[IL, IA, MI, MN, WI] SENB Bank – 3% APY Rewards Checking Account On Balances Up To $10,000

Offer at a glance

• Interest Rate: 3% if requirements are met, otherwise 0.05%.
• Minimum Balance: None
• Maximum Balance: $10,000 then rate drops to 0.25% APY
• Availability: Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin
• Direct deposit required: Yes
• Additional requirements:
• Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
• ChexSystems: Unknown
• Credit card funding: None
• Monthly fees: None
• Insured: FDIC

The Offer

Direct link to offer

• South East National Bank having a Kasasa cash checking account. This account earns a 3% APY rate on balances up to $10,000 when the following requirements are met each qualification cycle:
  • Have at least one direct deposit or ACH payment transaction post and settle
  • Have at least 12 signature-based debit card purchases post and settle
  • Be enrolled in and agree to receive eStatements

The Fine Print

• Interest Rates and APY When the KASASA CASH Checking qualifications are not met, the interest rate on your account will be 0.05% and the annual percentage yield will be 0.05%.
• When the KASASA CASH Checking qualifications are met, the interest rate on your account and corresponding annual percentage yield will be tired.
• If your daily balance is $10,000.00 or less, the interest rate paid on the entire balance will be 2.96% with an annual percentage yield of 3.00%.
• An interest rate of 0.249% will be paid only for that portion of your daily balance that is greater than $10,000.01. The annual percentage yield for this tier will range from 3.00% to 0.25% depending on the balance in the account
• Qualifications To qualify for “KASASA CASH” rates and receive reimbursements on your ATM fee surcharges, you must perform the following during the monthly qualification cycle:
  • Have at least 12 debit card purchases post and clear
  • Have at least 1 ACH transaction or direct deposit post and clear
  • Receive eStatements
• Please note that transactions MUST post and clear to your account during the monthly qualification cycle.
• They may not be in a pending state to qualify as one of the qualifications.
• Transactions may take one or more banking days from the date the transaction was made to post and clear an account.
• The following transactions do not count toward account rewards: ATM-processed transactions, transfers between accounts, non-retail transactions, and purchases made with debit cards not issued by our bank.
• Transactions bundled together by merchants and received by our institution as a single transaction count as a single transaction for the purpose of earning account rewards If you have met your qualifications for the specified qualification cycle, we will reimburse you for all domestic ATM fees.
• All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

This account has no monthly fees to worry about.

Our Verdict

3% isn’t a bad rate and the requirements aren’t too difficult to meet, the problem is that there are just so many options out there that are better. I’d recommend reading through our full list of high interest accounts here.

Hat tip to reader Connor C