Delaware Banking Rates and News

If you live in the market area of Capital One Bank, new customers can still get a good checking account deal. They have been offering this deal for awhile, and I’m still seeing it advertised. It has become a better deal as rates at other banks have fallen. Capital One is guaranteeing a promotional rate (1.00% APY for most areas) for balances up to $100,000 for the first 12 months. Details of this promotion are listed at the Capital One High Yield checking page. Note, it will only show if your zip code is in their...

If you live in the market area of Capital One Bank, new customers can get a good checking account deal. They're guaranteeing a promotional rate (1.00% APY for most areas) for balances up to $100,000 for the first 12 months. Details of this promotion are listed at the Capital One High Yield checking page. Note, it will only show if your zip code is in their market area.

This 1.00% APY promotion appears to be offered in all of Capital One market areas which includes Washington DC, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Texas and Virginia....

Dover Federal Credit Union is offering some very competitive long-term CD and IRA CD rates. Minimum deposit is $500 for CDs and $2,000 for the IRA CDs. Below are the best CD rates as listed in the credit union's rates page as of 8/22/2012.

• 2.25% APY 5-year CD
• 2.00% APY 4-year CD
• 1.75% APY 3-year CD
• 1.60% APY 30-month CD

Credit union membership is open to many US military members based in Delaware. There's also a long list of select groups and organizations. Employees and members of these may also be eligible for credit union membership. If you see an organization...

Update 2/27/13: The promotion has regularly been extended. The latest expiration date is 4/1/2013.

PNC Bank has increased its checking account bonus from $100 to $150. It has also made a change to the requirements. As before, customers will have to be careful to avoid fees. One of the qualifying checking accounts is Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend which is an "upgraded" version of Virtual Wallet, and it has potential monthly fees.

Here's the link to PNC's promotion page. The offer is scheduled to end on 4/1/2013 9/30/2012. You can open the account online or choose to have...

Update 12/14/2012: The checking promotion has been extended to December 31, 2012.

These Sovereign Bank promotions aren't anything to get excited about, but in today's environment, they may be something to consider if you're looking for a checking account bonus or a decent CD rate. With some of these accounts, you'll have to watch out for fees. Like at other banks, it has become harder to avoid some of the fees.

Checking Account Promotion

For the checking account promotion, Sovereign Bank is offering up to a $125 bonus for opening a checking and money market account. Here's the direct...

I don't usually come across competitive reward checking accounts that I haven't already reviewed, but I came across one at Del-One Federal Credit Union which is offering a reward checking account called Better Life Checking. The account has the following rates and features if certain monthly requirements are met (as of 5/9/2012):

• 3.00% APY on balances up to $25,000
• 0.35% APY on portion of balance over $25,000
• Refunds of ATM fees up to $25 per month

Monthly requirements include:

• 10 debit card purchases
• direct deposit
• e-statements

There is no monthly service fee and no minimum balance. Please refer to the Del-One's checking page for...

PNC Bank continues to offer a $100 bonus for opening its Virtual Wallet with Performance Spend and for performing certain activities. PNC has made it a little easier to qualify for the $100 bonus compared to last year. However, customers will have to be careful to avoid fees. The Performance Spend is an "upgraded" version of Virtual Wallet, and it has potential monthly fees.

Here's the link to PNC's promotion page. The offer is scheduled to end on 6/30/2012. You can open the account online or choose to have them email you a coupon to take to...

The Fulton Financial family of banks is again having a checking account promotion in which you can earn a nice gift. This time the gift is an Amazon Kindle Fire. To qualify for the Kindle Fire, the promotion requires that you open a checking account, sign up for direct deposit and pay three bills using online bill pay.

The Fulton Financial family has 6 banks that cover much of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. You can select the bank that's near where you live from this Fulton Financial map. I checked a few of these, and...

We are still seeing checking account bonuses from the big banks. Those who are careful may be able to profit from these, but the banks know that they will most likely profit in the end. The latest big bank offering a checking account bonus is M&T Bank which is offering a $100 cash bonus for customers who add direct deposit to a MyChoice Checking account. M&T Bank has this promotion advertised on its home page and on its special website raisethegreenflag.com/mychoice.

Those who try to qualify for this bonus should be aware of the potential...

MidCoast Community Bank is once again offering a top rate on its short-term CDs. The rate is 1.45% APY for terms from 6 to 12 months. Most of the longer-term CD rates are not quite as competitive. However, the CDs with terms over 3 years are pretty good. There's a 1.80% APY 42-month CD and a 2.25% APY 5-year CD. Minimum deposit is $500. These rates are listed in the bank's rates page as of 10/25/2011.

It appears that a branch visit is required to open an account. MidCoasat Community Bank branches are located in Dover...

PNC Bank's Virtual Wallet has changed quite a bit since I first reviewed it in 2009. The good news is that it's still easy to keep it free without monthly fees. Considering how many of the large banks have added monthly fees and debit card fees to their checking accounts, PNC's Virtual Wallet is noteworthy. The bad news is that you don't get rewarded like you used to. Another downside is that it has become more complicated. Virtual Wallet has never been simple. It's composed of three different accounts:

• Spend Account (checking)
• Reserve Account (for short-term savings & overdraft protection)
• Growth...

Update 2/17/2012: PNC has extended the promotion to 3/31/2012. Here's the new promotion page link. Also note, the full $100 bonus no longer requires the use of online bill pay.

PNC Bank has another $100 bonus for opening a new qualifying checking account and for performing certain activities. This is being advertised on their home page. Here's the direct link to their promo page. The offer is scheduled to end on 10/22/2011. Here's a summary of the requirements for the first $75:

• Open a new Virtual Wallet Performance or other select PNC Personal Checking account
• Established...