In the end, the customer eventually pays for the convenience of any banking account. Does free checking really mean “free”? Banks gain money by charging more for writing checks and offering lower interest rates to customers with accounts that pay a rate of interest by the bank. The fees charged by some banks can be downright unreasonable. Some banks charge fees for not maintaining a minimum balance thus inconveniencing the poorest of their customers. Banks can even reward their richer customers by paying out a higher rate of interest on a jumbo CD investment of over $100 thousand dollars. ATM fees can even make a dent in the wallet. One that frequents the ATM should survey the surrounding area for numerous machines. If one takes advantage of a competing bank ATM one might have to pay a fee of for the privilege. Acquiring overdraft protection is almost always a smart move because the overdraft fee is typically less than the fee charged to bounce the check plus the late payment cost of missing the payment. The overdraft protection allows the bank to pay a check even though the customer does not have sufficient funds available in the checking account. Credit card companies can charge a lot of dough for a single late payment. Credit card holders that receive late payment fees can call in and ask for forgiveness if the customer has a long history of making payments on time normally.

The power of inflation can easily destroy any interest gained from an interest bearing bank account. This periodic increase in the cost of goods and services can hurt the average consumer even at a lower levels of inflation. To make matters even more confusing, banks can opt different methods to calculate interest earned on an account. This is why almost all banks publish the annual percentage yield, or APY. The Annual Percentage Yield can be easily compared from bank to bank whereas APR, or annual percentage rate, can be calculated differently and therefore is not a good number to use to compare rates. Typically certificates of deposit tend to earn a higher rate of interest compared to online savings accounts and interest bearing checking accounts. The amount of time that the CD investment is locked in for is determined at the time the account is opened. Cashing in the CD early will likely incur some type of penalty from the investor’s bank. The minimum balance requirement can also be very different so those looking to invest in a certificate of deposit must pay attention to minimums in most cases.

How does one know how to find the best deal in banking? The customer should know himself or herself well first to be able to make smart decisions with money and banking. Some monthly facts to gather include:

• How much is spent on rent
• What is the cost of food/dining/entertainment
• How much is the monthly car payment and auto insurance
• What percentage of income will go toward savings
• How often does one need to visit the automated teller machine (ATM)
• How many checks are written per month
• Are bills paid online
• Should some money need to be put aside for other costs

The right bank will be the one that suits the individual’s needs the greatest. Some bank accounts will work out better for some people depending on these variables. It does not hurt to go in and visit a bank branch in person to get a free consultation however most of this information is readily available online. There is an exception to this though since brick and mortar banks also have the option to offer different rates in the bank branches from their online banking division partners. There is no standard here, the interest rates can be higher or lower and it really just depends on the bank that one is working with. Internet only banks must be delt with differently. For one to invest hard earned money in an unknown bank, the FDIC website should be checked to ensure that the bank actually has FDIC insurance. A malicious hacker can easily copy and paste in the FDIC logo in hopes to fool some unwitting victim with the promise of much higher than normal interest rates.

Special 30 Month Certificate (Share/ IRA/ ESA)
$18,000 Minimum – 2.50% APY

Special 18 Month CD (Share/ IRA/ ESA)
$10,000 Initial Balance – 1.65% Annual Percentage Yield

Special EasyStart 1 Year Certificate (Share/ IRA/ ESA)
Low $50 Min Deposit – 2.90%

1. Open your BofA checking account by July 31, 2009
2. Make at least one Bank of America Check Card transaction within 30 days
3. Maintain a $500 minimum balance in your new checking account for the first 30 days
4. Mention offer code ZJVSF0509 when opening the account

First there is a minimum of $1500 required to open a new business money market account with EverBank.
Second there can be a monthy fee of $14.95 assed if the average balance during the month is less than $5000. This could potentially negate any interest gained. For example the current money market rates for balances less than $10,000 is only 1.01% APR, 1.02% APY so the monthly interest earned on 5000 dollars at this rate would only be about $4.25 netting a $10.70 loss per month.
Third there is a limit of 6 transfers and/or withdrawals per month, and only 3 can be checks.

Here are a couple of their business money market account rates:

• $100,000 – $249,999 account balance: 1.40% APR, 1.41% APY
• $50,000 – $99,999 account balance: 1.15% APR, 1.16% APY

usbank car loans

Highlights:

• No down payment
• Up to 90 days until the first pmt
• Low rates and flexible terms
• Quick and easy application process

I’ve been banking with USB for years and I haven’t had any major problems with them. In person banking is somewhat limited since the closest branch closes at 5pm daily, 6pm on Fridays. Their online banking is decent-online bill pay is free and reliable.

these money market rates are good for those with less than 10,000 dollars in the bank. investments that are greater than $10000 will gain more interest money in capitalone.com’s online savings account. their high yield savings account rate is 2.27% APY for balances over 10000 but it is only 1.20% APY if the average daily balance is less than ten thousand dollars.

The most interest earned on any given month with this 4.5% annual percentage rate is about $37.50. Subtract the ten dollar monthly service fee and there remains $27.50 in interest earned per month. The minimum to keep in this checking account is about $2666 to break even with the monthly service charge.

US First Credit Union is NCUA insured for up to $250,000 per account holder for a total of up to $500,000 per bank.

There’s only one requirement that must be met in order to receive this best checking account rate:
Just make 10 Evantage MasterCard (their provided debit card) transactions per month.
That’s it! Real easy to do: use it to buy coffee and the 10 purchases per month are easily completed. EvantageBank is FDIC insured for up to $250,000 for single accounts and up to $500,000 for joint accounts.

1. a minimum of 15 purchases must be posted to the account per calendar month with the provided central pacific bank visa check card (this is a debit card that will deduct money from the checking account). additional purchases past the first 15 do not roll over to be counted on the next month.
2. there must be at least one direct deposit into this interest bearing checking account per month.
3. must be enrolled in check safekeeping service every month (customers can still view checks online).
4. the 4.00% high interest rate only applies if all of the above conditions are met and only to balances under $25000. addiitional funds in the account in excess of $25000 will only earn the lower rate (currently .05% apy).

given this information one can calculate the most interest interest earned in any given month with the high rate: about 83 bucks (figured it out with this cd interest calculator). not too shabby if all the requirements are met every single month and there is only $25,000 in the account. there’s no reason to keep more than the max since a higher interest rate can be earned from many different online banks. as a matter of fact many normal investment banks have higher rates than .05% on most no risk investments.

taken from the citigroup corporate website:

Citi’s diverse portfolio include Citi Cards, CitiFinancial, CitiMortgage, CitiInsurance, Primerica, Diners Club, Citi Private Bank, and CitiCapital.

ingdirect is an online bank that does business on the internet, by mail, and over the phone.  They have the normal investment products (certificates of deposit, savings, IRAs, business CDs, ira CDs, interest bearing checking accounts, business savings accounts) as well as regular bank lending products (home mortgages, home loans.)  There are IngDirect cafes in Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, New York City, Wilmington, and St, Cloud.

Taken from the ING DIRECT website:

Our unique approach to banking is backed by ING (NYSE:ING), a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset management to over 60 million private, corporate and institutional clients in more than 50 countries. ING employs over 112,000 people in 50 countries, including more than 10,000 in the US, and has been operating in America for over 100 years. ING DIRECT is a member of the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) which insures bank deposits up to $250,000.

Make sure the online bank is an FDIC insured financial institution. Also look for the highest savings rates and highest CD rates before investing money.