MyCardBlog » Banking News

$100 Checking Account Bonus from FlagStar Bank

David — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:00:39 +0000

Flagstar Bank is offer sign up bonus for opening a new checking account with direct deposit. The lates mention of the Flagstar Bank is in September 2008. During last promotion, FlagStar Bank is offering up to $500 gas card for opening a new checking account with required banking activities. Flagstar is the largest publicly traded savings bank headquartered in the Midwest United States (Troy, MI). The bank currently operates 171 banking centers (as of September 2008) in Michigan, Indiana and Georgia.

This promotion is advertised on its website www.flagstar.com. This offer requires new customers to make a monthly direct deposit of a least $250. You have to open a checking account at Flagstar banking centers to get the bonus. You have to make sure that the customer service enter the promotion code HD.

Some key points to get the $100 bonus:

New checking account customers only
Minimum opening deposit is $50
Recurring direct deposit of $250 each month
$100 will be deposited into your account within 30 days after first direct deposit
Account must remain open and active for a minimum of 6 months

Fine print:

$100 deposit available for new checking account customers only (no existing Flagstar checking account). For a limited time, open a new personal checking account with an automatic, recurring direct deposit of income of at least $250 per month, excluding interest deposits, and we’ll deposit $100 into your account within 30 days after the first recurring direct deposit takes place. Minimum opening deposit is $50. Direct deposit must be established within first 60 days of account opening. All accounts must remain open and active for a minimum of six months. If checking account is closed within the first six months, Flagstar reserves the right to reclaim the $100 deposit. See your Flagstar representative for more details. Flagstar will issue a 1099 for the $100. Offer not good in conjunction with any other coupons or checking account offers.

No expiration date is indicated on the website. Printable flyer of this promotion is available here.

Flagstar Bank’s checking accounts are really great which offer no monthly service fees and free checks. Branches are only in Michigan, Indiana and Georgia.

Get up to $215 from HomeStreet Bank

David — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:00:17 +0000

Under current financial situation, it is really difficult to see great banking promotions from our banks. I haven’t discovered any banking promotions in the past several weeks. The most recent banking promotion is the $100 bonus from WaMu. This is targeted offer only those received the mail or email from WaMu containing the promotion codes are eligible to receive the $100 bonus.

Today I noticed that the HomeStreet Bank, one of the largest private banks in the Northwest and Hawaii, is offering a huge banking promotion to its new customers. You can earn up to $215 from HomeStreet Bank for opening an eligible checking account and finish required banking activities.

This offer is only available in HomeStreet Bank branches. Open a new personal checking account at a HomeStreet Bank branch and complete the following activities for the full $215:

Sign up for Direct Deposit—earn $75-Make direct deposit with a minimum of $500 a month for 2 consecutive months and you will get $75.

Use your Visa Check Card—earn $75-Use your Visa check card to make 10 purchases or payments each month for 2 consecutive months and you will get $75.

Pay your bills online—earn $30-Enroll in FREE Online Banking and Bill Payer, pay a minimum of 3 bills each month for 2 consecutive months and you’ll get $30.

Sign up for e-statements—earn $10-Enroll in FREE Online Banking and sign up to receive FREE e-statements—get an easy $10.

$25 for Check and Check Card-Give HomeStreet Bank your checks and/or check card from your current account at another financial institution and you can get $25!

HomeStreet Bank has branches in WA, OR, and HI. You can find a branch here. Promotion ends on March 31, 2009.

Fine print:

Offer available November 12, 2008 through March 31, 2009, and applies to new personal checking accounts opened at a HomeStreet Bank branch only. Business accounts and accounts opened online do not qualify for this offer.

This is a great opportunity for residents at OR, HI and WA.

Macy’s Customers (Debit Card Users) May Have Been Charged Twice

David — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:00:13 +0000

If you shopped at Macy’s during the days before the Christmas, you should probably look at your bank account. According to the latest news, a computer error may have led to thousands of Macy’s customers being overcharged the weekend before Christmas. Of course, this computer glitch only applied to debit card shoppers.

Costumers who used their debit cards as the payment method at Macy’s were double or even triple charged for purchases made that day (December 20th between 1:00 and 2:45 pm.). The glitch only occurred on debit card purchases, those made with credit cards were not affected.

According to the spokesman at Macy’s, Macy’s had a system issue on Saturday, Dec. 20, from 1 to 2:45 p.m. at stores in Macy’s Central and East divisions, which may have caused multiple charges to some customers’ checking accounts. The problem has been identified and corrected now.

Macy’s Central division has 236 stores in 18 states in the South and Midwest. And the East division operates 253 stores in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Macy’s won’t tell us how many people were affected by the computer glitch. I believe there are a lot of customers were affected by this computer error especailly during the holiday season.

How to correct this problem?

If you used debit card as payment method at the checkout, you should closed monitor your checking account. If you dins any errors on your bank statement, you should contact Macy’s immediately. You can send a fax of your bank statements to 513-573-2433 and label it “Attention: Third Party Credit.” Macy’s should have the correct materials to credit the money to your accounts.

Angry Bank of America’s Customer Call 911 and Say the Bank Is Being Robbed

David — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:00:02 +0000

Bank of America is always offering $75 to $100 sign up bonus for its MyAccess Free Checking Account. This account features no minimum balance requirement, no direct deposit requirement and no monthly fees. However, a very obvious problem with Bank of America is the overdraft fees. Many Bank of America customers are reported to pay huge amount of overdraft fees to Bank of America. My post “Get Overdraft Fees Back from Bank of America by Writing to Their CEO” is very popular and helped a lot people get the overdraft fees back from Bank of America.

Today I am going to briefly introduce a funny story happened between Bank of America and a customer.

According to the report at Herald News, a Bank of America customer who was unhappy with the service his received at a local Bank of America branch simply dialed 911 and reported a robbery. “As odd as it sounds, we took a bank robbery (call) from the bank robber,” Lt. Ken Teppel said.

According to the police, the man had attempted withdrawing some money that the bank had a hold on. When the bank wouldn’t release the funds. Then the suspect indicated that he was going to shut the bank down.

As reported by the newspaper, after about 15 to 20 minutes of talking by phone with the branch’s employees from the parking lot, police determined the bank was not, in fact, being robbed. They promptly entered the building and arrested suspect.

SO here comes the suggestion for most Bank of America customers:”if you feel angry with the service received at the local branch, please don’t call 911 but the 800 number.

$100 Checking Account from WaMu

David — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:00:35 +0000

Washington Mutual has already been sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co in this September. The previous WaMu free checking account and high yield savings account is a great combination to enjoy high interest rate from a good savings account and an easy to use checking account. This combination is reviewed here.

Today I received an email and a mail from WaMu which is offering $100 bonus for opening a free checking account at WaMu.

The email stated that:”As a valued WaMu Credit Card customer, you may have heard that we’ve joined forces with Chase, one of America’s largest banks. To celebrate our bright future, we’re offering you $100 simply for opening a WaMu Free Checking account.”

It seems that this offer is targeted to WaMu Credit Card customers. There is a promotion code came with the email. Mine is 0070-ADCR-8845. This offer ends on 01/24/2009. The online application page can be found through this link.

WaMu Free Checking Account features:

FREE Access to over 14,000 WaMu & Chase ATMs nationwide
FREE Checks
FREE WaMu® Debit MasterCard® with $0 Liability Fraud Coverage
FREE Online Banking with Bill Pay
One overdraft or bounced check fee waived per year

The $100 bonus is a sweet deal, especially when this account only requires you to make $100 initial deposit to receive $100 bonus (no direct deposit is required!).

Plus if you use the WaMu Debit MasterCard comes with your free checking account, you have the chance to win $1,000 per day!

WaMu is running a sweepstake for the WaMu debit MasterCard users. Each time you sign for purchases between November 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008, you will be entered for a chance to win the daily prize of a $1,000 gift card. You’ll also be automatically entered to win the grand prize of $50,000 on New Year’s Eve. Please note that only the signature based transactions are counted. The details can be found here.

$200 Checking Account Bonus from MB Financial Bank

David — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:00:34 +0000

MB Financial Bank is offering up to $200 checking account bonus for new customers. This is a new promotion for opening a free checking account with direct deposit. MB Financial Bank offered a similar promotion back to this March. $200 is a pretty good deal considering current financial environ. If you are a resident of IL and IN, you are eligible to receive up to $200 bonus from MB Financial Bank.

Details of this promotion can be found here. It’s a pdf version of the promotional flyer. The promotion was also indicated on the front page of the MB Financial Bank at the News and Updates section. (shown below)

To get the $200 bonus, here’s all you do:

Open an MB Free Checking account with monthly direct payroll deposit, sign up for a MB Debit MasterCard and make at least 12 signature-based debit card transactions each month – it’s that simple!

Each month that you have your payroll check direct deposited and you make at least 12 signature-based debit card transactions, MB Financial Bank will credit your account with $50 – up to a total of $200!

Fine print:

Minimum balance to open a checking account is $50. Promotional payments will be made in monthly installments of $50 each, providing the following transactions take place in a given month: 1) payroll check direct deposit of at least $250, and 2) at least 12 signature-based debit card transactions. After both types of transaction are made, $50 promotional credits will be made in the first week of the month following the month. You have 6 months to complete the monthly transaction requirements and earn all four $50 credits. The promotional payment will only be made to accounts that are open at the time of the crediting. If the account is closed within six months of opening the bank reserves the right to debit back the promotional payment.

The free checking account offered by MB Finacial features free of monthly service fees and free online bill pay. The accounts opened at MB Fianancial Bank are all FDIC insured.

Note: there will be a hard pull during the account opening process.

$50 Bonus from ShareBuilder

David — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 11:00:15 +0000

ShareBuilder.com is a famous online stock brokerage firm founded in 1996 and now it’s an ING company (purchased by ING in November 2007). ShareBuilder built its name by having low commissions and easy-to-use online interface. ShareBuilder also provides service for recurring, and automatic purchases of shares of stock and ETFs.

I received a postcard from ShareBuilder which offers $50 sign up bonus plus cheap commission opportunities. I’d like to share the promotion with you. I personally think it’s a time to buy in some potential stocks and wait for growth. The $50 bonus is very easy to get—Open your account using the promotion code INVEST50, make a trade before 12/31/08, and $50 will be deposited in your account in 4 to 6 weeks. Details can be found at www.sharebuilder.com/invest50.

The account at sharebuilder.com features no account minimum balance requirement and no inactivity fees. You can choose from more than 7,000 stocks and ETFs. You can even schedule your investments on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis.

Another feature of ShareBuilder that is worth mentioning is the ability to buy fractional shares. I believe this is the only one brokerage company that allows you to buy fractional shares. No other brokerage allows you to buy fractional shares of stock. This feature helps you to invest your money on a regular basis. For example, you can invest $100 weekly to buy Citi stocks regardless of the real prices of Citi stocks.

However, I’d like to mention that the $4 per trade is only available on every Tuesday. You can schedule to buy a stock on Tuesday for $4 per trade. But on other days, the price is pretty high compared to other brokerages. So the ability to schedule a trade is really great.

Another feature is periodic promotion from ShareBuilder.com. ShareBuilder always offer sign up bonuses or other kinds of promotions to its new or current customers which makes your experience of ShareBuilder.com much better.

Of course, there are other great brokerages you can consider before you open up an account online like E*Trade, Zecco, TradeKing, and TD Ameritrade etc.

Following are two articles for your reference: SmartMoney’s Annual Broker Survey and Best of the Online Brokers-Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.

WT Direct New Account Bonus Winter Promotion

David — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:44:04 +0000

WT Direct is offering a new winter promotion now. This promotion is similar to the one I mentioned in August 2008 from which you can get about $50 to $250 new account bonus depending on your account balance. The WT Direct Online Savings Account is on the list of my Top 7 Online Banks for High Interest Savings.

The promotion page can be found here. It’s very simple to get the bonus, here is how:

OPEN a new account — use promotion code “WTG3DNC”
LINK an existing bank account to your new WTDirect account during the application process.
FUND your new WTDirect account by initiating an online transfer by 12/22/08.
EARN your bonus — calculated by determining the average balance from 1/1/09 – 2/28/09.
During that time, you will have 100% access to your funds.
RECEIVE your cash bonus in mid-March. It will be deposited directly to your WTDirect account.

Following is the bonus level which determines how much you can get:

$250 bonus for $50,000 balance
$200 bonus for $40,000 balance
$150 bonus for $30,000 balance
$100 bonus for $20,000 balance
$50 bonus for $10,000 balance

Fine Print:

This offer is available to new WTDirect clients only. To receive the bonus, clients must enter the promotion code “WTG3DNC” at the time of account opening. There is no minimum balance required to open the account. WTDirect account must be funded via electronic (ACH) transfer which must be initiated by 12/22/08. Clients may transfer funds in and out of the WTDirect account during the promotion period (1/1/09 - 2/28/09) and the bonus will be based on the average balance level during that time.

If you have a large fund, it’s a good time to catch the deal. For balance over $10,000, you can enjoy 3.06% APY which is relatively high rate under current banking environment. If your balance is under $10,00o your rate will be not high, so this is not a long term account choice for those with less than $10,000 money.

There is no hard pull during the account open process. All the accounts at WT Direct is insured by FDIC with a limit of $250,000.

Number of Problem Banks Increased to 171 as Stated in Latest FDIC Report

David — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:00:23 +0000

FDIC just released the third quarter report which indicated that the problem banks have increased to 171! This is a shocking news to all of us. Maybe your bank will be on the list of problem banks. Although FDIC increased the insured amount to 250k, consumers are still feeling scared and uncertain about the American’s banking industry.

It’s very obvious that the banking industry is getting worse. The number of problem banks has increased from 117 to 171. The banks are taking steps to tighten the loan applications to minimize the losses. Provisions for loan losses continue to be high.

In the report, FDIC indicated:

Commercial banks and savings institutions insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) reported net income of $1.7 billion in the third quarter of 2008, a decline of $27.0 billion (94 percent) from the $28.7 billion that the industry earned in the third quarter of 2007.

Nine FDIC-insured institutions failed in the third quarter, the most since the third quarter of 1993. The failures included Washington Mutual Bank, with assets of $307 billion. The FDIC’s “problem list” grew during the quarter from 117 to 171 institutions, the largest number since the end of 1995. Total assets of problem institutions increased from $78.3 billion to $115.6 billion.

Problems still exist in the banking industry:

Higher levels of troubled loans, in both consumer and commercial portfolios, led to increased provisions for loan losses in the quarter.

Charge-offs and noncurrent loans are still increasing. Insured institutions charged off (removed from their balance sheets because of uncollectibility) $27.9 billion in troubled loans in the third quarter. The annualized net charge-off rate of 1.42 percent was the highest quarterly average since 1991.

Community banks are also facing increased stress. Community banks — those with total assets of under $1 billion — are beginning to exhibit stresses similar to those facing the industry as a whole.

Higher loss provisions for bank failures were primarily responsible for a decline in the fund balance to $34.6 billion at September 30th from $45.2 billion at June 30th.

The full press release can be accessed from here.

Top Picks in Savings, Checking and Money Market from Kiplinger.com

David — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:00:53 +0000

I subscribe to many personal finance magazines like Money, Smartmoney, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and Forbes. Reading articles from above magazines usually give ideas on what to write about at mycardblog.com. Usually the articles are written by experts on personal finance and are highly recommended to everyone. They cover all the aspects in your daily life in terms of personal finance: credit cards, banking accounts, mortgages, auto loans, investments, stocks, and even retirements.

In the November’s Kipling’s Personal Finance, they voted the best Savings, Checking and Money Market Account in 2008. I think it is important to let everyone know what the experts’ best banking accounts. Kiplinger’s Personal Finance usually publishes its annual list of what it considers the best items related to personal finance, such as best credit card, best savings account, and best retirement tool.

Following are Kiplinger’s 2008 picks for excellence in savings and checking accounts:

Online Savings Account: FNBO Direct. Earn 3.5% APY on the FDIC-insured savings account at www.fnbodirect.com. The savings account at FNBO features with no maintenance fees and no minimum-balance requirement plus minimum $1 to open. You can also link your FNBO account to other banking accounts.

Money-Market Account: Express Money Market, Flagstar Bank. You can earn 3.65% APY from the FDIC-insured money market account. Flagstar Bank also provides free checks and a free visa debit card which allows you to easily access your fund at money market account. You can also get free, unlimited ATM withdrawals through the Allpoint and Presto networks

Checking Account: Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking. This is a highly recommended checking account. You don’t have to be a Schwab customer to apply for this account. You can apply online at www.schwab.com. Earn 1.50% variable APY in an FDIC-insured checking account—plus no ATM fees, no minimums, and no monthly service charges. The Schwab Bank High Yield Investor Checking is highly recommended!

Money Market Mutual Fund: Fidelity Cash Reserves. The Fidelity Reserves is the safest mutual fund in the market. However, we should admit that the yields are low in the current market. If you want to put your cash is a safe place during the financial crisis, Fidelity is a top choice. Fidelity has signed up for the new government insurance program. Minimum investment is $2,500, and check-writing is available.

I really should have included the FNBO direct online savings account into my Top 7 Online Banks for High Interest Savings. The full report of the 2008 best list can be found at Kiplinger.com.

About Kiplinger’s Personal Finance: It is a magazine that has been continuously published, on a monthly basis, from 1947 to the present day. It was the nation’s first personal finance magazine, and prides itself on delivering “sound, unbiased advice in clear, concise language”. It offers tips and tricks on managing money and achieving financial security, as well as information and practical guidance on saving, investing, planning for retirement, paying for college, and buying automobiles, homes and other major purchases.

MyCardBlog » Banking News

$100 Checking Account Bonus from FlagStar Bank

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Get up to $215 from HomeStreet Bank

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Macy’s Customers (Debit Card Users) May Have Been Charged Twice

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Angry Bank of America’s Customer Call 911 and Say the Bank Is Being Robbed

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$100 Checking Account from WaMu

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$200 Checking Account Bonus from MB Financial Bank

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$50 Bonus from ShareBuilder

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WT Direct New Account Bonus Winter Promotion

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Number of Problem Banks Increased to 171 as Stated in Latest FDIC Report

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Top Picks in Savings, Checking and Money Market from Kiplinger.com

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