Maybe its easy to "join" but its hard to qualify. Can't call it a nationally available account if you have to live or know someone who lives in a narrow geographic area.

What I'm trying to tell ya brother, is that it's pretty easy to qualify.

We are all related in some sort of way, right?

I found somebody in the area with the same last name. We may be related.

The Credit Union apparently does no check on your relative in the area. They did not even ask for his/her name.

That's all.

Sounds wonderful for you. Not sure why you bothered even testing eligibility when SBoT will let you open without any need to meet credit union terms.

Edited: I see that its .24% higher than SBot, so on the 30k limit that gives 6 bucks a month (a Chipotle in some states). If I never had a prayer of having more than 30k in cash I could see this being worthwhile. But still, not "open to all" and membership is available only by lying and who knows if they will check someone else's representation. Seems unlikely, granted, but one should not need to lie on an application to open an account. While risk of being called a fraud is small, consequence of fraud with patriot act, too great. Would hate to be reported as someone who lies on financial apps and wind up banned from banking

fotomaniak said:What was the reason for removing M/A-COM Federal Credit Union from quick summary?
www.macomfcu.com

One has to go into the branch locally to apply.

andoelonis said:I sent 10 $0.01 Paypal donations to a for-profit company at the beginning of this month. Today, they refunded all but one of these donations. So, my statement will show ten $0.01 purchases and nine $0.01 refunds. My credit union advertises ten Check Card transactions to qualify for the reward rate. Will I have 10 qualifying transactions, 19 qualifying transactions, or 1 qualifying transaction? Damn me for being greedy! I'll shoot off an email to my credit union; I just wanted to share.Well, you had to know it was a possibility. As I have told people, if you really can't make ten legitimate purchases in a month, these accounts probably are not for you. No reason to buy this kind of a headache. Nobody has had a problem with ten 1.00 transactions and I doubt anybody has had a problem with 10 purchases for sticks of gum if you can stomach using a debit card in person for 50 cent purchases.

Let us know what they say. "Legally" I'd agree that you did the required number of transactions, PLUS, since the refunds are also debit card transactions. I doubt the credit union will have an answer for you but you'll know on statement date! Share.

andoelonis said:I sent 10 $0.01 Paypal donations to a for-profit company...
wow! Hope they did something to deserve this!

racquetball said:After I completed SBoT online application (one page), I got a "thank you!". Did that indicate that I am done?
It means that you've completed the application, and they not have it in their system and they should mail additional information to you. I recommend you read the Quick Summary on the SBoT thread in order to get a better idea of the process. Also, it wouldn't hurt calling SBoT after a few days in order to confirm they received the application and are processing it. It's probably unnecessary, but I tend to do this type of thing regardless.

I just applied for AAFCU Max Checking account. Somewhat unusual in that for the funding online only allows credit or debit card. It does state that you can call customer service for other funding options though. So would this be a purchase or cash advance on the CC? I didn't see a thread for this, did anyone else apply/have experience with this account?

andoelonis said:DavidScubadiver said:Let us know what they say. "Legally" I'd agree that you did the required number of transactions, PLUS, since the refunds are also debit card transactions. I doubt the credit union will have an answer for you but you'll know on statement date! Share.

I checked my e-statement yesterday and lo and behold:

Qualification Period: 10/31/07 to 11/29/07
ACH Transactions: 1
Debit Card POS Transactions: 19
Annual Percentage Yield Earned (APYE) is 5.7666%

I've already purchased 10 $0.01 e-books off of eBay for this month's qualification period but next month, I'll just send a friend 5 individual pennies and have him refund me those 5 individual pennies right back. Damn, my credit union and PayPal must hate me. That's what I figured. Still, you might consider throwing them a bone and actually using your debit card now and then to buy yourself some food. There is always a chance they decide to penalize you somehow by closing the account if they feel like you are abusing them. I haven't heard of any adverse action, but nor would I want to be the first to report on it.

gwu1986 said:stfs said:I just applied for AAFCU Max Checking account. Somewhat unusual in that for the funding online only allows credit or debit card. It does state that you can call customer service for other funding options though. So would this be a purchase or cash advance on the CC? I didn't see a thread for this, did anyone else apply/have experience with this account?Was a purchase for me using SBOT credit card.

I had emailed their customer service department that replied stating it would be a cash advance. It may depend on the card used.

How hard is it to get your money out of one of thse Reward Checking accounts. Can I ACH like I do with Emmigrantdirect and INgDirect. Thinking about opening one of these accounts up.. Thanks for the info.