Evansville Teachers Federal Credit Union: Vertical Dividend 3.30% APY Account On Balances Up To $20,000
Update 6/13/19: Rate will increase to 3.30% APY on 7/1/19.
January 2nd, 2018: Maximum balance has been increased from $15,000 to $20,000.
Offer at a glance
- Interest Rate: 3.30% APY
- Minimum Balance: None
- Maximum Balance: $20,000
- Availability: Nationwide with $5 donation
- Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum specified
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Yes, inquiry sensitive
- Credit card funding: Up to $1,200. Visa or Mastercard only
- Monthly fees: None
- Insured: NCUA
The Offer
- Evansville Teachers Federal Credit Union (ETFCU) offer the Vertical Dividend Checking account, this account earns an APY of 3.30% on balances up to $20,000 when you complete the following requirements each month:
- 15 debit card purchases
- 1 direct deposit
- 1+ online or mobile banking login
- Receive eStatements
- You also get free ATM withdrawals worldwide (up to $15 per month)
Avoiding Fees
This account has no monthly fees
Eligibility
According to the sign up page, anybody can join by making a $5 donation to the Mater Dei Friends & Alumni Association
Our Verdict
One of the better nationwide high interest accounts, it’s nice that it’s a soft pull and you can fund a small amount with a credit card. The high maximum balance is also nice. As always, please share your experiences in the comments below.
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15 debit card purchases
1 direct deposit
1+ online or mobile banking login
Receive eStatements
Perform a one-handed backflip
Swim across the Atlantic
Recite the Ten Commandments underwater
😉
+1
These are basically the same requirements as other 3%apy accounts. I’ll definitely be signing up for this one also. It only take me about 20m a month to meet all the reqs for all accounts.
How are you meeting them? AZ loads or something else? I work from home and rarely leave the house, so the more PJ friendly the better.
You could do penny transactions on Comcast. Did you find out if they charge any currency conversion fee?
I do ten $1 AZ gift cards (buying new ones rather than loading, especially with Amazon’s crackdown recently) for my Heritage account.
I’ve gotten quite efficient at it, as well. Just ten minutes on the first of each month.
I used to do 10 fifty cent az transactions for my Heritage RCA and it worked just fine. I just did one here but someone above or below said something about unchecking something. I did not see anything to uncheck. I am unsure if I should wait to see it it counts when it clears or go ahead and knock out more via amazon. I will probably put it in my wallet and us it for some small gas purchases in the meantime. One of my go to quick marts has been cracking down and turns the pump off on me now. Others are only good for 2-3. Another is my favorite, they will let me just knock out 8-10 at one time at the pump. 2-4 cents each.
Just wait till monday, your amazon reload should show on checklist. I did several, without unchecking anything on amazon. It works.
I did one amazon reload yesterday (Saturday), it showed on checklist today.
I went out today and tried to do some transactions the way I did for a long time with other cards, small gas station transactions. I ran into getting rejected and auto calls asking me to confirm them. I called to try to get a human and after wasting 3+ minutes of our time only to tell me what she could have told me without all that personal information…..that she could not do anything except confirm the transactions. In the past, I could talk to fraud departments and have them turn it off for small transactions at the first of the month. Here, I have to call the credit union and I would rather not. In fact, I will just spend $7.50 a month going forward if I can knock out a bunch of 50 cent amazon reloads in a row.
Those are easy requirements to meet?
And repair holes in fiberglass boats according to Government standards then you get the 3.3%
“Recite the Ten Commandments underwater” – BACKWARDS….!!!!
Does the name Vertical Dividend mean something…or is it just the name? This is just a straight forward 3% APY right? Not some weird investment (…Vertical Dividend…) account right?
Just straight 3%
I got excited about the CC funding and it seemed like you could fund up to $15,000, but it’s really only $1,100. The error came after the CC line said limit of $15,000, but the total line only allows $1,100.
Do you know what options are available for credit cards? Amex too? Post as purchase or cash advance?
Was it a hard pull? If it’s chexsystems enquiry, are they sensitive? Would you mind sharing the update? Thanks.
Visa or Mastercard funding only. Appears to be processed as a purchase on my Citi DoubleCash
+1 for processing as purchase on Citi Double Cash
+2 for processing as purchase on Citi Double Cash
+3 on that
How much cash do you want to keep at 3% anyway? We already have LMCU and CCU and Insight…
CCU is a hard pull (EQ). ETFCU is unknown. If it’s a soft pull then it’s a no brainer over CCU. This is of course assuming you’re only interested in the 3.09% tier.
Throw in the potential for CC funding and this turns into a nice opportunity to meet minimum spend requirements.
Also, while I don’t have CCU, I’ve read several data points that suggest they’re watching over your activity.
I do have LMCU and they’ve been great. Can’t recall a single negative data point about them. Insight has been good as well.
Once you’ve plugged away $20k between the two and if you’re still looking to park liquid funds at a high APY now what? My rule of thumb is 6+ months of living expenses available. Having a house and two kids, well, you get the drift that LMCU and Insight won’t cut it.
ETFCU would be a good place to stash funds if your other options are already capitalized on (LMCU, Insight, possibly Mango).
I’ll be keeping an eye on this because I’m definitely interested.
What do you mean about CCU? I never had any issues with them… what do you mean “they are watching you”?
Same. My only transactions have ever been 50c reloads, and they had no problem upgrading my visa to a 3% one once sallie Mae card died
Hello.
I have Ccu and I have a 1% card with them. Can you tell me more about this upgrade to the 3% card. Where is it on the website and how to get it.
Thanks
Paul
What I mean is you may be under more scrutiny than that of lets say LMCU. There’s two data points of account closure in this DoC thread: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/consumers-credit-union-5-07-apy-on-up-to-20000-rewards-checking/
Granted, we won’t know why they closed accounts and it’s only two data points here. I’ve read about CCU elsewhere as well but don’t recall specifically. In short, I get the impression you may not want to pile all 12 debit transactions through in one day and maybe use it more for what it was intended for, i.e. no .50 Amazon reloads.
With that said, CCU is obviously working for people so I’m not trying to insinuate it’s a bad idea to use them for their 3.09% account.
Thanks for the info, I wasn’t aware of this. However, because these 3%apy accounts keep popping up I am going to continue shamelessly using them for the 3.09%. So far my only transactions have been 50c and $1 ach. I’ll report in that thread if I get shut down. Been using it for a year so far
CCU may have set system alarm such that if large transactions posted in a very short period of time, say all 12 debit card purchases in one day or two, not sure their “rules”, they then flag the account and lead to possible closeout. I’ve read those 2 comments from the site before. However, I’ve been playing it safely for almost 2 years, no problem at all so far. I do CC $1000 in one shot, in one day, and only 1 or 2 debit card transactions a day with small amount. They don’t watch the account with people. On the other hand, I’d like to point out that their CS mostly got an attitude when you have questions or requests over the phone.
Will, I think you created an extra CC Funding Entry for Evansville by mistake. I think its the same Evansville CU because the comment mentions the 3% account.
Good catch, Don! Fixed this.
Sweet, another $37/month in free money. Wonder if they’re Chex sensitive and if we can fund via CC.
Up to $1,100 with CC
Sweet. Now just need confirmation of soft pull and if anyone with lots of new accounts.
They are Chex-sensitive. They denied me back in November for having too many Chex inquiries. I subsequently ordered a Chex report and found I had 12 Chex inquiries in the past 12 months (not including the CU’s inquiry) and 30+ over 3 years.
No hard pull on EQ/EX/TU, but that could have been because I was denied for Chex. (That is, it’s possible Chex is just the first step in their screening process and no hard pull was made because I failed that step; I don’t know and don’t have any data points in that regard.)
They don’t seems Chex sensitive to me. I was just approved and I already opened seven bank accounts in the past three months.
Funded $1,100 on a Citi AA Plat after lowering cash advance limit to $750. I’ll update when it posts as purchase.
Was it a soft pull?
I don’t know how to tell, sorry. I don’t use any of those credit monitoring services.
That’s good to know. My denial was unambiguously for too many Chex inquiries, so either they’ve relaxed their approval criteria recently or perhaps my application triggered some other red flag and “too many inquiries” was just a convenient reason to deny it.
Or you simply may be just over the threshold and I right below it. Anybody interested should give it a try I think
Did they charge you $5 donation or did they return it since the account was denied?
Sorry, I just saw this now, several months later, and you’ve probably moved on by now. But in the hopes someone later may find it useful — no, they did not charge me the $5 donation on the declined application.
One of the perks seems to be free ATMs worldwide. This could be huge if they’d refund any fees charged by the ATM and don’t charge a conversion fee like Schwab has.
Free ATMs worldwide up to $15 reimbursement/month, just in case you didn’t see the limit.
Thanks. Last time we flew ATW we didn’t even incur $15 in fees and we were pulling money out every few days. Nice backup in case my Schwab ATM card gets eaten by an ATM machine which has happened to us.
That would be good, however, careful with that – do you really want to chance using a card linked to 15k at a random ATM abroad? I use my Fido account for ATM withdrawals and don’t keep more than 500-1000 in there. Same for my backup ATM card – no more than 1k in the account.
Good point. I’d have to move funds out before our trip.
I didn’t think Schwab charged a conversion fee on purchases or ATM withdrawals internationally.
Sorry, it’s a bit confusing what I wrote. Schwab does not charge any fees at all. No conversion fees, no ATM fees. And they will refund any ATM fees levied by ATM’s bank.
what do you mean schwab charges a conversion fee?
They don’t charge any fees, and they will reimburse if another bank charges a fee.
cc funding coded as ca?
Arrival Plus was coded as purchase
Can anybody confirm soft pull? Thanks 🙂
+1 on this request!
I am pretty sure its a soft pull, I am set up for alerts at several places for hard pulls and I did not get one for ETFCU.
Any household limit?
Don’t see any
One account per SS number.
is there a list anywhere of bank accounts that can be funded with american express credit cards?
IME, there are basically none. I’ve opened tons of these and have never seen CC funding allowed with AMEX. But I’d love to know if there were any out there, as well.
There are very few. Memorybank and BMO Harris come to mind.
The reason being, Amex makes much of their money on merchant fees, meaning they have higher fees than Mastercard and Visa. Same reason why a lot of stores don’t take Amex.
This lets you sort by that: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/bank-account-quick-reference-table/
Does ach qualify as DD
Any DP whether it’s hard pull or just Chex?
Did anyone get their account opened without having to send in tons of documentation?
did u open already? do u have to?
I have not applied yet, that’s why I was asking. Wondering if they require this for everyone.
Does anyone know what could be qualified for a direct deposit? Can a bank deposit from other bank be categorized as direct deposit?
I’m also curious whether small Venmo payments will be sufficient for meeting the purchase transaction requirement. Did anyone try?
Doubt anybody knows yet, people will comment as they try new things.
I tried Venmo, my Vertical Checking Debit Card was declined. Don’t know why.
The amazon reload works.
Yes it is a SP to open a checking account… I have had one opened for about the last year when I found out they were a TU puller for credit products.. For those that were asking.
Thanks, CC.
Am I reading the chart correctly? No info on what counts as a direct deposit?
Correct, we just posted about this offer and haven’t posted about it before. It takes time for datapoints to come in, be the datapoint you want to see.
Is this definitive that it’s a soft pull? Couldn’t really decipher CC’s comment above which seems to be the only DP. I wish I could apply and provide a DP myself but I recently opened the Sapphire Reserve and can’t afford another hard pull.
Soft pull join and open a savings or checking account.. Any other product being credit related is based off TU 04 scores. I have no clue about direct deposit. Hopefully this clears up my above comment. Back when I joined it was kinda a PITA though as I only the application was electronic I had to send in DL and I believe a copy of SS card if I recall correctly by fax although this might of changed since the year I have joined and this was just for membership.
If you’ve had the account open for a year how can you have no clue about DD? Do you mean that you just use a “real” DD like from an employer?
@ERIC
Just a portion of my paycheck was going in Evansville for awhile as a DD. I only joined for their credit products at that time. I was simply trying to answer whether it was a SP to open a checking/savings account with them which I stated it was and not a HP to do so.
DP: the initial credit card funding with arrival+ counted as direct deposit. ETFCU also has a great tracker on the login to track your progress in meeting the 3% requirement.
That’s odd, looks like any deposit will count then.
Not sure where I can find the “ETFCU also has a great tracker on the login to track your progress in meeting the 3% requirement.” I don’t see it on the login. Thank you!
Well, my application is Under Review. We’ll see what happens in a few days. I did have many accounts opened in the last 12 months, so we’ll see what they say.
any instant approvals?
Mine was instantly approved.
how many inquiries on your chex? thanks
Watching this one. I’m going to guess that they limit this to their field of membership and place geographic restrictions on membership even if you’ve made a $5 donation to something.
Any update? I applied on Sunday, still under review
Called before applying and confirmed it’s a soft pull. So, that’s a definite YES on the soft pull. Applied online, funded with my Chase Sapphire Preferred (Cash Advance Limit is 100$). Application is still pending. Will update the thread as I get updates.
Update and DP: Application was approved a day after my application. I funded the account with my CSP for 1100$, which was pending for a while and posted today as purchase/sale
Applied last Saturday – still under review. Have uploaded DL for verification purposes. Will update here once I get a decision. This is my 3rd bank in the last one year ( the other two banks were opened in Nov,16 and Feb,17 ) – so ChexSystems wise pretty good.
Soo… I applied with $1,100 in CC funding. That went pending, then was changed to $1,095 + $5 pending. Now I see the $5 posted, the $1,095 posted, but immediately after there was a $1,095 credit. Right now it looks like my account is going to be rejected but they were kind enough to still charge me $5 for the right to join the credit union :-/
Their application status still says under review despite me receiving an email saying it was approved days ago.
My account application was declined because of the number of accounts I had opened in the last 12 months. They look at your Chex Systems Report very closely and if they see multiple inquiries, they will be fast to decline your application.
Please report how many accounts you’ve opened in the past 12 months.
I opened a total of 16 checking accounts in the last 12 months. So to this credit union, I am a shark chasing after bonuses. They don’t want to deal with people like me, because they want customers to hold their checking accounts with them for 10 years.
Thanks. My wife was at 8 or so and Keybank declined her. I’m way over that so I won’t even bother here.
Exactly, Ken. Don’t even bother with this smaller Credit Union.