Originally Posted by show_me_the_points (Post 16236210)

With the high yield checking accounts, does Paypal count as an ACH transaction? Are there ways to automate the 10 debit transactions/month? I have 150k in cash earning 1.1% and looking to open 6 or so high-yield online checking accounts. This would mean an incredible amount of work to track, unless I can automate it somehow!

Originally Posted by evq (Post 16235926)

there will be no QE3. mark this post.

Originally Posted by outoftown (Post 16235577)

There are many FDIC places to do this. See
http://www.money-rates.com/rewardschecking.htm

However you do have to make sure you get the required monthly debit transactions, ACH charges, which I have automated to ping $1 between credit unions, and on some of the accounts, on-line only account communication. One of my banks has a max of two of these accounts per person, so Mrs. Outoftown and I each have two accounts and 1 is in my mom's name. They had a "pudding guy" open 170 accounts, so now there is a cap on the number of accounts. Another credit union checking account I have pays 1% less, but no ACH charges are required and their cap is $50k instead of the usual $25k. Also the rate has been dropping over the past two years. Mine just dropped to 3.01% last month.

HTH,

outoftown

Originally Posted by jjmiller69 (Post 16235509)

Pioneer Credit Union pays me 2.99% on insured checking account.. So I'm guessing other Credit Unions do also.

Originally Posted by nufcrule3 (Post 16235227)

If you run out of ideas, I will be open to helping you spend it :)
I also, fly to see my GF. I assume you live in the same country as yours, for me it's about $1300 to get across the pond:P

Originally Posted by ACEIV (Post 16235578)

Hi,

At the risk of sounding like a economics geek (I am), June 30th is right around the corner. If you don't know why this date is significant, you might need some financial guidance. On this day (or close to it), the Federal Reserve "Fed" will end its QE2. That stands for Quantitative Easing #2. For a while, the Fed has been purchasing 70% of all of the new bonds issued by the treasury (in essence, printing money). As of the end of June, they will have to announce QE3 or find someone to buy all of the bonds that the government needs to issue to pay for its deficit spending. With the Chinese being net sellers recently ($600 million) and Japan in no position to buy more US Debt with the tragedy there, this could be a domino of bad things to come. If they announce QE3, it will be a signal to the world financial markets that the US is going to use inflation to pay for all of our debts (with cheaper dollars)...a domino of bad things to come.

So as the saying goes, keep your powder dry...you may need it for a good investing opportunity or for other reasons.

I don't mean this to be a political point, only an economic point. Feel free to PM me with those thoughts.

Alex

Originally Posted by ExitRowAisle (Post 16235430)

The Fidelity bonus can be gamed by moving small deposits into and small withdrawals out of your new brokerage account. If this is the approach you want to take, kyunbit's advice may make sense.

However, if you want the least amount of hassle, make a large enough deposit at Fidelity to earn your sign-up bonus, wait for the miles to post, and move most of your money into BankDirect afterwards. Most of the AA miles earned at BankDirect are based on your average balance held at BankDirect. That means you want a large balance to sit there over time in order to maximize your miles. Every time you move money out of BankDirect and into Fidelity, you are negatively impacting your BankDirect earnings for the month. The only risk you take with this latter approach is Fidelity somehow taking back your miles because you didn't leave your initial deposit with them, but I don't believe I've heard of anyone reporting this in the past.

Originally Posted by uoficowboy (Post 16238770)

Can anybody give me a game plan for how to get the 50K fidelity miles through deposits/withdrawals? I would prefer not to have all $100K with Fidelity - but $50K or $25K? Sure!

So right now, I'm thinking:

$25K to some credit union that gives good APR (suggest one that doesn't require a lot of work? I'd rather give up 1% and not have to do a bunch of transactions)

$whatever it takes to Fidelity

$everything else to BankDirect

Originally Posted by ExitRowAisle (Post 16238842)

You have 90 days after opening a Fidelity account to deposit enough money into your brokerage account to earn your AA bonus. Here's the link -- http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...l/fidelity.jsp.

People have reported in another thread in MilesBuzz that you can effectively use the same money to increase your deposit size at Fidelity by moving money in and out. For instance, deposit $30k initially, withdraw $29k, deposit $28k, withdraw $27k, deposit $26k, withdraw $25k, and deposit $24k. This gives you over $100k in deposits (using just $30k of money) and earns you the 50k AA miles. (By the way, the amounts are just examples of what you can do. I'd recommend doing different levels of deposits and withdrawals, but I don't know if it is absolutely necessary.)

You can then use your other $70k to do with whatever you wish.

The other option is to just put all $100k in Fidelity initially, get your 50k AA miles soon thereafter, and withdraw all but $1k or so and put it elsewhere. I don't believe that I've seen reports that this has cost anyone their already received AA miles.

(As I mentioned in my first post, if you want to pursue BankDirect, I'd be happy to refer you.)

Originally Posted by uoficowboy (Post 16238770)

Can anybody give me a game plan for how to get the 50K fidelity miles through deposits/withdrawals? I would prefer not to have all $100K with Fidelity - but $50K or $25K? Sure!

So right now, I'm thinking:

$25K to some credit union that gives good APR (suggest one that doesn't require a lot of work? I'd rather give up 1% and not have to do a bunch of transactions)

$whatever it takes to Fidelity

$everything else to BankDirect