why don't you transfer your paycheck first to hsbc? the hsbc online savings has free ach transfers in and out, but they are slow.

does your local bank have free online billpay? otherwise, get the hsbc free checking account and pay your checks using theirs.

p.s. glad to see you're one of the few people with no paypal problems. me too, and i do a lot of stuff with them.

a) Paypal is a titanic pain for transferring money back and forth. The transactions can take quite a while to clear, and the money "disappears" from both accounts during those couple of days. Not recommended for tight management. (their money market yield is nice though).

b) MBNA credit cards have a bill pay which might allow a few more of your bills to be paid with a credit card (no CashBack or points or anything).

So, if you can work out quicker transfers to/from a higher yield account (either within same institution or with other) or just find a checking account with absurdly high interest (Presidential), that would give you an incremental bonus... basically of what your usual balance is in the checking account.

Simple: direct deposit straight to a Presidential savings or checking account (http://www.fatwallet.com/t/52/473281). Use presidential billpay to pay bills. Keep a free local account to deposit checks and use ACH to transfer money to Presidential.

opmnxtc said:why don't you transfer your paycheck first to hsbc? the hsbc online savings has free ach transfers in and out, but they are slow.

does your local bank have free online billpay? otherwise, get the hsbc free checking account and pay your checks using theirs.

p.s. glad to see you're one of the few people with no paypal problems. me too, and i do a lot of stuff with them.

The HSBC Online Savings is limited to 6 withdrawals a month (and I need more then that for my checks, CC payment, etc). My local bank has online billpay, but its slow (5 days before they mail out the bill payment, and money sitting in my checking account gets no interest). If I put my paycheck into the HSBC Checking account, I wouldn't get interest on it, whereas with paypal I get 4.73%.

For the person recommending the 4.5% checking account, I don't like that you have to keep a minimum balance and they have a large opening requirement.

Use citibank ez-checking and ez-savings account. Direct deposit to your Citi savings account and pour money as needed to your checking account. You will get .05% less interest compared to HSBC, but a lot less hassel IMO.

Squeezer99 said:sensia said:Use citibank ez-checking and ez-savings account. Direct deposit to your Citi savings account and pour money as needed to your checking account. You will get .05% less interest compared to HSBC, but a lot less hassel IMO.

Citi's online savings has the same problem as HSBC...limited to 6 withdrawals a month. so putting it into the savings and transferring to checking as needed wouldn't work.
If you do your transfers from a Citibank ATM, there is no limit.

What you described is only "managing your income."

Maximizing your income would be a lot broader such as career enhancement, added rental income.

how about this:

this seems to me the easiest and quickest method that would work alongside your current setup.

get a line of credit at your local bank. ask them if they will not charge interest unless you have a balance at the end of the next statement, or charge any fees when you use it. so when you need to write checks, transfer money from that credit line to your checking account. then pay the balance by transferring money from paypal to your checking account and then to your line of credit.

otherwise, just get a normal line of credit, use it as above, and then pay the balance off as above asap to minimize the fees and interest charged daily.

Ok rather than negate the Citibank option right away how about doing something similar to what I do. I have multiple accounts with Citi for one, including two of the esavings which are currently at 4.75% and I pay no fees at all. (depends how much $ you have with them)


My check is deposited into my checking account. From there I transfer all of my funds around. Some of my bills are paid through cc in order to rack up bonuses. Those which are, I just tally up the amount and pay my cc from that checking account (through Citi's online payment system.) The amount which is going into savings I transfer into one of my citi 4.75% accounts. I do keep about $100 in a regular savings/mm account between paychecks, in case I need any cash. This way, all bills are paid right away, and my max amount of cash can go towards savings. Sticking with one bank has been easier for me and less loss of float time. Of course this isn't for everyone, but for me it works.