Author Topic: Bank Direct AAdvantage Mileage Checking Account  (Read 39774 times)

Offline Dan

  • Administrator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 50K Diamond Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 67601
  • Total likes: 16913
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16442
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: CLE
  • Programs: UA GS, AA EXP, DL Dirt, Hyatt Glob, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, DD Diamond, Blocked By @NeriaKraus
Bank Direct AAdvantage Mileage Checking Account
« on: September 03, 2010, 12:35:13 PM »
Tired of getting little to no interest on your liquid checking accounts? 

With Bank Direct you 1.2 AA miles per year per dollar in the account.  At a value of 1.6 cents per AA mile that's equal to 1.92% interest per year.  Plus there's no tax owed on miles so its more like 3% interest per year.

If you have $50,000 in an account you will get 5,000 miles per month, for a total of 60,000 miles in a year.

-If I refer you you'll get a bonus 1,000 miles for signing up in addition to the regular 1,000 mile signup bonus. (PM me for a referral)

-Withdrawals are easy, you can use any ATM for free and they reimburse the banks ATM charge as well 4 times per month.

-For deposits I deposit at my local bank and ACH it online to Bank Direct.  You can mail in deposits as well in prepaid envelopes.

There is a $2,500 minimum to avoid fees.

-I have a $1 bill pay set up every 15th of the month to my credit card to qualify for the 2,000 mile billpay bonus.

-You can also get 5,000 miles if you have direct deposit.

-Unlike on a regular account where you owe taxes on the interest earned, you don't pay any taxes on miles earned!
« Last Edit: March 02, 2011, 05:00:03 PM by Dan »
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Yordai Dooma

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 4234
  • Total likes: 54
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Programs: AA EXP/LT Platinum, SPG gold, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Platinum Ambassador, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, Hertz PC, National EE,
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2010, 12:50:21 PM »
-If I refer you you'll get a bonus 1,000 miles for signing up in addition to the regular 1,000 mile signup bonus. (PM me for a referral)

-Withdrawals are easy, you can use any ATM for free and they reimburse the banks ATM charge as well 4 times per month.

-For deposits I deposit at my local bank and ACH it online to Bank Direct.  You can mail in deposit as well but that makes me nervous.

There is a $2,500 minimum to avoid fees.

-I have a $1 bill pay set up every 15th of the month to my credit card to qualify for the 2,000 mile billpay bonus.

-You can also get 5,000 miles if you have direct deposit.

-Unlike on a regular account where you owe taxes on the interest earned, you don't pay any taxes on miles earned!

What do you pay for the ACH? Im curious as well how long it takes to get money in and out via ACH.

It says on their site, You may withdrawal up to a maximum of $500.00 (if there are sufficient funds in your account) per day
    * For security purposes, there may be limits on the frequency and amount of transfers you make at ATMs.

So if i need to take out $1000 one day, id be stuck making the withdrawal over 2 days...is there another faster way to get $ out?

Offline Dan

  • Administrator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 50K Diamond Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 67601
  • Total likes: 16913
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16442
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: CLE
  • Programs: UA GS, AA EXP, DL Dirt, Hyatt Glob, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, DD Diamond, Blocked By @NeriaKraus
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2010, 01:05:26 PM »
What do you pay for the ACH? Im curious as well how long it takes to get money in and out via ACH.

It says on their site, You may withdrawal up to a maximum of $500.00 (if there are sufficient funds in your account) per day
    * For security purposes, there may be limits on the frequency and amount of transfers you make at ATMs.

So if i need to take out $1000 one day, id be stuck making the withdrawal over 2 days...is there another faster way to get $ out?

ACH is free with every account I've ever had.  Citi offers next day ACH for free, most banks take a couple days.

Maybe you could get more cash out by using the debit card and asking for cash back? Not really sure, you'd have to call them for that one.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Yordai Dooma

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 4234
  • Total likes: 54
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Programs: AA EXP/LT Platinum, SPG gold, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Platinum Ambassador, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, Hertz PC, National EE,
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #3 on: September 05, 2010, 09:46:55 PM »
Have you ever closed a bank direct account? I was about to sign up and was reading the schedule of fees and it seems there is a minimum charge of $7.00 to close the account. Did i read it wrong? it seems they nickle and dime you for every little thing.

Offline Dan

  • Administrator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 50K Diamond Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 67601
  • Total likes: 16913
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16442
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: CLE
  • Programs: UA GS, AA EXP, DL Dirt, Hyatt Glob, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, DD Diamond, Blocked By @NeriaKraus
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2010, 10:12:55 PM »
Have you ever closed a bank direct account? I was about to sign up and was reading the schedule of fees and it seems there is a minimum charge of $7.00 to close the account. Did i read it wrong? it seems they nickle and dime you for every little thing.
You're misreading the fee schedule, there's no account closure fee.
The $7 fee is for a cashier's check on a closed account.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Dan

  • Administrator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 50K Diamond Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 67601
  • Total likes: 16913
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16442
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: CLE
  • Programs: UA GS, AA EXP, DL Dirt, Hyatt Glob, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, DD Diamond, Blocked By @NeriaKraus
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #5 on: September 05, 2010, 10:43:36 PM »
Congrats to anyone with a BankDirect account.
They gave 4 times the amount of earned miles to everyone for the August statement!
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Yordai Dooma

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 4234
  • Total likes: 54
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Programs: AA EXP/LT Platinum, SPG gold, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Platinum Ambassador, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, Hertz PC, National EE,
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2010, 11:35:08 PM »
Congrats to anyone with a BankDirect account.
They gave 4 times the amount of earned miles to everyone for the August statement!
Was that planned? or just some sort of glitch?

Offline Yordai Dooma

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 4234
  • Total likes: 54
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Programs: AA EXP/LT Platinum, SPG gold, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Platinum Ambassador, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, Hertz PC, National EE,
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2010, 12:18:17 AM »
ACH is free with every account I've ever had.  Citi offers next day ACH for free, most banks take a couple days.

Dan, when you opened the account, did you ACH the money to them? I know you use chase bank. I checed online and it seems the only checking account that has free ACH's is the premier platinum checking (personal).

When opening the Bank direct account, the only choices offered were credit card (as a CA), check, or wire transfer. A wire transfer would cost me $20. I already clicked wire transfer and moved on, and im thinking im probably better off with a check. Do you think i could/should change it to fund via check? I did use your name as a referral so you can expect your miles as soon as i get this all figured out.

Offline aussiebochur

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: May 2010
  • Posts: 5322
  • Total likes: 8
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 24
    • View Profile
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #8 on: September 06, 2010, 12:24:56 AM »
Doesn't Citi have a promo giving AA miles for opening a checking account?

Offline Yordai Dooma

  • Dansdeals Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 4234
  • Total likes: 54
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Programs: AA EXP/LT Platinum, SPG gold, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Platinum Ambassador, Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, Hertz PC, National EE,
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #9 on: September 06, 2010, 12:51:23 AM »
Doesn't Citi have a promo giving AA miles for opening a checking account?

The only active one i can find seems to require $6000 balance to avoid fees. im not so interested in giving them that much of my $. Is there another one out there that i missed?

Offline aussiebochur

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Presidential Platinum Elite
  • *********
  • Join Date: May 2010
  • Posts: 5322
  • Total likes: 8
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 24
    • View Profile
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #10 on: September 06, 2010, 01:25:59 AM »
The only active one i can find seems to require $6000 balance to avoid fees. im not so interested in giving them that much of my $. Is there another one out there that i missed?
There is a $6k min. to avoid fees so I guess its not quite what you're after.
Although, for those that are putting $6k in BankDirect, Citi gives many more miles...

Offline Dan

  • Administrator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 50K Diamond Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 67601
  • Total likes: 16913
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16442
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: CLE
  • Programs: UA GS, AA EXP, DL Dirt, Hyatt Glob, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, DD Diamond, Blocked By @NeriaKraus
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #11 on: September 06, 2010, 10:28:41 AM »
Dan, when you opened the account, did you ACH the money to them? I know you use chase bank. I checed online and it seems the only checking account that has free ACH's is the premier platinum checking (personal).

When opening the Bank direct account, the only choices offered were credit card (as a CA), check, or wire transfer. A wire transfer would cost me $20. I already clicked wire transfer and moved on, and im thinking im probably better off with a check. Do you think i could/should change it to fund via check? I did use your name as a referral so you can expect your miles as soon as i get this all figured out.
I used a check initially and now use Citi ACH to pull and push funds, but that can all still be done by check.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Dan

  • Administrator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 50K Diamond Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 67601
  • Total likes: 16913
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16442
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: CLE
  • Programs: UA GS, AA EXP, DL Dirt, Hyatt Glob, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, DD Diamond, Blocked By @NeriaKraus
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #12 on: September 06, 2010, 10:29:34 AM »
There is a $6k min. to avoid fees so I guess its not quite what you're after.
Although, for those that are putting $6k in BankDirect, Citi gives many more miles...
And you can always open the Citi, get the miles, and downgrade/close the account.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline brochi

  • DansDeals Copper Elite
  • *
  • Join Date: Sep 2010
  • Posts: 2
  • Total likes: 0
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 0
    • View Profile
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #13 on: September 06, 2010, 05:12:24 PM »
Student accounts, while generally free, will mostly get you nothing.
Chase is great, 25k bonus on both personal and business and 1mile/$1 spend on the business card.
Full details, http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/8089

does the cash back rewards program from chase come with any checking account you open with them?

Offline azhoopsfan

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite
  • ****
  • Join Date: Jan 2010
  • Posts: 373
  • Total likes: 0
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 1
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #14 on: September 07, 2010, 01:41:31 PM »
Congrats to anyone with a BankDirect account.
They gave 4 times the amount of earned miles to everyone for the August statement!

I didn't notice until this post.  That's awesome.  I wish I hadn't been slowly moving money back into my BBVA Compass Bank account which has grandfathered AA alignment from Guaranty Bank. 

BTW, another great thing about BankDirect is that their bill pay (free) allows you to do ACH transfers into another persons bank account (i.e., a gardener, day care provider, etc.).  All you need is their routing and account numbers.  None of my other banks have this feature. 

Offline Dan

  • Administrator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 50K Diamond Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 67601
  • Total likes: 16913
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16442
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: CLE
  • Programs: UA GS, AA EXP, DL Dirt, Hyatt Glob, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, DD Diamond, Blocked By @NeriaKraus
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #15 on: September 07, 2010, 01:48:25 PM »
I didn't notice until this post.  That's awesome.  I wish I hadn't been slowly moving money back into my BBVA Compass Bank account which has grandfathered AA alignment from Guaranty Bank. 

BTW, another great thing about BankDirect is that their bill pay (free) allows you to do ACH transfers into another persons bank account (i.e., a gardener, day care provider, etc.).  All you need is their routing and account numbers.  None of my other banks have this feature. 
Cool feature!

Did you get the 4x miles for August as well for what you had in Bank Direct?

Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline azhoopsfan

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite
  • ****
  • Join Date: Jan 2010
  • Posts: 373
  • Total likes: 0
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 1
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #16 on: September 07, 2010, 02:55:04 PM »
Cool feature!

Did you get the 4x miles for August as well for what you had in Bank Direct?



Yep, 4x miles!  Wish I knew that was coming. 

Offline azhoopsfan

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite
  • ****
  • Join Date: Jan 2010
  • Posts: 373
  • Total likes: 0
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 1
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #17 on: September 13, 2010, 01:10:53 PM »
Yep, 4x miles!  Wish I knew that was coming. 

They took back the 4x miles.  Apparently it was a mistake. 

Offline Dan

  • Administrator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 50K Diamond Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 67601
  • Total likes: 16913
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 16442
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
  • Location: CLE
  • Programs: UA GS, AA EXP, DL Dirt, Hyatt Glob, Fairmont Lifetime Plat, DD Diamond, Blocked By @NeriaKraus
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #18 on: September 13, 2010, 01:17:26 PM »
They took back the 4x miles.  Apparently it was a mistake. 
Did you notice if the 4x miles stayed on the lifetime counter?
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline azhoopsfan

  • Dansdeals Platinum Elite
  • ****
  • Join Date: Jan 2010
  • Posts: 373
  • Total likes: 0
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 1
  • Gender: Male
    • View Profile
Re: Re: best bank for checking account?
« Reply #19 on: September 13, 2010, 02:17:45 PM »
Did you notice if the 4x miles stayed on the lifetime counter?

Pretty sure they did not.