Offer at a glance
- Interest Rate: 5% APY
- Minimum Balance: None
- Maximum Balance: $10,000
- Availability: Must live, work, worship or attend school in botetourt, craig, franklin, montgomery, radford, roanoke city roanoke county, salem or vinton all in VA
- Direct deposit required: Yes, but says any automated transfer works
- Additional requirements: None
- Hard/soft pull: None
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: $9, avoidable
- Insured: NCUA
The Offer
- Freedom First Credit Union offers the Freedom Stash checking account. This offers 5% APY on balances up to $10,000 when the following requirements are met:
- $5,000 or more in direct deposits each month
The Fine Print
- “Direct Deposit” is defined as ACH deposits only and will not include check or cash deposits done either in-branch or remotely. ACH deposits may be any combination of your paycheck, social security check, dividend deposits, and other such automated deposits.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
This account has a $9 monthly fee, this is waived with $1,000 in monthly direct deposits
Our Verdict
The direct deposit requirement should be easy to meet as it does say any automated transfer will work. You might also be able to join outside the area as you can join if you join an association that is headquartered in one of the eligible counties. My guess if too many people do this that it’ll be shut down.
Hat tip to James
