Best reward checking accounts for those with large balances

Although most banks seem to have reduced their balance caps within the last two years, there are still quite a few banks as well as credit unions which offer rewards checking accounts that have balance caps of $50,000. Hence, instead of earning the top rate on balances up to $50,000 you will only earn the top rate for a lower balance like $25,000 or $15,000.

However, if you are lucky, then the financial institution will protect you from the balance cap. There are some credit unions and banks that have done this in the past, where old customers continue to get a high yield on the old balance caps, whereas the new customers normally earn the high yield only on the new lower balance caps.

The new debit card interchange fee regulation is scheduled to come into effect this October, and hence it is highly unlikely that we will see any of the new rewards checking accounts with the $50,000 balance caps. In fact, the new regulation will further push the banks to bring down the rewards checking balance caps even further. However, it is important to note that the immediate effects following the regulation would only be felt by the major banks that have assets of around $10 billion at least. The rewards checking accounts are generally offered by a vast majority of the smaller banks and the credit unions.

If you want to have a quick review of some of the best rates then you could refer the reward checking table, but if you wish to check all the rates, then you will have to select ‘any’ state and this can be done after clicking on button above the table which says ‘filter accounts.’ Apart from changing the availability option, you may also change the investment amount. This is one way of filtering out accounts that have smaller balance caps.

With an investment of $50,000, the ones that top the table are:

• Market USA Federal Credit Union’s VIP Checking – It has an APY of 4.00% up to $50,000, 0.10% over.
• Lake City Bank’s Reward Checking – It has an APY of 3.04% up to $50,000, 0.51% over.
• Security Bank’s Reward Checking – It has an APY of 3.28% up to $50,000, 0.52% over.
• Communication Federal Credit Union’s Free Performance Checking – It has an APY of 4.00% up to $30,000, 1.00% over.
• Department of Labor Federal Credit Union’s Reward Checking – It has an APY of 2.75% up to $50,000, 0.65% over.