nomad1974

I'm just about to open an account. Would someone care to refer me? PM me please

EDIT: Referral no longer needed, thanks!

Alfonso XIV

You have a PM.

jcerovac

Asking for a referral - kicking myself for not asking sooner.

EDIT: Thanks for the referral.

KtownTraveler

YHPM.

AAway

Sounds awesome! Can someone send me a referral? @:-)

Got the referral. Thanks :-)

denCSA

PM sent!

rrgg

FYI, there's also thread dedicated to asking for referrals:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l#post15616746

P.S. Will be glad to refer anyone. Just let me know your email address, and I'll enter it immediately.

bamboosensation

i wish i understood this thread. I have money to invest, and I'd love to get the miles, but I'm an idiot in this department. Can we have a bankdirect gets you AA miles thread for dummies?

rrgg

Send me a PM if you have questions:

• Earn 100 miles per month per $1000 balance.
• 1000 bonus miles for opening the account
• 1000 for being referred.
• 5000 for direct deposit
• 2000 for using bill pay for 12 months. (You cannot fake this by using an ACH transfer as far as I know.)
• Miles post around the 4th of each month.
• You'll get your first miles the first week following the month you funded the account.
• $2500 minimum balance to avoid a monthly maintenance fee.
• They'll refund 4 ATM fees per month, up to $2.50 each.

That's a 9000 mile bonus plus your monthly earnings.

You open your account online and then just send a check with your funding. If you're being referred there are additional instructions.

I'll be happy to provide a referral to anyone who asks (both of us get an extra 1000 miles for it).

sun_aa

The initial 7k miles from BankDirect come very quickly. You need to decide whether its worthwhile to continue keeping the account open.

If you value AA miles at X cpm, then keeping money at BankDirect effectively gives you a 1.2X% APY checking. Apart from the 2.5k minimum balance there is no other requirement to get the miles. The interest rate is also constant unless your valuation of AA miles changes.

There are other checking/savings accounts which give you a slightly better rate. There are also rewards checking accounts which give you as high as 4% APY. However, these also come with monthly requirements like 10-15 debit card transactions, direct deposit, e-statements and a few billpays. Moreover, they only pay these interest rates for balances upto 25K or even less. You also need to worry rate chasing.

Check out the following links. You can also find historic interest rates by clicking on the + icon next to each bank:
http://www.depositaccounts.com/checking/
http://www.depositaccounts.com/check...-accounts.html
http://www.depositaccounts.com/savings/

josephstern

Refer-ees - anyone want to tackle the FDIC coverage issues here and the recent changes? That's pretty important for anyone looking to use BankDirect.

For reference, the account DOES earn interest - a tiny 0.05%, but enough to put it in the interest-earning category for FDIC purposes.

barelyelite

I can answer this one authoritatively . It's relatively straightforward.

For FDIC purposes, BankDirect works like any other bank.

The financial reform legislation permanently set the insurance limit at $250,000 (principal plus accrued interest) per person per institution. So if you want to place less than $250,000 at any individual bank, you don't need to be concerned. (Just be sure to allow a little bit of room for earned interest.) If you do need more coverage than this, you could set up a joint account, which would give you up to another $250,000 of coverage. Or you could set up an IRA, but I'm not sure that BankDirect has that option. But if you have that kind of money, might I suggest going for the bonus miles sign-up offers at Fidelity or Ameritrade?

Just for reference, the legislation also provides for unlimited coverage--through 2012--of amounts in checking accounts that do not pay interest. This does not apply to BankDirect.

josephstern

Sounds good.

I can add in that BankDirect will allow you to have two accounts that funnel miles to your AA account, and those two accounts do not need to have the same registration.

So I have an account for myself, and an account for my wife. Of course, I referred her, and we got her the direct deposit bonus also. But her account sends miles to my AA account. Yet her account has its own $250K of FDIC coverage.

Nelumbo

I need to send a referral to my brother for him to open a new BD AA checking account. However, when I log into my account on bankdirect.com, I can't see any referral form, not even the "manage account" option mentioned on bankdirect.com's refer-a-friend program webpage. Could anyone give me some instruction about how to get webpage of the referral form?

Thanks!

josephstern

OK - first screen you enter your user name.

Next screen, your password.

Then, you should see a screen with a few boxes - the lower of the two on the right should say:
Click on "Click Here to Manage Your Account"

That should open a new window to a screen where you can choose:

"Refer-A-Friend"