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Fed Meeting: Another 25-bp Rate Hike - Strategies for Savers
Fed Meeting Preview and Deposit Rate Forecast - March 15, 2023
Silicon Valley Bank Is Shut Down - Second Largest Bank Failure in HistoryDiscover Bank's Cashback Checking Account To Be Launched Soon
For the last two years Discover Bank has been hinting about a checking account. It looks like the checking account will finally be launched this year. Some Discover Card customers received a preview of the checking account when they logged into their accounts. It turned out that Discover jumped the gun. The announcement was premature. The checking account is not currently available and will not be available for another few months. However, the announcement did provide details on many features of this new checking account. Thanks to DA member RJM who posted on this news in the forum, and thanks to RJM and DA reader pearlbrown who called Discover for additional details.
The new checking account will be called Discover Cashback Checking. It's a free checking account with no monthly service fees or minimum balance requirements. Instead of paying interest, it will offer cashback rewards. Below is an excerpt of the major features as listed in Discover's announcement:
You’re already enjoying Cashback Bonus with your Discover card–now you can earn even more.
It’s easy – with Discover Cashback Checking you’ll earn:
- 10¢ debit card purchase
- 10¢ online bill pay
- 10¢ check written
Cashback Bonus
- Cashback Checking is an exclusive online offer available to Discover cardmembers
- Cashback Bonus is added monthly to your Discover Cashback Bonus Balance
- Same great redemption options–gift cards, merchandise, cash and more
Free Features
- Free cash withdrawals at over 23,000 ATMs nationwide
- Free standard checks
- Deposit checks from a mobile device
- Pay bills anytime on the go
RJM reported being told that the cashback will be separate from those earned with the credit card so you'll need to earn $25 cashback from your checking account to redeem the amount. This will require 250 of those transactions to accumulate $25.
My Take
Even though it won't pay interest, this will be a nice addition to Discover Bank's deposit products. If you have Discover Bank's savings account or CDs, you may want to consider this free checking account when it becomes available. Check writing can be useful for moving money, and unlike the money market account, you don't have to worry about being limited to six withdrawals per month. Another downside with the money market account is that it requires a minimum average daily balance of $2,500 to avoid a monthly service fee.
The checking's cashback feature isn't that great of a deal in my opinion. For debit card rewards, I prefer a high-yield reward checking account (Bank of Internet USA's Rewards Checking account is one example from an internet bank).
Other Discover News
In credit cards, Discover recently made news with the launch of the Discover "it" card. I did a quick review of the credit card in this forum thread.
Discover Bank's Savings, Money Market and CD Accounts
Discover Bank does offer a free savings account and competitive CD rates. The savings account rate (0.80% as of 1/22/2013) is a little low, but its online banking features are strong. You can easily set up and initiate online ACH transfers. Transfer amounts are limited to $100,000 per 30 day rolling period ($100K for incoming and $100K for outgoing).
Discover Bank Overview
Discover Bank is one of the largest internet banks. It has over $73 billion in assets and over $42 billion in deposits. Its overall health score at DepositAccounts.com is 5 stars (out of 5) with a Texas ratio of 6.66% (excellent) based on September 2012 data. Please refer to our financial overview of Discover Bank for more details. The bank has been a FDIC member since 1934 (FDIC Certificate # 5649).
Other Internet Checking Accounts
If you're looking for an internet checking account that's available now, refer to our checking account table to find the ones with the highest rates. We have a different table for reward checking accounts.
Last year I did a comparison between the checking accounts at Ally and ING DIRECT.
The cashback, I think, IS added to your discovercard cashback. But, I cant find anywhere that it mentions it. I think I must have had 8 transactions by first month as I noticed 80 cents added to what I already had but there was no notification or anything and no mention on the statement. And it might be delayed a month or two.
A number of people reported getting notices of a $50 bonus for opening the account. (Targeted I guess)
I did not get an email or snail mail offer. Nor did I get a $50 bonus.
I did happen to ask how they would protect themselves against those who will try to abuse the system and they said they would send a warning letter and if that didnt work, potentially close the account.
The per payee per month language is no longer there like it was before the account launched. I dont abuse it but I have made a couple of $1.10 dollar store purchases and a $1.42 debit card transaction at Aldi for a loaf of Oat Bread. Mostly, I just use the card for my Aldi purchases.
Discover has an unexplained $25 minimum deposit amount if you want Discover to pull it from another account.
Since the account does not pay interest, I dont keep a lot in there and try to replace it on an as spent basis and its usually less than $25. So I use Ally to push it to Discover.
I think I asked about their overdraft policy when using a debit card and she said it would just reject the transaction if you tried to charge more than was in your account but no NSF fees. (I didnt ask about NSF fees for a check because I only write 2-3 checks a year)