Miles for Large Bank Balances
 

Is BankDirect for AA miles the only one? Here is the BankDirect offer:

Earn AAdvantage Miles with BankDirect
Earn miles when you open BankDirect Mileage Checking, Mileage Money Market Accounts, and Mileage CDs. Earn miles maintaining monthly account balances. And earn more miles using BankDirect services, like direct deposit and bill pay!* . . .

• 100 miles a month for every $1,000 maintained in a Mileage Checking Account
• 50 miles a month for every $1,000 maintained in a Mileage Money Market Account.
• 1,000 miles for every $1,000 spent on a 2-year Mileage CD purchase
• 500 miles for every $1,000 spent on a 1-year Mileage CD purchase
• 250 miles for every $1,000 spent on a 6-month Mileage CD purchase
*Mileage offers available on applicable accounts only.

IMHO, the rates paid on miles earning bank accounts are so low now it is not worth doing. :mad:

Instead, look for better rates elsewhere. ;)

Agree completely. BankDirect CD rate is .1% APR (correct - one tenth of one percent). You can get 2.5% at other institutions for a 2-2.5 year cert. Admit that there are probably some tax considerations but still not worth it.

I don't really see it that way. The comparison that I make is between BankDirect Checking and other banks' checking or savings rates for cash. BankDirect's Checking APR is 0.05% + 1.2 AA miles per year, and most other banks are no higher than 0.70%, with a few outliers as high at 1.25% or thereabouts. So the maximum difference is 1.20% per year for 1.2 AA miles per year, or one cent a mile. (Not considering taxes, which logically would make the cost less.)

If your average balance is $100,000, that's 120,000 AA miles a year.

But that wasn't my question. My question was whether there are any other programs offering miles for large bank balances.

Chase - OnePass

Chase onepass does not pay any miles for $'s held on account. There are sign up bonuses only

I'm not aware of any other accounts that pay miles on $ balances

Whether the miles are paid up front, or over a period of time, what's the diff, really?

Well if they are paid up front, you can move the money somewhere else and make a decent return after getting the bonus.

BankDirect Checking is a great way to make some extra miles. I agree with a poster above, you end up getting 1.2 miles per dollar over the year. If you value your AA miles at about 1 cent each (and that is pretty conservative), it maybe a good way to generate some miles. If you get award international tickets in business/first, these miles are worth closer to 3-4 cents each. Also, in the checking account, your money is completely liquid, you can withdraw/transfer within 48 hours.

The OP is looking for something other than BankDirect.

Another great feature of BankDirect generated AA miles is getting you closer to lifetime AA Gold or Plat.

Guaranty bank (Compass bank now) offers the same thing. I am not sure if you are still able to sign up for airmile account now since some things have changed.

USBank offers an AreoMexico Visa Signaure and a Korean Air Visa Signature. Both normally get 1 mile for every $1 spent on all purchases (and double miles for the appropriate airline's tickets).

Both cards are also eligible for US Bank Packages. The Platinum Package is either $20 a month or free if you have $25,000 or more in deposits with them. If you have the Platinum Package, you qualify for "50% bonus on all rewards earned for net purchases."

So that means 1.5 miles per $1 for CC purchases? Not the same as just getting miles for having your money sit there, but close.

The above is just from reading their website. Sadly I don't have $25,000 sitting around to test this.

The problem with this approach is that they are offering an extra 0.5 miles per dollar only on the amount you spend, but Ferdinand Magellan wants to earn on money he is not spending. Also, there are other cards which award 1.25, 1.5 or 2 miles per dollar for general spending with no bank account requirement.

There are a lot of banks that offer higher rates on checking accounts. For example, my bank offers 4.25% on balances up to $25k. So me and my wife each opened an individual account, and a joint account, so we are earning 4.25% on $75k. Not bad, essentially a couple of hundred dollars a month. I would much rather have the money over the miles. Don't get me wrong, I'm a mile addict, but cash in the bank ($3187.50 per year) is far superior to 120k AA miles per year.

:D