4.01% Checking Account at an Arkansas Bank - $25K Max (Little Rock)

Meadows CU is only 4.00% (down from 4.33% which expired Dec 31) but has no debit card requirement. The direct deposit requirement can be fulfilled by ACH from one of the external link account ie. Capital One and only $5000 min. balance requirement. The only issue with Presidential & Everbank is the high min. balance required to get competitive rate. Also not sure that Presidential will accept the DD requirement with an ACH from another bank on the same name account.

>>Also not sure that Presidential will accept the DD requirement with an ACH from another bank on the same name account.

One can fulfill the DD requirement of Presidential by sending an ACH from another bank!

A while back I used to send ACH from ING over to Presidential every month in the first week and in the second week I used initiate reverse ACH to bring those funds back to ING. Presidential had no problem with this sort of DD!

- SVG

ING Direct is also rolling out its "paper-free checking account," according to the mailing I received this week. Currently open only to Orange Savings customers; IIRC, interest rate ~5%.

Thanks for the info. I forgot to mention ING's new checking account. It's not publicly available yet. Some customers are being allowed to sign up for it. Here's my post on it.

I would also mention ebank's ePremium checking. It has nontrivial minumum balance ($2500, or an average of $5000 to avoid fees), but it offers:

- no branch visit needed

- 5.00% APY

- no maximum balance

- no direct deposit or debit card usage requirement

- free ATM's (even rebates others fees)

- free checks (I paid a couple bucks to get duplicates)

- free Bill Pay

- prepaid envelopes to mail in deposits

- very friendly service from a "personal banker" when needed


negatives:

- short telephone hours (esp. if you're not on the east coast)

- account can be opened online, but some paperwork must be done by mail

- no built-in ACH facility, but "plays well with others"


I've had it for a little over a month, and have been happy so far. I'm not giving up my local account just yet, but I'm "migrating" my deposits and withdrawals to it. I like the fact that, for a "distant", out-of-state bank, they seem set up for this kind of relationship. I wonder how a bank that focuses on local customers (even if they don't strictly require a branch visit to open an account) will be at handling the "unusual" situation of a distant customer - even if they mean well, they may not have existing processes in place, and everything may require more effort than it would at a place where that kind of relationship is commonplace.

Sam, thanks for the info on ebank. I had forgotten about their checking account which still has a very nice 5% APY. They've maintained this now for almost 2 months. Here's my January post when they bumped the rate.

Interesting: if the requirements are not met, you receive 1.01% APY. That's how it reads.... great deal (er, typo perhaps?)

As of 8/12/09 the top rate has dropped to 4.01% APY. Other rates remain same.