspended opening new accounts.
11/01/08: 5.01% APY
06/02/07: 6.01% APY
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Comments (21)
3.01% Reward Checking Account at a Texas CU (United Heritage)
Saturday, June 2, 2007 - 2:32 PM CT by Ken - Bank Deals Guy
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Mario and his wife - #1, Monday, June 11, 2007 - 5:31 PM CT
We recently opened this account and were surprised to also get our first box of checks free (150 checks). The branch looked very modern and financial reps were friendly and knowledgeable about this account (it was advertised on banners inside and outside the branch). We opted for the $1 extra instant-issue debit card with photo option (photo taken in the branch). Bring proof of your social security number to open the account.
It seems they have planned this accout offering carefully, because a "high yield checking account in 2007" was already mentioned in their 2006 annual report. Note that bill pay is only free if actively used (3x per month). One area where this CU still needs to improve more (and I believe it's one of their priorities this year) is website layout and security.
Overall, we've had a very good first impression.
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Banking Guy - #2, Monday, June 11, 2007 - 7:27 PM CT
Thanks for the info. If you don't mind the 10 debit card usage requirement, this looks much better than that new high yield Capital One checking especially after the first year.
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Mario - #3, Monday, June 11, 2007 - 8:49 PM CT
Since we have both, we don't have to choose. ;)
Putting other advantages and disadvantages aside, Capital One has a guaranteed rate for a year, while UHCU doesn't guarantee it for any length of time (although the CSR said they think the 6.01% is sustainable in the future). So we'll just keep the majority of funds in whichever one will stay higher and use the advantages of both. I still think Cap One is a good "insurance" to have if rates should drop.
The other limitation of UHCU is $25k max for the rate (but CSR mentioned more than one account can be opened if necessary). In the near term, we'll probably use this account more like a savings account without the lost interest and time of sending money back and forth to FNBO.
I think we're very fortunate in the Austin area to have multiple competitive HY checking accounts!
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Mario - #4, Monday, June 11, 2007 - 8:55 PM CT
I suppose I should also mention that if you open a joint account, the 10 debit card transactions can be any combination of both debit cards, e.g. 5 + 5, per the CSR. We did 80+ per month for Bank of America's KTC promo so 10 seems easy in comparison. We'll probably designate a day of the month to buy 10 packets of Ramen or fill up our car in one dollar increments. ;)
For the joint account, we only paid $2 membership fee once, and only had to open one joint $25 savings account.
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Mario - #5, Tuesday, July 31, 2007 - 10:44 PM CT
I just received an email that I did NOT qualify for the 6% for this month. Of my 14 debit card transactions, the ten online transactions all were not counted (only POS). I'll try to have them correct it tomorrow.
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