Rio Bank: 5.50% Checking Account and 2.50% Money Market
Apparently Rio Bank is temporarily offering a high interest checking account with an APY of 5.50% as well as a Money Market Account yielding an APY of 2.50%. I have personally never heard of Rio Bank but they seem like a small boutique-ish consumer bank that does the majority of it’s business online.
Benefits of high interest checking through Rio Bank:
- $100 Minimum opening deposit
- First order of 50 checks are Free
- First ATM or Debit Card is Free with no monthly fee
- FREE ATM Transactions*
- FREE Direct Deposit
- FREE Electronic monthly bank statement
- FREE Online Banking
- FREE Online Bill Pay
- FREE 24 hour Bank by Phone
- No monthly minimum balance required
This rate is a tiered variable interest rate that is compounded monthly. You will earn the current “eCheckingPlus” interest rate (currently 5.50%) set by Rio Bank on the daily balance of $1-$25,000. However, you must meet the following criteria:
- Minimum of 10 Debit Card transactions
- Minimum of 5 Online Bill Pay payments through IPay®
- One Direct Deposit per month
- Receive monthly electronic bank statement
2.50% APY Money Market Account
To be eligible for their Money Market Account you must start by depositing a minimum of $1000 however, interest will not accrue on days in which your balance is less than $3,500. Interest is compounded monthly on all balances above $3,500 and if your DAILY balance ever goes under $3,500 their will be a $15.00 penalty fee. Basically you will never want this account to drop below $3,500 even though the minimum for opening this account is $1,000 (kind of misleading).
You will only be allowed 6 third party money transfers per billing cycle, so if you plan on using the funds in this account frequently you may wish to consider their interest checking account. Also, if you do use third party money transfers they will charge you $15.00 per transaction.
