Dimes Add Up With A Green$ense Bonus
Checking account customers at Citizens Bank and Charter One Bank can earn a dime every time they make an electronic transaction.
All you have to do is enroll your account in the banks’ Green$ense program and follow a few extra rules.
Basically that means getting all of your statements online and making at least 10 debit card purchases or online bill payments a month.
The marketing spin behind this effort is that using “less paper is good for the environment,” hence the name Green$ense.
All types of personal checking accounts are eligible, but to get one you usually have to live in one of the 12 Northeastern and Midwestern states where Citizens and Charter One have branches. (Both are owned by Citizens Financial Group, based in Providence, R.I.)
Although it’s possible to make as much as $120 a year with Green$ense, you’d have to average a staggering 100 debit card purchases and online bill payments a month to do so.
We suspect the annual bonus will be more like $30 or $40 for most customers.
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H&R Block Tops 6-Month CD Rates
H&R Block Bank has jumped to top of our rankings of the best 6-month CD rates.
Its promotional offer of 2.0% APR with a minimum deposit of $10,000 is available until Sept. 30, and you can apply online.
That’s the same rate United Central Bank was offering when it led our latest rundown of the best, nationally-available 6-month certificates of deposit.
But United Central cut its rate in half just before Labor Day and H&R Block stepped up to take its place as the only bank still offering 2.0%.
Click here to compare these rates with the best CD rates and terms from dozens of other banks in our extensive database.
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Credit Cards Rates, Fees Keep Going Up
Well, you can’t say they didn’t warn us.
The banks threatened to go on a rate-raising, fee-hiking, rule-writing rampage if Congress approved the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility Act of 2009.
It did and the result has been an unending stream of letters from my credit cards making good on that threat.
But I still find it ironic that the most recent arrived the day after the first few provisions of the law intended to protect me from the credit card industry’s worst abuses took effect.
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Reap 2.5% Returns With Best 2-Year CDs
Tennessee Commerce Bank grabbed the top spot in our September rankings of the best 24-month CD rates.
It’s mid-August rate hike to a 2.50% APY makes it the best-paying, nationally-available 24-month certificate of deposit we can find.
As recently as July you could still find at least one bank paying 3% on 2-year CDs. But that’s no longer the case, with the national average for these investments dropping to a near-record low 1.47% APY last week.
The top deals currently available to all savers are:
2.50% APY with a $2,500 minimum deposit from Tennessee Commerce Bank, which has a single location in Franklin.
2.50% APY with a minimum deposit of $50,000 or 2.40% APY with a minimum deposit of $500 for “Silver CDs” from Frontier Bank, which has 50 branches in Washington and Oregon.
2.43% APY with a minimum deposit of $2,500 or 2.48% APY with a minimum deposit of $25,000 from Wedbush Bank, which has one branch in Los Angeles.
2.40% APY with a minimum deposit of $5,000 from OneWest Bank, with 33 branches in Los Angeles area.
Frontier led our August survey with slightly higher returns — 2.70% APY with a $50,000 minimum deposit and 2.60% APY with a $500 minimum deposit.
Click here to compare these deals with the best CD rates from dozens of other banks in our extensive database.
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Our Favorite Cards For College Students
If you’re heading back to campus this month, you need a credit card with the lowest possible interest rate and minimal fees.
With lots of expenses and not much income, you want to spend as little as possible to get the credit you need.
In a perfect world you’d pay off your balance every month and the interest rate wouldn’t matter all that much.
But a whopping 82% of college students don’t do that, and by the time they graduate they’re carrying $4,100 in credit card debt.
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