So I must have opened and linked 10 different types of bank accounts in total and am able to transfer funds online between them all. It's interesting to see how every bank treats these, how long they take, the rules and ways of coding them, etc.

Right now, I mostly center around a series of Citi accounts because I have credit cards and checking savings with them right now.

When you want to initiate an out of bank external transfer, the system of many banks online makes you go thru a few steps to set up the link relationship. It tells you it will submit two small test deposits to the other bank, and when these come thru in a couple of days, you need to see what they are and then go back to the bank you started with (in this case, my CitiBank accounts) and enter them exactly in order to verify the set up. These deposits could be 10cents or 50cents. I have seen them as high as 93cents.

But here's my question:

Who gives you this money? Where does it come from? I have RECEIVED deposits, but have not seen anything deducted from my accounts that send them! So am I making money even if it's just a few pennies? Well they add up and with 10 different accounts with whom I have done the transfers in or out of, that adds up. I figure I have made about $10+ over time doing this.

Here's my latest sent into a bank account I rarely use that had only $8.10 in it (I plan to use it more now that it's easier to transfer with online):


08/15/2007 ACH CREDIT 5xxxxxxxx IITVERIFY xxxxxx XXXX $0.50 $9.14
08/15/2007 ACH CREDIT 5xxxxxxxx IITVERIFY xxxxxx XXXX $0.54 $8.64

I guess this makes up for all those bank fees we always work to avoid, eh?

MM