I saw this ad at Fort Wayne News Sentinel. (To check the ad, please click here.) Fifth Third Bank is promoting their Free Checking Account with $100 sign-up bonus. Direct deposit is required to receive the $100 bonus. A minimum $50 initial deposit is required to open a new account. You can receive a $100 gift card from Fifth Third Bank in 30 days of your first direct deposit.

NO minimum balance required.

NO monthly fees.

Free ATM Transactions at Fifth Third ATMs.

$25 fee will be applied if you close the account in 180 days.

How to get the bonus?

You can call 422-3502 (Fort Wayne Local) or visit any of their 9 Ft. Wayne branches. This promotion will last until 01/31/2008.

Fifth Third Bank (5/3 Bank) is a U.S. regional banking corporation, headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The company engages in five main businesses: Branch Banking, Consumer lending, Commercial Banking, Investment Advisors and Fifth Third Processing Solutions. It’s FDIC insured.

This post seems nothing to do with my topic. However, I think it’s a good story which you can talk with your friends. It took officials at a Wachoiva Bank (Washington D. C.) 11 hours to realize that they were robbed by a guy dressed as a Brinks security employee. $10,000 cash was given to the robber!

See the whole story from MSNBC.Com here.

Fake Armored Car Guard Robs Bank

WASHINGTON – It took hours for officials at a downtown Washington bank to realize they’d been robbed. Police said a man impersonating an armored car guard walked out of a Wachovia bank branch on Pennsylvania Avenue Thursday after officials let him sign for a locked bag of cash. About $350,000 was taken, law enforcement sources told News4.

About an hour after the robbery, a real Brinks guard arrived at the bank and was told that another guard had completed the day’s cash pickup.

Police said the Brinks driver waited until he returned to his office to tell his supervisors about the failed pickup. Brinks officials contacted the bank, and a branch manager called D.C. police about 8 p.m. — almost 11 hours after the theft.

“Around 9:30 in the morning, we had a gentleman entered the bank who was dressed in … maybe a Brinks-type uniform walked in and signed for the money and walked out,” said D.C. police Lt. William Farr.

The bank is across the street from the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building. The FBI is investigating.

Authorities don’t have a detailed description of the robber and don’t know whether he left the bank in a vehicle or on foot.

A similar robbery took place at a BB&T bank in Wheaton, Md., on Wednesday. A man in a uniform resembling an armored guard service uniform went into the bank and presented himself as a substitute courier, saying the regular courier was on leave, according to Montgomery County police. The man picked up an undisclosed amount of deposits and left.

On Thursday, according to police, the regular courier went to the bank. It was then determined that the man who picked up deposits on Wednesday was not authorized to do so.

Authorities are trying to determine if the incidents are related.

Don’t they have to verify the identity of the employee? I really doubt it.

If you open a new personal checking account now through March 29, 2008, you can receive a $50 bonus from SunTrust Bank. The features of the new checking account:

• Unlimited Check Writing
• Unlimited Teller Transactions
• Free Bill Pay
• Free Check Card with SunTrust Rewards
• Overdraft Protection Options
• NO Minimum Balance Requirement
• NO Direct Deposit Requirement
• NO Monthly Maintenance Fee

In order to receive the bonus, you have to open a new personal or business checking account before March 29, 2008. And then make any purchase with your new SunTrust Check Card by May 15, 2008. You have to submit a redemption form to get the $50 bonus. Bonus will be awarded as a $50 visa gift card, or you can ask them to make a $100 donation to the charity of your choice. Details of this promotion can be found here and the redemption form can be downloaded here. The easiest $50 to get!

Fed cut the cut the rate several weeks ago. And many major U.S. banks have responded to the rate drop recently. I just updated the rate this morning. You can refer to the saving account page for more information.

ING Direct Electric Orange Checking Account: 3.15% APY for balance under $50,000; 4.65% APY for balance between $50,000 and $100,000; and 4.80% APY for balance higher than $100,000.

ING Direct Orange Saving Account: 4.10% APY. You can get $25 from ING if you are referred by an existing customer.

Washington Mutual: 4.75% APY.

E-LOAN Online Saving Account: 4.50% APY from E-LOAN, an online bank, for minimum balance $5,000. They offer 3-month CD 5.00% APY for balance over $10,000.

WILMINGTON TRUST Direct Saving Account: 4.90% APY for balance over $10,000.

HSBC Online Direct Saving Account: the APY is 4.25%.

Emigrant Direct AmericanDream Saving Account: the APY is 4.65%.

CapitaOne High Yield Money Market Account: APY is 4.40%.

Citibank Ultimate Saving Account: APY is 3.75%. They have Ultimate Money Market Account features 4.5% APY.

AmtrustDirect e-Money Market Account: APY is 4.60%. They have e-saving account features 5.11% APY.

E*TRADE Complete Savins Account: APY is 5.05%.

Countrywide Bank Savingslink Account: APY is 5.30%.

GMAC Bank Money Market Savings Account: APY is 4.50% for balance higher than $500.

Generally, the saving account rates keeping dropping.

According to the new study conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, Bank of America took top honors for the second year in a row in the report ranking the largest U.S. banks on how well they protect their customers from fraud and identity theft. JPMorgan Chase, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo tied for second place, and Citibank came in fifth.

The study focused on 25 major U.S. banks that together hold 50% of U.S. checking-account deposits. One of the major drawback of this study is they just measured banks’ policies for preventing, detecting and resolving fraud. However, they didn’t get the feedback from their customers. So I don’t believe the ranking reported by Javelin Strategy & Research. As we all know that banks will have their own strategy to prevent the identity fraud. Every bank will try their best to protect their customers. To a certain degree, the policies mean nothing. How to execute the policy is much more important than how to make the policy. From my point of view, JPMoragn Chase will be ranked as the top safe bank, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo will be tied for the second place. Bank of America will be ranked as the fourth safest bank. As for Citibank, I don’t believe they are a safe bank. They have way too many Indian customer service representatives, and you can imagine how they will “protect” your account.

You can see the full report here.

Hello everyone, I just want to let you know that I received the check card promotion as I posted here. I wrote a bank email to Chase about this bonus. Their responses were really disappointing. (see here) So I called them up and asked when I can get the $50 bonus. The lady told me that there’s a delay about the bonus. She also told me that the bonus will be available in the early Jan. When I logged in my account today, I saw the “12/26/2007 CHECK CARD USAGE PROMO $ 12/25CHECK CAR $50.00” in my checking account. Obviously they honored the bonus on 12/16. From my own experience, maybe it’s a good idea to call Chase if you haven’t received the bonus yet. Just tell them your check card number and they will investigate on your case. Attached is the replied email from Internet Service Center. They are useless! If you have any problem, you’d better call them up.

Dear David,

We appreciate your inquiry and we want to help. We have submitted a request for research on the issue and if the requirements were met, you will receive the credit in five to seven business days. We sincerley apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you.

If you have any questions or require further assistance, please e-mail us via the Secure Message Center or contact our Internet Service Center at 1-877-242-7372.
Thank you,

XXXXXXX

Internet Service Center

Dear David,
I want to thank you for your patience and your business with Chase and wanted to write you back to let you know that I did receive a response from my inquiry about your promotion. Unfortunately, you did not qualify for the promotion as the requirement was to spend $500.00 with the card during the time period, but it appears only $328.41 was spent. I am sincerely sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your time.

If you have any questions or require further assistance, please e-mail us via the Secure Message Center or contact our Internet Service Center at 1-877-242-7372.

Thank you,

XXXXXXX

Internet Service Center

Dear David,

Thank you for contacting Chase.

I apologize for any inconvenience you experienced due to the promotional offer. If you have not received a response from a previous inquiry, the inquiry may not have been submitted properly. Please provide me with the offer code related to the promotion you are requesting. Once I receive this information I can forward this to our research department to determine if your account will qualify for the promotion bonus. In addition to the time required for your response this may take three to five business days.

If you require further assistance, please e-mail us via the Secure Message Center or contact Chase By Phone at 1-800-935-9935. Chase By Phone representatives are available to assist you 7:00 AM – 9:00 PM, seven days a week with automated account information available 24-hours a day.

Thank you,

XXXXXXX

Internet Service Center

As Associated Press indicated the Honest Abe will become Colorful Abe with splashes of purple and gray livening up the $5 bill. Today government showed off the new design of $5 bill fearuing Civil War president—Abraham Lincoln.Starting in 2003, the $10, $20 and $50 bills are already colorful today. The primary reason for the redesigns is to stay ahead of counterfeiters and their ever-more-sophisticated copying machines. Pastel colors were added in those bills. According to the report, the government will start printing the new notes next week at its facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The goal is to have 1.5 billion $5 bills ready to be put into circulation, at a date still to be determined.

There will be a new large-size 5 printed in the lower right-hand corner of the backside of the bill in high-contrast purple ink which was added to help the visually impaired.

Our government hopes those changes will make it harder for conterfeiters to pass fake bills. As the report sated, there were 3,945 arrests related to counterfeit bills with about 62 million loss.

The next bill to get a makeover will be the $100. However, according to the report, the government is only about one-third of the way through the redesign of the $100 and hopes to have that process completed by this time next year.

Will we be safer to use bills in the near future?

I received a lot of emails about my previous posts—“How to Make Money with $100”. I mentioned that if you have an ING orange saving account, you can get up to $250 bonus by referring your family members or friends to open orange saving account. Some of friends are not sure all the features of this account. Many of them are afraid of be charged extra fees by ING. I have been using this account for a long time and like it very much. Hereby I write a brief review with this account.

ING Direct is a branchless or virtual bank in the United States that was funded in 2000. ING Direct is a member of Feral Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). I think most of us have known that the Net Bank was acquired by ING in September 2007.

People open the orange saving account for two goals: 1). Use it to make direct deposit to take advantage of sign-up bonuses offered by other banks or financial institutes; 2). Enjoy the famous $25 sing-up bonus and earn high rate interest (currently 4.2% APY). A unique feature is you don’t have to maintain a minimum balance to get such high interest rate. As long as your account is active, you can enjoy the 4.20% interest rate without any restrictions.

$25 sign-up bonus if you referred by your friends with minimum $250 initial deposit. (Sometimes they offer $50.)

High interest rate, no monthly fees.

No minimum balance required to earn interest.

No fees, no service charges, no penalties, no hidden fees.

24/7 access your online account.

Link other bank accounts can be easily done via mailing checks or online (Maximum 3 external accounts can be linked online. No maximum accounts limit if you link account through mailing checks.)

Safe and secure—FDIC insured.

They offer Automatic Savings Plan which allows you to automatically have a fixed amount of money regularly transfer to your orange saving account from your linked checking account. All you have to do is to specify how much money you would like transferred, and how often you would like it moved. It’s very simple and easy to maximum your earning.

Other comments:

You might have to wait 10 days until your initial deposit becomes available. Your sing-up bonus will show up immediately you open the account. You have to wait 30 days or so to link other accounts online. At the same time, you can link your other bank account by mailing a check to them. Online funds transfer usually can be finished in 3 business days without any charges. No hard pull to open this account. Click here to learn more features.