I’ve been doing some research into online checking accounts the past couple days, and while doing so, I bumped into Charles Schwab’s Investor Checking account. What got my attention right away is its high interest rate - 4.25% APY. This is very near online savings account territory, as my ING Direct Orange Savings Account is yielding 4.50% APY right now. That’s only a 1/4 point difference, and we’re talking about a full-featured checking account, not just a money market limited to 6 withdrawals per month.

(Sidebar: EverBank’s online checking account is offering 6.01% APY right now, but that’s an introductory rate for the first three 3 months. After that, it drops to 3.41% APY for balances under $10,000. Schwab’s rate is more than 3/4 percent higher than that.)

Minutes after discovering them, Schwab now had my full attention — so I began to dig deeper. The very next thing I noticed was that their Investor Checking account comes as a package of two accounts: a checking account and a brokerage account. Upon learning that, I almost hit the back button, since I don’t do much stock trading right now and have no need for a brokerage account.

My disappointment was quickly turned around though when I saw that there were no minimums or junk fees on the brokerage account. With that being the case, the brokerage side of the package could just sit on the shelf without causing a distraction to the online checking account.

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