[TX only] Affiliated Bank .75% APY On Balances Up To $50,000

Will sign up today and report back anything worthwhile. I’m in West Texas.

We joined the Round Rock location last year, pretty painful to sign up as everything is set up via emailing a rep and they just forgot to respond to a few things over and over again.

Also, they cannot just tell you your “statement period”, they say to just count from the last one.

But once it’s all set up it’s easy to get the 4%.

How do we know it’s TX only?

Does anyone know what qualifies as “direct deposit or ACH payment transaction”.

Would paypal, Fidelity, Schwab, or other bank transfers work?

“Qualification Information: Account transactions and activities may take one or more days to post and settle to the account and all must do so during the Monthly Qualification Cycle in order to qualify for the account’s rewards. The following activities do not count toward earning account rewards: ATM-processed transactions, transfers between accounts, debit and credit card purchases processed by merchants and received by our bank as ATM transactions, PIN-based, signature-based transactions, non-retail payment transactions and purchases made with debit or credit cards not issued by our bank.”

Wonder if using this card to pay for my utility(water, electricity, cable etc.) bills counts.

Any ideas? Thanks!

Any one know whether there’s any requirement about the 12 debit card transaction? will 12 $1 amazon load trigger it?

Thanks,

Any information on chex sensitivity?

Hope this isn’t going to be another Orion FCU bait-and-switch. Signed up for that, moved $ over and set up DD, then they lowered the rate to 3%. I may leave $15k in Orion (they do 3% on up to 15k) and do the 8 Amazon reloads on that one, instead of moving that money over to Affiliated Bank, just in case they quickly dropping it from 4%.

I’m in the North Dallas area, so signed up / waiting.

The following activities do not count toward earning account rewards: ATM-processed transactions, transfers between accounts, debit and credit card purchases processed by merchants and received by our bank as ATM transactions, PIN-based, signature-based transactions, non-retail payment transactions and purchases made with debit or credit cards not issued by our bank.

Not sure whether Amazon gc purchase counts

What does the bank require to open an account? 2 forms of ID? Proof of address?

I’ve read the descriptions from other posts as to what counts as a debit transaction. However it is still not clear how certain services count. It would be good to nail down if the old standbys of Amazon Gift Card and Square Cash count. Here is how my tests of each posted. Does anyone have any data points if these count? Square Cash would be the preferred method if that counts. Is there a way to tell by the posting info?

Amazon Reload Test posted as…
###### PRE AUTH

Square Cash Test posted as…
###### PRE AUTH CASH

This bank has the same weird Kasasa name (there look to be a bunch of banks operating through this Kasasa company). In their language, you would not be able to use the typical tricks to meet the debit requirements.

https://www.unionsquare.org/kasasa-cash

“Commensurate with the spending activities identified above, we expect the account’s debit card to be used frequently throughout each month and for transaction amounts to reflect a wide dollar range. Small debit card transactions conducted on the same day at a single merchant and/or multiple transactions made during a condensed time period particularly near the end of a Monthly Qualification Cycle are not considered normal, day-to-day spending behavior. These types of transactions appear to be conducted with the sole purpose of qualifying for the account’s rewards and thus will be deemed inappropriate transactions and will not count toward earning the account’s rewards”

“Union Square Credit Union reserves the right to determine if the account is being maintained for a purpose other than day-to-day, primary use. Accountholders who persist in making debit card transactions in a calculated and limited fashion in order to meet their monthly qualifications may have their accounts converted to a different share draft account or closed altogether. We also reserve the right to convert the account to a different share draft account if the account does not have consistent active use over 12 consecutive Statement Cycles.”

Just opened the account, Does anyone know if the Amazon reload or any other easier method would help trigger the 12 debit card transaction requirement?

Does anyone have issue placing a purchase with the atm card online? The card I received is a debit card at strangely I’m unable to pay toll nor amazon reload.

Will they honor the 4.05% APY for the first month of account opening even if not meeting the account requirement?

i’m seeing 3.977% interest rate after successfully opening an account, not 4.05%.

FYI – From Affiliated’s website – We are excited to announce that Affiliated Bank’s parent company has signed an agreement to acquire SouthWest Bank from Odessa SouthWest Bancshares, Inc. After the completion of the transaction, expected to occur during the 2nd quarter of 2020, Affiliated Bank will merge with SouthWest Bank to become the premier community bank in Texas. After a transition period, we plan to operate the combined bank under the SouthWest Bank name. The full announcement can be found at https://www.affiliatedbank.com/news/affiliated-bank-and-southwest-bank-are-joining-forces/

Tried to open the account with a virtual mailbox in Houston since we travel full time. Rejected. Oh well. That was tons of interest income we’re missing out on now.

The bank requires that the 1 DD/ACH and 12 Debit transactions must be completed “during each Monthly Qualification Cycle”. Is this a calendar month or statement cycle?

Now the interest rate has been decreased to 1.982%. Time to move my money out.

Ma r Y Fowler needs to be here. Check Lewis post.

Market goes down 2000. My portfolio goes down $20,000. Market goes up 1,000. My folio goes up 5,000……. Lol.

It’s all rigged.

My email to a customer support manager about the rate cut was replied with this email:

Unfortunately, the rate is subject to the market and debit card income we make from the different swipes. The first issue we ran into is an uptick of new accounts opened with debit card usage of under a dollar, this is our main source of income for us to be able to pay this rate. We are addressing this issue with as of April 16, the requirement for Debit Swipes will be 12 swipes of transactions over $5. The second issue is the market. The Federal Reserve met last week with an emergency meeting to drop their rates and from our understanding, will meet again on the 17th with the intentions of cutting rates even more. With the combination of the two, we were forced to lower our rates.

I just checked my account today and saw the rate drop so wanted to post the news here in case others wasn’t aware but see it’s already been noted. The bank tells me they’ve been paying this 4% rate for over a year now (too bad I wasn’t aware of it and one of the branches is only 15-20 minutes from me) but with the Feds dropping the rate and the high volume of recent accounts opened they decided to lower the rate. Well, that’s an understatement, but it is what it is and that’s what I said to the rep. He then proceeds to tell me how the Feds are going to drop the rate again, blah, blah and they will be following this closely and acting accordingly, but if later the Feds raise the rates, they’ll react accordingly. Well, slashing their rate in half with no advance warning doesn’t set that well with me. Also, he said they dropped the rate at the 1st of the month which to me is odd since their statement drops on the 3rd Thursday but of course if they had changed on that date everyone would have noticed the change when they checked their statement so hush, let’s keep mum about it and surprise them after they are already into the next cycle with their debits and ACH etc. Now I’m wondering if they are going to pay a blended rate (9 days at 4% and remainder at 2%) which they are required to do if the change wasn’t implemented until the 1st. Not making a hill of beans difference but just curious about their integrity. Oh they will since they sure don’t want bank auditors down their backs, but normally banks don’t change the rate within the cycle period in my experience.Oh well, starting the process of moving my money out. It was one of those been real, been fun, but not real fun deals.

Bank: We have an account that has these requirements.
Consumer: Does only the requirements
Bank: *shocked Pikachu face*

Does this stuff not come up in market research? Is my grocery store surprised when I only buy the things that are on sale and go someplace that is cheaper for everything else?

So much Trolls.