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:
  • Make 10 All America Bank VISA® debit card transactions per monthly statement cycle [Read: How to meet debit card transaction requirements]
  • Receive your statements electronically.

 

 

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.