High-Yield Reward Checking Account at a Missouri CU (First Community)

Update 8/31/10: The top rate has fallen to 2.51% APY. Refer to the bottom of the post for the rate history.

First Community Credit Union has a reward checking account called First Rate Checking that pays 2.51% APY on balances up to $25,000 (0.35% for above) and refunds ATM fees (up to $25 per cycle) if the following monthly requirements are met:

• 12 debit card point of sale transactions
• one direct deposit or ACH debit/credit
• receive eStatements and maintain a valid email address

If these are not met, the rate falls to 0.25%. The minimum initial deposit is $50. There are no monthly maintenance fees. The first 50 checks are free.

Membership is open to those who live or work in one of the following Missouri counties: St. Louis, Franklin, Jefferson, St. Charles, Warren, or in one of the following Illinois counties: Madison, Monroe, St. Clair. Please refer to their Membership Information page for more details.

Branches are located in the St. Louis metro area. The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 67619). It has $1.2 billion in assets and 149,833 members.

For other high yield reward checking accounts and to learn more about these accounts, please refer to my High Yield Checking website.

Edit 1/29/09: Updated credit union URLs.

Rate History:

• 12/01/10: 2.51% APY up to $25K; 0.35% over
• 08/31/10: 2.51% APY up to $25K
• 03/30/10: 3.01% APY up to $25K
• 07/01/09: 4.01% APY up to $25K
• 05/02/08: 5.01% APY up to $25K; 1.01% over; 0.25% base