7 Banks Still Offering Free Checking and Great Interest Rates by Ashley Jacobs on 14 October 2011

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1 7 Banks Still Offering Free Checking and Great Interest Rates by Ashley Jacobs on 14 October 2011 Are you shopping for a new bank? CNN recently recommended 7 banks that are still offering awesome perks. Here is a more in-depth review of these banks and an overview of their best free checking accounts, savings accounts,, customer service info, ATM coverage, and links to useful resources. 1. Ally Bank ( Ally Financial has over 90 years of experience and serves over 15 million consumers and dealers. Ally Bank was named one of the Best Banks of 2011 by Money Magazine. Ally offers free checking accounts with no minimum balance requirements and no monthly maintenance fees. The APY on Ally's checking accounts is 0.40% on accounts with under $15,000 and 0.75% on accounts with over $15,000. Ally has an Online Savings Account with no minimum balance and no monthly fees. They offer a 0.95% APY and you can open your account with $0. Ally's High Yielding CD can be opened with a $0 deposit and boasts no monthly fees. For 12 months, you will get an APY of 1.04%. Ally's No Penalty CD allows you to pull out your full balance and interest after 6 days of opening your account. You can open it with $0 in deposits and get an APY of 0.95% for 11 months. Ally will reimburse you for all your ATM fees. You can open an account online at apply by phone, or open an account by mail. 24/7 Phone Number: (877) 247-ALLY 2. Capital One 360 (formerly ING Direct - Capital One 360 makes themselves available to their customers 24/7 and offers checking, savings, loans, investing, retirement, and business services to their customers. They have over 85 million clients in more than 50 countries. 7 million of these clients reside in the United States. Capital One 360 has an 360 Checking account that offers an APY of.20% for balances under $50,000 and APY's of 0.80% for balances of $50,000 and up.

2 Capital One 360's 360 Savings Account offers a 0.75% APY with no fees and no minimums. Capital One 360 offers High Interest CD, with APY's of 0.40% for up to 24 months. A 60 month CD has an APY of 0.90% and you can have your interest paid either at the end of the term, monthly, or annually. No fee if you use an ATM in the Allpoint network. No reimbursement for using an outside ATM. Find a free ATM for Capital One 360 here. You can open an account online at Phone Number: (800) sales@capitalone360.com 3. Alliant Credit Union ( Alliant Credit Union is owned and operated by its members and functions as a not-for-profit cooperative. Alliant is very causes-friendly and donates to charities including the Make a Wish Foundation, the Special Olympics, and Autism Speaks. Alliant offers a free basic checking account that requires no minimum balance. Alliant also offers a free high rate checking option (APY 1.10%) for members who opt out of paper statements and have at least one recurring electronic deposit each month. Alliant's most popular savings account is their Regular Savings account. The Regular Savings account requires a minimum balance of $5, no maximum balance, and offers a 0.80% APY on balances of $100 or more. Alliant offers a Regular Certificate for deposits ranging from $1,000 to $24,999. The APY for a Regular Certificate is as high as 1.65%. Alliant also offers a Jumbo Certificate for deposits above $25,000. The APY for a Jumbo certificate is as high as 2.20%. Free ATM use with over 80,000 ATMS available nationwide. Find an Alliant ATM at Alliant is a members-only credit union. There are several easy ways to become a member: You can join Alliant by making a one-time $10 donation to Foster to Care Success--a charity for foster teens and orphans.

3 Any person who is related by law or blood to an existing member may join. Domestic partners of unmarried members. Persons who live or work in qualifying Chicagoland Communities. Employees or members of qualifying organizations, including NCAAP, Google, Kaiser, SHRM Employees, US Airways, and JetBlue. 24/7 Phone Number: (800) Alliant Credit Union at 4. Bank of Internet USA ( Bank of Internet USA is an online bank with no physical branches. It offers its customers quality customer support, easy access, an online safety guarantee, and great rates. Bank of Internet USA is a Costco preferred lender. Bank of Internet USA offers a Rewards Checking account with an opening deposit of $100. This account requires no opening deposit, no monthly maintenance fees, and boasts an APY of up to 1.25% when you complete certain actions each month (such as making direct deposits and using bill pay). Bank of Internet USA also offers a High Interest Checking account with a minimum deposit of $500. This account has an APY of.71% and has no monthly maintenance fee as long as you maintain a balance of $5,000. With a minimum deposit of $100, customers can open a High Yielding Savings account with no minimum balance, no maintenance fees, and an API of.80%. Bank of Internet USA has Certificates of Deposits with an APY of up to 1.60% on a 60 month CD. Twelve month have an APY of up to 1.10% and a minimum of $1,000 is required to open an account. Unlimited ATM reimbursements are offered to customers. You can open an account online at boi. 24/7 Phone Number: (877) o at

4 5. Connexus Credit Union ( Connexus Credit Union aims to help their members achieve their finance objectives. They offer customized solutions to their members as well as safety and security. In 2009, Connexus was named "One of the Best Places to Store Your Cash" by Yahoo. Connexus's Xtraordinary Checking account offers APY rates of up to 1.75% on balances up to $25,000. There are no minimum account balance requirements and no monthly fees. You must use online bill pay at least once a month and have 15 debit card transactions to qualify for this account. Connexus also offers a MyRewards Checking account with APY rates of up to 1.35% on balances up to $25,000. There is no minimum account balance required and no monthly fees. You must have 10 debit card transactions to qualify for this account. Connexus Credit Union's general Savings Accounts offers an APY of up to.50%. A small minimum balance is required for this account. Connexus offers Certificates of Deposits with APY's of up to.65% for a 12 month CD with a balance of under $10,000 and 1.10% for a balance of over $10,000. Up to $25 per month in ATM reimbursements. Connexus lists all it's ATMs here: Anyone who makes a one-time $5 donation to the Connexus Association is eligible to join Employees, families, students, and alumni of Northcentral Technical College and Rasmussen College may join Employees, families, and retirees of Liberty Mutual Insurance, UMR, and their affiliates can join Online Account Signup Page here: Phone Number: (715) Incredible Bank ( Incredible Bank is a division of River Valley Bank, an institution established in They aim to offer better rates than most other online banks. Incredible Bank's goal is to keep customers financially fit by providing a high yielding checking account without making customers jump through any hoops. Incredible Bank offers their Incredible Checking account, boasting an APY of 0.88% for balances up to $249,000. An initial deposit of $1,000 is required to open the account and it is fee free.

5 N/A Incredible Bank offers the Incredible 9, 12, 13, and 19 month CD's with APY's of up to 1.31%. An initial deposit of $10,000 is required to open a CD and penalties for early withdrawal may apply. Incredible Bank will reimburse customers for all ATM fees. The only way to open an account with Incredible Bank is by doing it online. Account Signup Page Phone Number: (877) L info@incrediblebank.com 7. PerkStreet Financial ( PerkStreet Financial aims to serve it's customers best interests by giving them not only what they want, but what they need. They are the largest surcharge-free ATM network and allow you to spend responsibly and get rewarded. Media outlets including The New York Times, the Boston Globe, and CBS Los Angeles all love PerkStreet Financial's checking account. Julie Mayfield from The Family CEO, uses and writes for PerkStreet. She feels PerkStreet is "a way for customers to take back some of the control from an out-of-touch banking industry." PerkStreet Financial offers a checking account with no monthly maintenance fees for active account holders, free online banking and bill pay, 2% cash back on non-pin debit card purchases, and up to 5% on PowerPerk categories. However, it doesn't offer any interest rates. Does not offer. Does not offer. PerkStreet gives its customers access to 37,000 free ATMs for free. Find ATM's using their ATM Locator Go to PerkStreet Financial's website to open an account. Account Signup Page Free Financial Courses Perkstreet also offers "StreetSense," an course that covers several financial topics.

6 24/7 Phone Number: (866) All the banks on this list are FDIC or NCUA insured (NCUA is the Credit Union version of FDIC insurance and functions in virtually identical ways).