My Quest for More Money

I love money. I love getting more money. Who the hell doesn't? Well, my U.S. Bank checking account doesn't really. It kind of settles for the money it's got, which isn't good enough for me anymore. Recently I began a search for a checking account and/or savings account that actually gets me more money. You know, that "interest" stuff they talk about. I want an account that doesn't just settle for the money I give it, but does a little something for me. Now, U.S. Bank doesn't really have any solid accounts for people like me: struggling college students who don't have enough in their bank accounts to keep a $500 minimum balance or pay some ridiculous monthly maintenance fee. So I went looking, and I'm pleasantly surprised at what I found.

That title may be a bit misleading, but I figured it would at least get you to read the first paragraph. That must be my quest for readership talking, but I guess it worked! Anyways, I was looking around on the internet for a while, kind of skimming the surface of this whole thing, and found Oregon Community Credit Union. A few of my friends use it, and I've heard nothing but good things about it, so I figured I'd look into it. What I found was OCCU offers a checking account (I repeat, CHECKING) that, if you meet 4 specific requirements, offers a 4.5% annual yield. I did some quick math and realized yes, 4.5% on my money is better than 0% on my money. So I checked into the requirements, which are as follows.

• One must have active enrollment in eStatements.
• This is the OCCU's online bank statement program. I have a feeling this requirement is a CYA type of thing so that you become more responsible for monitoring your own account. Whatever it's for, it's not a problem for me to do.
  
• One must login to Internet Banking at least once per cycle.
• I do this almost daily as it is, not a problem.
  
• One must make one electronic deposit or withdrawal (ACH) per cycle (includes direct deposit).
• This confused me until I actually talked to an employee about it. I don't have a job, so direct deposit is a no go, but I found that an ACH withdrawl is basically anything that deducts funds from your account using your routing and account numbers. I asked if PayPal satisfied that, and she said yes. I do a lot of online shopping, and use PayPal whenever I can, so this shouldn't be a problem either.
  
• One must make at least ten cleared debit card transactions per cycle.
• The least likely to ever be a problem. I spend.

All of these have to be satisfied each cycle for me to remain eligible, but I think it should be no problem. Also, if I satisfy them all each month, I get ATM fee refunds, meaning I can use any ATM I want, and at the end of the month OCCU refunds any fees I may have been charged.

That sounded awesome, and I am currently in the process of signing up for that.

However, I still wanted a savings account as sort of a "don't touch this money" account so I could start putting something together for when I graduate (a.k.a. start my life). OCCU gives me one with my checking account, but it's only a 0.5% yield, so I'd rather not have it if my checking is so good. But I still wanted a separate account for saving.

So, just as I'm looking around today, an article on Digg came up and answered my question. The article is called "Reader's Choice: The Best High-Yield Online Savings Banks." Perfect. Basically a Consumer Reports on savings accounts. It listed 10 banks, in order from best to 10th-best:

1. ING Direct
2. Emigrant Direct
3. FNBO Direct
4. Washington Mutual
5. HSBC Direct
6. AmTrust Direct
7. E*Trade Bank
8. Bank of America
9. WT Direct
10. USAA

So I browsed the list (which is from Five Cent Nickle, a personal finance blog, and the list, complete with links, can be found here). It gives a little overview with links to the sites, which are helpful. As you can see, the winner was ING Direct's "Orange Savings Account" with no fees, no minimums, and a better than average yield (3.00%). Also, it can just be linked to any checking account, so I don't need to ditch the OCCU account. Sounds great! Now, one thing that I was a bit skeptical about was the minimum amount required to open the account as this is a money market account and those usually have minimums, which I figured would be more than I had, but it's not. There isn't a minimum. To give you a little perspective, the OCCU money market account (which is insured by the National Credit Union Administration to boot) only offers a 0.99% yield on amounts from $500-2,500, $500 being the minimum you can have in there. Compare that with 3.00% and no minimum. So I think, after I get my checking account with OCCU up and running, I'm going to open one of these. It's a good deal, it's easy, and it's web-based. Perfect for me.


It looks like U.S. Bank has lost the match. Although there's a chance I may switch back to them when I get into a retirement plan (which should really be asap, but I need an income first), but for right now, I think it's Oregon Community Credit Union and ING Direct for me.

Now, I really want to hear from anyone that's done this before, knows anything about it, has any suggestions, any advice, etc. Any of that would be greatly appreciated, as I know relatively nothing on the topic. Drop me a comment. Thanks.