Provident Bank Offers Great Checking Account Interest Rate

by admin on 16/03/10 at 7:34 am

If you have been looking at your checking account or money market statements recently you may have noticed an eye-opening number: zero. That’s the yield that many banks are offering to checking or money market customers – yes, that’s a 0.0% return for giving your money to the bank.

One of the best checking account deals I have seen recently comes from The Provident Bank which offers its “free smart checking” account. While this account may not be for everyone, if you fit the requirements it can be a very good deal.

At the time of writing The Provident Bank was offering a yield of 3.26% APR for up to $25,000. That’s a whole lot better than even the most aggressive 2 year CD rates and unlike CDs your money isn’t locked in for a specified period. Provident is paying 0.75% on the portion of your account balance greater than $25,000, which is still pretty good.

There are other things to like about the account: Provident will refund ATM fees from other banks, it provides online bill bay services, and the account is free as long as you meet the requirements.

Speaking of requirements, to get the benefits described you will have to meet three requirements each statement period:

• Use your Provident Bank debit card at least 10 times per month
• Receive one direct deposit or process one automatic ACH debit per month
• Enroll in online banking and receive e-statements

So what happens if you fail to meet one of these requirements in a month? The good part is that you’ll still enjoy free checking. The downside is that the yield goes down to 0.25% on your entire balance. That’s still better than the 0.0% yield most of us are seeing on our current accounts, but obviously not as stellar as the 3.26% you’ll get if you meet the requirements each month.

Now those requirements might be tough for some people to pull off and if that’s the case you can probably find a better deal somewhere else. But if you regularly use your debit card, get direct deposit, and don’t mind foregoing paper statements, the Provident Bank “free smart checking” program is the best to come around in quite while.

You can get more information on the program here.