All America Bank – Ultimate Rewards Checking 4.5% APY – Direct Deposit Not Required ($10,000 Limit)

Update 12/21/22: Rate increased to 4.5%

Update 11/17/22: Rate increased to 4.25% APY.

Offer at a glance

  • Interest Rate: 3%
  • Minimum Balance: $50 opening requirement
  • Maximum Balance: $10,000 (balances over this earn 0.5% APY)
  • Availability: Nationwide
  • Direct deposit required: No
  • Additional requirements: 10 debit card transactions & eStatements
  • Hard/soft pull: Soft
  • ChexSystems: Yes
  • Credit card funding: None
  • Monthly fees: None
  • Insured: FDIC

The Offer

Direct link to offer

  • All America Bank offers the Ultimate Rewards Checking account, this currently offers 3% APY when the following requirements are met:

 

 

The Fine Print

  • All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
  • Our monthly statement cycle ends on the 20th of each month. If the 20th falls on a Saturday, the cycle will end on Friday the 19th. If the 20th falls on a Sunday, the cycle will end on Monday the 21st. There are no rollover transactions.
  • Qualifying VISA debit card sales transactions include each time you use your VISA debit card to make a purchase from a vendor or merchant. These transactions must post and clear your account during the payment cycle. ATM and ACH transactions do not qualify.

Avoiding Fees

This account doesn’t have any monthly fees to worry about.

Rate History

  • 1/23/19: Rate increased to 3% APY
  • 11/17/18: Rate increased to 2.75%

Our Verdict

This account is in an interesting spot, most rewards checking accounts offer a much higher APY (up to 5%) but they also require a direct deposit or have other difficult to meet requirements. This account is only slightly above the best rate you can get with a basic savings account, but the requirements won’t be that difficult to meet for most people (depending on how strict the debit card transaction requirement is). Personally I’d probably either invest the time into getting a higher rate, or just avoid the hassle and stick to a basic rate.

 

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56 Comments
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00100100
00100100 (@guest_1594038)
April 9, 2023 17:27

 William Charles Rate increased to 4.80% as of March 21
(The max balance went up to 15K a bit ago if you want to update that in the title too)

Steve
Steve (@guest_1515992)
December 21, 2022 13:29

 William Charles
Rate increased to 4.50%

B
B (@guest_1500529)
December 2, 2022 12:53

They allow two ultimate rewards per account, so is it combined $15K or each $15K gets 4.25%, how does it link with debit card?

Stan Lane
Stan Lane (@guest_1193715)
May 20, 2021 02:43

Here’s the full rate history:
5/21/2021: Rate decreased to 0.60% (10x 50 reloads a month is $60/yr which ends up being zero dollars at the end of the year if you’ve maxed at 10k. Closing account is necessary; any lower and you’ll be paying for having the account open.)
11/23/2020: Rate decreased to 0.70%
10/21/2020: Rate decreased to 0.80%
9/21/2020: Rate decreased to 1.00%
7/21/2020: Rate decreased to 1.10%
6/22/2020: Rate decreased to 1.35%
5/21/2020: Rate decreased to 1.60%
12/23/19: Rate decreased to 1.75%
12/20/19: Rate decreased to 2.00%
10/22/19: Rate decreased to 2.25%
6/23/19: Rate decreased to 2.40%
1/23/19: Rate increased to 3.00% APY
11/17/18: Rate increased to 2.75% APY

Stan Lane
Stan Lane (@guest_1400848)
June 27, 2022 12:30

6/27/2022: Rate increased to 1.85% (Highest since Dec 2019.)
6/21/2022: Rate increased to 1.00%
8/23/2021: Rate decreased to 0.45%

Stan Lane
Stan Lane (@guest_1414807)
July 25, 2022 14:47

7/25/2022: Rate increased to 2.25% (Highest since Oct 2019.)

Stan Lane
Stan Lane (@guest_1491474)
November 18, 2022 23:05

11/17/2022: Rate increased to 4.25% AND an increase of maximum balance to $15,000. ($637.50/year)

Some1
Some1 (@guest_1024741)
July 28, 2020 01:55

Currently 1.1%

Rick
Rick (@guest_711604)
January 24, 2019 22:17

$10K cap makes this completely worthless, especially for the effort involved. At best you earn what, an extra $50-80 per year? Even with two players that’s $100-160 PER YEAR lol

Mikey
Mikey (@guest_711361)
January 24, 2019 15:21

Rate is adjusted automatically with raises. Very much appreciated compared to the hassle with some other banks.

CreditHunter
CreditHunter (@guest_711255)
January 24, 2019 12:12

Got excited about this for a minute until I saw it had a maximum balance cap of 10k. Wonder if we’ll see any 3% savings accounts with no cap this year

Billy Bob
Billy Bob (@guest_711245)
January 24, 2019 12:07

Too bad about the 10K limit. Compared to their Money Market account at 2.5%, parking 10K in this checking account means that you’ll only earn another $4.17 a month in interest, and for that you have to remember to use the card 10x a month (good luck not doing $1 Amazon charges or buying $5 coffees you normally wouldn’t).
Not worth the hassle.

Billy Bob
Billy Bob (@guest_711281)
January 24, 2019 12:44

Plus let’s say that your charges average $10. Those debit charges earn no cashback/points, so compared to the use of a 2% flat cashback card, you’re foregoing $2 a month on cashback, making this account (compared to their 2.5% park-it-and-do-nothing account) and the distraction of remembering to count your debit transactions only worth around $2 and change per month. Really worth it?

Anthony
Anthony (@guest_711217)
January 24, 2019 11:23

Uh, your mega high interest page lists 2 national programs that “offer a much higher rate”, what are you complaining about here, DoC? Or, what am I missing on that page that’s so much better besides CCU (debatable given it has crazy requirements to eek out another 1-2%) and T-Mobile (has a low max).