5.00% Reward Checking Account at River City Bank in Georgia - Local Only

River City Bank is offering a high-yield reward checking account called Smart Checking. It has the following rates and features if certain monthly requirements are met:

• 5.00% APY on balances up to $25,000 (guaranteed to 3/31/10)
• 1.50% APY on portion of balance over $25,000
• 0.05% base rate if requirements are not met

The monthly requirements include:

• 12 debit card purchases
• 1 direct deposit or ACH debit
• Receive e-statements

Additional features of the account regardless of the monthly requirements include:

• No minimum balance requirement
• No monthly service charge
• Refunds all ATM surcharges Worldwide

Details about the bank's ATM refund policy are located in the locations page. It's rare to see a bank that offers such a generous ATM policy for all of its accounts.

It appears that a branch visit is required to open an account. Branches are located in Rome and Carrollton, Georgia.

The bank's ratings for safety and soundness are a little above average: 3½ stars (good) at BauerFinancial and 3 stars (performing) at Bankrate.com. Both ratings are based on 6/30/09 financial data. The bank has been a FDIC member since 2006 (FDIC Certificate # 58289).

Other Reward Checking Accounts

There have been a few banks and credit unions which have guaranteed a high reward checking rate for a certain period of time, but these are rare. Unfortunately, there aren't any that are nationwide deals.

To find reward checking accounts in other areas of the nation, please refer to the reward checking section of DepositAccounts.com. To learn more about reward checking, please refer to this reward checking overview.