There’s been quite a bit of buzz in the personal finance blogosphere this month about FNBO Direct’s new 3-month 6.00% APY offer for new accounts. I have to admit, curiosity got the best of me, and I opened up an account yesterday to start checking it out.

The application process was fully online and I was able to fill out a joint account application in about 10 minutes. My account application isn’t officially complete yet though, because I still need to wait for the account link verification deposits to show up in my checking account. Once I verify those in a day or two, I should be all set. I’ll share more impressions of FNBO Direct once my account is available.

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Popularity: 24% [?]

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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Popularity: 65% [?]

Putting all your store purchases on a cash back credit card goes a long way toward maximizing your returns. Your earnings don’t have to stop there though. Many of your bills can be paid with a credit card too. Listed below are seven types of bills that will likely accept payments by credit card:

1. Cable/Satellite TV Service
2. Internet Service
3. Telephone
4. Cellular
5. Newspaper
6. Magazine Subscriptions
7. Insurance Premiums (Car, Life, Renter’s Insurance, etc.)

In my case, all of the above accept credit card payments without charging any extra fees. I have earned a little over $50 extra cash back each year by paying these bills with a credit card. Many of the above service providers are nationally-known and have competition in their space, so they accept credit cards as a means to stay on par with their rivals.

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Popularity: 11% [?]

American Express just announced yesterday that American Home Mortgage Corp is the first lender to sign up for its “Express Rewards Mortgage” program. This program allows its members to pay their mortgage with their AmEx credit card.

Mortgage is one of those bills that I’ve always had trouble paying with a cash back credit card. There are two reasons for this: one is that the mortgage service provider gets hit with a hefty fee for accepting a credit card payment, and second, they’re not real comfortable with someone paying their loan with borrowed money from another loan (in this case the credit card bank). AmEx has apparently found a way around these issues enough to convince at least one lender to accept their card for mortgage payments. From the press release:

American Express Cardmembers with qualifying new purchase or refinance loans with American Home Mortgage will pay a one-time fee of $395 to the lender for enrollment in the Express Rewards Mortgage program at the time of closing.

We also see that there’s an enrollment fee for the program. The fee must be part of how AmEx addresses the first issue, either by sharing this one-time fee with the lender, or by reducing or eliminating the lender’s credit card processing surcharge. Completely a guess on my part, as AmEx did not disclose the internal mechanics of the program.

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Popularity: 27% [?]

On his personal finance blog, Golbguru shares some criteria to look for in an online savings account. Quoting from Henry’s Binary Dollar blog, he reiterates Henry’s first six recommendations, then adds three of his own. Between these two posts, they cover about 90% of my thoughts on the subject as well. Golbguru’s points 8 and 9 are particularly interesting:

8. Recurring/Automatic Transfer facility - This wasn’t on my list in the past, but recently, I have been regularly using HSBC’s recurring transfer facility - it has sort of helped me save some money. If I open an account in future, I would definitely want such a facility.

9. ATM/Debit Card - Again, this is not crucial, but it helps to have this facility available so that you can access your funds in an emergency. Before HSBC offered it’s high yield savings account, we had our money in ING Direct - and ING didn’t have a ATM Card (or a debit card) with it’s online savings account.

I agree completely that an online savings account should have an automatic transfer facility. This facility should also be bi-directional. Here’s why: you can really maximize your interest earnings by having your paycheck deposited directly to your online savings account instead of your local bank’s checking account.

When you direct deposit your paycheck however, it does create more of a need to transfer money in the other direction — from your savings to your checking. You’ll need to automatically transfer money back to your checking account to pay off your larger bills each month such as your mortgage, car payment or credit card statement. Automatically bringing this money down right before those bills are due is a big time-saver.

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Popularity: 15% [?]

It’s a good idea to do a yearly credit report checkup. I just did mine this evening and found a glaring error at one of the reporting services. One of them is listing my primary residence address as my rental property instead of my house… so I definitely want to get that corrected pronto! The last thing I need is to have my tenants get flooded with all kinds of credit card junk mail offers with my name on it.

To check what’s on file for your credit history, you’ll want to visit AnnualCreditReport.com. This is a free website that the three major credit reporting bureaus offer. The three primary bureaus are Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

Every 12 months you can get a free credit report from each of the three bureaus. You will be able to view each bureau’s report immediately online when you request it.

AnnualCreditReport.com gives you the option to see all three reports back-to-back, or request them individually at separate times during the year. Between the two options, I prefer the first one because if there’s a problem (like I just discovered), I want to know about it right away.

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Popularity: 10% [?]

I’m sure you’ve seen certain gas stations that will give you 4 cents off a gallon of gas if you pay with cash instead of your credit card. Sounds good on the surface, but are you really coming out ahead? A quick math exercise should give us the answer.

Gas in my neighborhood is now $3.00 a gallon. If I were to pay with a 5% gas cash back credit card, I would be earning $0.15 cash back for each gallon of gas, instead of $0.04. That’s a difference of 375%. Assuming a tankful is 15 gallons, you would be receiving an extra $1.65 per tank by using your credit card instead of cash. If you fill up for gas once per week, this difference becomes a whopping $85.80 a year!

Even if you were using a 3% rebate card on gas (instead of 5%), you would still be coming out ahead by an extra $39 a year. So much for paying cash for gas …

I am aware of at least 5 cards that earn a 3% minimum rebate on gas. The Citi Dividend Platinum Select and the Discover Open Road Card earn more than that, coming in at a full 5% cash back on gas. The Blue Cash From American Express works its way to 5% after the first $6,500 you put on the card. Learn more about these cards in the tutorial.

Popularity: 6% [?]

I was catching up on my blog reading over the weekend, and I noticed John Chow had some very interesting news to share. It appears that you can get $100 if you open an account with them by the end of this month. From Citibank’s website:

$100 offer is only available for first-time Citibank deposit account customers, and will be paid only once to any individual. Persons who currently have or at any time have had a deposit account at Citibank (or any of its predecessor banks) are not eligible. To receive this offer you must apply for and open a new Ultimate Savings Account by 5/31/2007. $100 will be credited to your Ultimate Savings Account within 90 days from the end of the statement period in which your account was opened. Accounts must be in good standing at the time of the $100 credit.

This account seems to be a direct competitor to the one I use, ING Direct’s Orange Savings Account. At the moment, Citi appears to be offering a sliver better rate than ING… 4.65% APY vs. 4.50% APY, but with a bit of a disclaimer:

Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is accurate as of 05/15/2007 and is subject to change without notice. The rate will apply only to accounts opened through citibank.com or by phone, and may change after the account is opened. Fees may reduce earnings.

I’ll put on the docket to do a deeper-dive review of Citibank’s account, but I wanted to get this piece of news out to you while the offer is still good.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Welcome to my blog! For those of you that have already been through my cash back credit card tutorial, you’ll remember that I talk about 5 cash back cards. Just for grins, I put together a little poll below so people can say which of the cards is paying them the most cash back.

If you’re so inclined, take a moment to cast your vote, since I’ll also use the results to prioritize the card-specific tips I’ll be sharing on this blog.

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Popularity: 8% [?]