fallenpanda said:bksavings said:I just got hit with a $7 "eBill payer fee" from M/A-COM FCU, on my reward checking account. I called up and was told that fee is applied if you don't use the eBill payer for 3 months.

I just set up a small recurring billpay amount to one of my cards.

Wait is the eBill thing something you signed up for? Or is it something that comes with Rew Checking? Maan..I thought I caught all the between-the-liners.
It's their on-line bill payer service. I didn't see anything about a charge for it, in fact, one of the bank's reward checking account requirements, to do one bill pay with this OR one ach/direct deposit debit/credit.

therivler1 said:RudolfSchmidt said:I just pulled my funds out of Coulee Rewards Checking because they screwed me out of the "bonus interest." I assumed that two test deposits made from an external account would satisfy the direct deposit requirement, since nowhere did I ever see a minimum amount mentioned, but just to be sure, I asked near the end if I had met all the requirements. Coulee told me I had, but after the statement closed they turned around and told me I hadn't. When I complained, they replied that "the rules are very strict", which is a laugh because Coulee is very vague up front about the specific requirements.
ACH deposit must be at least $1

Unfortunately, you have to come to FW to learn that. Coulee won't tell you until you've lost a month of interest.

mm04 said:bksavings said:fallenpanda said:bksavings said:I just got hit with a $7 "eBill payer fee" from M/A-COM FCU, on my reward checking account.

What credit union is "M/A-COM"?
MFCU *Rewards* Checking - 6% APY, 10K Cap, No Longer Available to All.

^
Thanks glxpass. There are too may players in this field with >6% APY/$25,000 cap to even consider them.

I suppose FWer's prefer to use rewards cards whenever they can. So the 10 or 12 transactions is a cost to them when they have to use a rewardless debit card...I can imagine cable companies get paid with 10 or 12 transactions of 1 buck each every month. But the banks offering these reward checking accounts that are wise to this, can close your account, which must be troubling to FWer's that are "working the system".

1% * 200 bucks is a monthly reward of 2 bucks. 2*12=$24.00 per year. 3% higher APR up to 25K = $750.00 per yr.

So I suppose the plan is for FWer's to max out their rewards Checking account with 25K and use the debit card 10 or 12 times for a total of about 200 bucks to mask what they are doing.

ES

ElectricSavant said:I suppose FWer's prefer to use rewards cards whenever they can. So the 10 or 12 transactions is a cost to them when they have to use a rewardless debit card...I can imagine cable companies get paid with 10 or 12 transactions of 1 buck each every month. But the banks offering these reward checking accounts that are wise to this, can close your account, which must be troubling to FWer's that are "working the system".

1% * 200 bucks is a monthly reward of 2 bucks. 2*12=$24.00 per year. 3% higher APR up to 25K = $750.00 per yr.

So I suppose the plan is for FWer's to max out their rewards Checking account with 25K and use the debit card 10 or 12 times for a total of about 200 bucks to mask what they are doing.

ES

ES: an excellent point (I don't agree that 1% is the best reward rate, but your reasoning is very good).

The way to lengthen the shelf life of the rewards checking accounts is to devise usage schemes that are harder for banks to detect.

A typical rewards checking subscriber does exactly this:

1. Deposit $25K, i.e., maximum $ limit to receive the high APR,
2. Uses the debit card exactly 12 times, each for $1.01 charged to "Comcast" (or gas, or worse, $0.01 to paypal),
3. Pushes one direct deposit in the amount of $5,
4. and satisfies the remaining requirements,

the bank very quickly finds out what is going on.

For example, if the FWF folks could collectively agree and do the following:

1. Deposit amount significantly less than $25K, e.g., something random like $17,658,
2. Use the debit card a lot for small purchases, and once or twice for something big that otherwise would only earn 1-1.25% reward, keeping the total maybe under $300,
3. Push a higher deposit amount, maybe even push a real direct deposit for some random amount, like $500, and maybe even do a real auto-debit, e.g., for electric, cable, or whatever,

Then the bank would bleed money much more slowly, and it will take them much longer to figure out what is going on.

Of course, FWF-ers make less money, proportionalely to what they have invested in the account, but the deal lasts much longer.

I might have inadvertently stumbled upon a way to meet a Reward Checking account's ACH requirement when one is up against the end of the qualification period. I just realized yesterday that I had 2 Reward Checking accounts for which I'd not yet made ACH transactions, and the ACH transactions needed to post today at the latest. I'd set the accounts up as external accounts at Citibank, and would normally use their free, next-day ACH transfer to send money to these accounts -- except that I missed the cut-off time for next-day delivery. This all happened around 4:30pm Pacific Time.

I then went to my BoA's on-line banking in order to see what ACH options I had with them. They charge $10 per outgoing next-day ACH transaction, and I hadn't even set up the necessary external accounts with them. So I set up the two Reward Checking accounts with BoA as external transfer accounts, expecting to see the trial deposits hit those accounts in 2 - 3 business days, as the screen said.

This morning I logged into the Reward Checking accounts and saw the trial deposts from BoA with today's posting date! That's about a 24 hour transfer time, if not less. So, if the Reward Checking FI accepts these trial deposits as valid ACH transactions, I should be fine.

It seems that BoA sends their trial ACH deposits *really* quickly -- at least, in this case.

sushiosushi said:glxpass said:I might have inadvertently stumbled upon a way to meet a Reward Checking account's ACH requirement when one is up against the end of the qualification period.

Why not just set it to auto-debit to Citibank once a month via Citibank website? Seems easier than doing it manually each month.
You're right that some sort of automated transaction would make my life easier; thanks for the suggestion. In the meantime, I thought the information might benefit those in similar situations to mine.

RudolfSchmidt said:After I pulled all of my funds out of Coulee last month and expressed my dissatisfaction with their shady practices, they closed my account without my specific request to do so, thereby confiscating whatever nickels and dimes they still owed me in interest. Altogether just a miserable bank.
Can you explain what "shady practices" you were dissatisfied with?

RudolfSchmidt said:therivler1 said:RudolfSchmidt said:I just pulled my funds out of Coulee Rewards Checking because they screwed me out of the "bonus interest." I assumed that two test deposits made from an external account would satisfy the direct deposit requirement, since nowhere did I ever see a minimum amount mentioned, but just to be sure, I asked near the end if I had met all the requirements. Coulee told me I had, but after the statement closed they turned around and told me I hadn't. When I complained, they replied that "the rules are very strict", which is a laugh because Coulee is very vague up front about the specific requirements.
ACH deposit must be at least $1

Unfortunately, you have to come to FW to learn that. Coulee won't tell you until you've lost a month of interest.
IANAL, but it sounds like the $1 ACH requirement is illegal, or at least a violation of FDIC requirements. See here. An excerpt:

livedog said:FDIC has requirements for reward checking accounts:
"Banks may not require that transactions be of a certain dollar value (individually or in aggregate)."
http://www.complianceheadquarters.com/Documents/fdic-chiro-05-2007.pdf

That being said, I've seen postings that some Reward Checking accounts close your account if it looks like you are using it differently than they intended.

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