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Since joining Air Academy Federal Credit Union (AAFCU) is no longer available to all, and since we keep talking about it in the Reward Checking Accounts (High Yield and Available to All) thread, I decided to finally start a separate thread for discussing issues and news related to AAFCU's MAX Checking account and anything else about AAFCU.
Please post any questions, comments, or discussion regarding AAFCU here. Please also feel free to add information to the Quick Summary. Thanks!
The purpose of this thread is to discuss anything related to Air Academy Federal Credit Union (AAFCU).
AAFCU is a Colorado-based credit union that serves its surrounding community, including local Select Employee Groups, and those who are either Retired Military, Active Military, or family of same. See Who is Eligible to Join AAFCU?.
Until April 10, 2008, eligibility for joining AAFCU was open to all, by virtue of joining the Association of Graduates (AOG) of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). MikeR397''s post documents that AAFCU changed its on-line application to no longer allow membership in the AOG as meeting AAFCU's eligibility requirements. Instead, one must now be an employee of the AOG rather than a member.
Why has AAFCU been discussed so much? Mostly because it offers a product called MAAXIMUM! MAX Checking, a Reward Checking account currently at 6.01% APY, capped at $50,000. This 50K cap is extremely high compared to other Reward Checking accounts. And the 6.01% APY is guaranteed through May 2008, and possibly through June 2008. Although nothing is certain, the hope is that AAFCU won't reduce the rate on its Max Checking account too drastically when the inevitable rate decrease occurs. We shall see. Well, we did see, and on 5/8/08, AAFCU announced that it would drop its rate to 4.5% APY, effective 6/1/08.
Here is some basic information about the Max Checking account. See the MAAXIMUM Checking FAQ for additional information.
* Earn 6.01% APY on balances from $0 - $50,000.
Effective 6/1/08, the rate will drop to 4.5% APY.
* Earn 1.01% APY on balances above $50,000.
* Earn 0.25% APY if the requirements aren't met for the MAX Checking account.
* ATM refunds up to $25 per cycle (limited to $4.99 per item) if requirements are met.
* No hard credit inquiry when applying for the MAX Checking account.
* The AAFCU routing number is 307070021.
Requirements for the MAX Checking account:
* 12 Check Card Transactions - Check card transactions must be signature (credit) based to qualify. PIN based transactions are not eligible.
* Receive Electronic Statements
* One direct deposit (DD) or ACH Auto Debit to/from your MAAXIMUM Checking Account. ACH "pushes" from other financial institutions or ACH "pulls" (for example, paying your phone bill from your phone company's website by specifying the AAFCU routing number and your MAX Checking account number) both satisfy this requirement.
In order to meet the check card transaction and DD/ACH requirements for the current month, they must post to your account between the last business day of the prior month and the next-to-last business day of the current month. From the MAX Checking FAQ:
For example, to earn 6.01%/1.01% APY and ATM surcharge fee refunds during the month of November 2007, you must meet the requirements between October 31 and November 29.
Example start date: October 31
Example end date: November 29
Another very appealing feature of the MAX Checking account was that, until recently, you could have an unlimited number of accounts. Although only one MAX Checking account was allowed per membership, one could have multiple memberships. As long as one were willing to meet the above requirements for each MAX Checking account, then one could have as many MAX checking accounts as one wanted.
Recently however, AAFCU has placed a restriction of one MAX Checking account per SSN. So a person with a spouse could now only have a maximum of two MAX Checking accounts, one under each primary owner's SSN. (These accounts could be joint or single-owned accounts.) There is no such restriction on the number of other products that AAFCU offers, such as CDs.
AAFCU no longer allows more than one membership under a given primary SSN.
AAFCU On-line New Membership/MAX Checking Account Application.
For more information about Reward Checking accounts in general, see Reward Checking Accounts - Issues and Discussion Thread.
For information about using charitable contributions as a method of meeting Reward Checking account transaction requirements, see Automatic $1.00 Monthly Donations To Qualify For Reward Offers.
Is the following still true?
Spouses can open 4 Max Checking accounts by titling their accounts as follows:
1) Wife, individual
2) Husband, individual
3) Wife and Husband, joint (Wife as primary owner)
4) Husband and Wife, joint (Husband as primary owner)
I managed to open 7 accounts before they started restricting by SSNs, but I would be able to open one more if the above is correct.
EDIT: Looks like I misinterpreted previous postings in the Reward thread. See glx's response below.
lhendricks92 said:Is the following still true?
Spouses can open 4 Max Checking accounts by titling their accounts as follows:
1) Wife, individual
2) Husband, individual
3) Wife and Husband, joint (Wife as primary owner)
4) Husband and Wife, joint (Husband as primary owner)
I managed to open 7 accounts before they started restricting by SSNs, but I would be able to open one more if the above is correct.
My understanding is that it's the primary SSN on the account that is the limiting factor. It would be nice if AAFCU separated their requirement by ownership class, similar to how NCUA or FDIC insurance works, but I don't think that's the case.
what r you guys doing to satisfy the rquirements?
do they care if there are 12 small on-line purchases and all are done on the same day from the same merchant?
TIA
I have iMacro scripts that pay my embarq bill in $1 increments. Satisfied my May requirements yesterday morning in about 10 minutes.
I've paid Comcast, QWest, Sprint, etc. $1 at a time on numerous occasions when I had to "top off" my monthly charges. They did call once to ask if a series of $1 charges was mine; other than that, in 6 months I've never had an issue, and have always gotten the correct 6.01% interest.
glxpass said:lhendricks92 said:Is the following still true?
Spouses can open 4 Max Checking accounts by titling their accounts as follows:
1) Wife, individual
2) Husband, individual
3) Wife and Husband, joint (Wife as primary owner)
4) Husband and Wife, joint (Husband as primary owner)
I managed to open 7 accounts before they started restricting by SSNs, but I would be able to open one more if the above is correct.
My understanding is that it's the primary SSN on the account that is the limiting factor. It would be nice if AAFCU separated their requirement by ownership class, similar to how NCUA or FDIC insurance works, but I don't think that's the case.I have specifically asked them this. glxplass is correct, it is limited by SSN. They currently do not make seperate distinctions on asset class, like FDIC does for allowing insurance.
Also, there is no way they can structure it so that the "primary SSN" for their purposees is not the one who gets the tax burden. So basically, it is one per person now, and the primary person must pay the taxes as usual.
fotomaniak said:what r you guys doing to satisfy the rquirements?
do they care if there are 12 small on-line purchases and all are done on the same day from the same merchant?
TIAWhen I buy groceries with those self check out things, sometimes I just buy a few items seperately. Also, I sometimes just do a few $1 squirts of gas (yes that is all you get these days for $1). Also works well with $1.85 coffees.
I have three of these cards from AAFCU before they made the SSN limit. I'll probably be opening more reward accounts at the $25k level soon. When the puchases get to much of a burden, I have just been donating $1 to random associations (see the links in the reward checkings). It is really a easy process, takes about 15 minutes to do it each month. Probably have to put up with this until helicopter ben raises rates to fight of this ridiculous inflation.
so Air Academy does not care if you make 12 $1 purchases?
I've tried that once with M/A Com and was told that my account will be closed due to suspicious activity if this happens again
fotomaniak said:so Air Academy does not care if you make 12 $1 purchases?
I've tried that once with M/A Com and was told that my account will be closed due to suspicious activity if this happens again They do not care. But obvioulsy if you can, just use the card normally some. It is a little obvious if you just have 12 $1 payments, rather than some normal $5-$10 purchases mixed in as well. Especially if you have $50k in there.
Added some links to the Quick Summary:
Reward Checking Accounts - Issues and Discussion Thread
Automatic $1.00 Monthly Donations To Qualify For Reward Offers.
glxpass said:lhendricks92 said:Is the following still true?
Spouses can open 4 Max Checking accounts by titling their accounts as follows:
1) Wife, individual
2) Husband, individual
3) Wife and Husband, joint (Wife as primary owner)
4) Husband and Wife, joint (Husband as primary owner)
I managed to open 7 accounts before they started restricting by SSNs, but I would be able to open one more if the above is correct.
My understanding is that it's the primary SSN on the account that is the limiting factor. It would be nice if AAFCU separated their requirement by ownership class, similar to how NCUA or FDIC insurance works, but I don't think that's the case.
I saw this in their FAQ (I think this is a recent addition):
Can I open multiple MAAXIMUM Checking accounts?
• No, each member is allowed to have only one MAAXIMUM Checking account.
As glxpass has mentioned several times before (and confirmed by others in the other thread), the SSN of the member is the limiting factor. Joint account owners are not necessarily members, unless they get a separate membership. And AFAIK, an individual can have only one membership.
uutxs said:glxpass said:lhendricks92 said:Is the following still true?
Spouses can open 4 Max Checking accounts by titling their accounts as follows:
1) Wife, individual
2) Husband, individual
3) Wife and Husband, joint (Wife as primary owner)
4) Husband and Wife, joint (Husband as primary owner)
I managed to open 7 accounts before they started restricting by SSNs, but I would be able to open one more if the above is correct.
My understanding is that it's the primary SSN on the account that is the limiting factor. It would be nice if AAFCU separated their requirement by ownership class, similar to how NCUA or FDIC insurance works, but I don't think that's the case.
I saw this in their FAQ (I think this is a recent addition):
Can I open multiple MAAXIMUM Checking accounts?
• No, each member is allowed to have only one MAAXIMUM Checking account.
As glxpass has mentioned several times before (and confirmed by others in the other thread), the SSN of the member is the limiting factor. Joint account owners are not necessarily members, unless they get a separate membership. And AFAIK, an individual can have only one membership.
Unless I misunderstood the CSR, one person can still have multiple memberships, but only 1 MAX Checking account under their SSN. Of course, those who already had multiple MAX Checking accounts before the new policy started have been grandfathered in. Note that the primary SSN on the account is the same as the SSN the AAFCU membership is under.
MikeR397 said:fotomaniak said:so Air Academy does not care if you make 12 $1 purchases?
I've tried that once with M/A Com and was told that my account will be closed due to suspicious activity if this happens again They do not care. But obvioulsy if you can, just use the card normally some. It is a little obvious if you just have 12 $1 payments, rather than some normal $5-$10 purchases mixed in as well. Especially if you have $50k in there.
I fully agree. It is not really that hard to make a few small "regular" transactions. Just buy what you normally would and charge a small item to this card.
Does AAFCU do a hard pull?
I have an account and can't remember if they did or not. I know that my local credit union did when I signed up for their rewards checking.
DuckFan said:Does AAFCU do a hard pull?
I have an account and can't remember if they did or not. I know that my local credit union did when I signed up for their rewards checking.
Nope, at least not for me or my DW.
Nm. Answered above.
kjgco said:DuckFan said:Does AAFCU do a hard pull?
I have an account and can't remember if they did or not. I know that my local credit union did when I signed up for their rewards checking.
Nope, at least not for me or my DW.
Great! Thank you!
OP: Suggest highlighting the "next-to-last day" aspect of the monthly qualification period. See below excerpt from FAQ. This is esp. important if you're relying on an employer direct deposit that's made on the last day of the month.
Also, FWIW, I've found that transfer pulls initiated from GMAC and BofA "count" toward the DD/ACH requirement.
Between the last business day of the month and the next to last business day of the following month. For example, to earn 6.01%/1.01% APY and ATM surcharge fee refunds during the month of November 2007, you must meet the requirements between October 31 and November 29.
Example start date: October 31
Example end date: November 29
