Are there any of thes banking programs where you can churn money (5 figure) through and earn serious miles?

Ahhh...I've always wondered who some of the other texas state bankers were.

That was never posted here (and thankfully so or might not have lasted more than one week esp with the fatwallet lurkers)...I found it myself through a lot of googling and researching, but knew other ft'ers must be onto is especially as its fee got raised to $10/reload in the end. I figured the "secret" must've gotten shared with too many people or some folks must've started to go really overboard with the reloads.

It was good while it lasted.

Not sure what you mean by churn, but say you let $100k sit in your BankDirect checking account... you earn 10k miles per month, 120k miles per year.

Say that you put $1m in the account, you'd earn 1.2m miles in a year (lifetime Gold after 10 months, lifetime Plat after 20 months).

gleff, correct me if I am wrong, but that works out to $0.03333 per mile compared to earning 4% in a money market account. To me that is not a good deal.

Good point. In fact, money market fund rates are currently @ 4% and going up every month. In addition, anyone who has $1M in the bank probably has implemented effective tax avoidance schemes and does not pay anywhere near 40% tax (and may live in a no income tax state like NV, TX or FL). Not to mention that someone with $1M lying around probably knows that he can earn an average of 8% per year in the stock market, and would likely pay a capital gains tax rate of 15% when he cashes in.

The point is that the real after-tax cost per mile is much much higher for the savvy investor. But for someone who wants to keep a few thousand in the bank and doesn't need branches, they can decide whether the $ per mile rate is worth the tradeoff.

Yes, well, there are tax issues to think through and BankDirect does also pay interest. It's a complicated calculation to make that will vary by individual situation. But it certainly isn't a no-brainer for everyone.

I want to open a 'My Checking' Acct w/ Guaranty Bank. This acct allows me to get Membership Rewards which I use because of their flexibility. Can anyone refer me? We will both get 1000 points.

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