Reward Checking & Savings Account at Legence Bank That Are Mostly Available Nationwide
I first reviewed the reward checking account at Legence Bank in 2008 when the top yield was 6%. As you might have expected, the rate is much lower. On the plus side, the bank has added a savings account and has made these accounts more accessible. The reward checking account is now called Kasasa Cash and the linked savings account is called Kasasa Saver. These new accounts have the following rates if certain monthly requirements are met (as of 6/01/2012):
Kasasa Cash
- 1.50% APY on balances up to $25,000
- 0.25% APY on the portion of the balance above $25,000
- 0.10% APY on entire balance when qualifications are not met
Kasasa Saver
- 0.75% APY on balances up to $50,000
- 0.25% APY on the portion of the balance above $50,000
- 0.10% APY on entire balance when qualifications are not met
To receive the above rates, the following Kasasa Cash requirements must be met for each month:
- 10 debit card purchases
- 1 direct deposit, ACH automatic payment, or online bill payment
- Access online banking at least once
- Receive eStatements
Both accounts have no monthly service fees and no minimum balance requirements.
The accounts provide for nationwide ATM fee refunds (automatically deposited into your Saver account). One thing unusual is these ATM fee refunds don't appear to be contingent to meeting the monthly requirements. According to the bank's Kasasa Cash page, "If you miss a month, don't worry! You will still enjoy free checking with ATM refunds and there's no penalty for not qualifying in a given cycle."
Availability
You can apply for these accounts online at the bank's Kasasa Cash account. I emailed the bank about who is eligible to open an account, and here is the reply I received:
The Kasasa account is available to all of the 48 main land states and you may apply for this online.
I'm not sure why they excluded Alaska and Hawaii, but I consider these accounts to be essentially available nationwide.
Bank Overview
Legence Bank branches are located in southern Illinois and Indiana.
The bank has an overall health score at DepositAccounts.com of 5 stars (out of 5) with a Texas ratio of 6.27% based on March 2012 data. Please refer to our financial overview of Legence Bank for more details. The bank has been a FDIC member since 1934 (FDIC Certificate # 10886).
How This Reward Checking Account Compares
For reward checking accounts nationally available, the best rate for balances up to $25K is 2.52% APY at ABCO Federal Credit Union. The best rate at a bank is 2.00% APY at Bank of Blue Valley. However, this requires monthly debit card purchases that total at least $1,000.
To find the highest reward checking rates in your area, please refer to our reward checking rate table. This can also be used to find accounts available nationwide. If you're new to these tables, my rate table guide should be useful.
If you're new to reward checking, my blog post, 10 Common Traits of High-Yield Reward Checking, should be useful.
