The 4% is on a checking, not savings. The website is inovafcu.org and the front page tells you about it.

That 4% interest rate is very attractive and the best current rate I've seen so far this month. Thanks Scrog.

Ever try to use a self service gas pump to pump $0.01 per transaction? The smallest transaction I could do was $0.03. With this Inova credit union checking account program requiring at least 15 transactions each month, now I can practice trying to pump $0.01 per transaction at the gas station. With fuel prices at $2.40 per gallon, has anyone been able to pump only $0.01 at a self service pump?

I never thought about the self-service gas pumps. I'll have to give that a try. Thanks.

There's a sticky maintained on fatwallet that might interest you.

Best Nationally Available High APY Liquid Accounts
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/783099/

CD Rates
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/682884/

It's also a great way to get your account flagged for fraud by the automated systems that try to detect card theft, since gas stations are where many thieves test their newly-stolen cards. A call to the bank will probably get your card unfrozen, but it's a hassle. (No, I don't have personal experiences with this... as frugal as I am, trying to keep track of 10-15 debit purchases a month in this fashion is just more effort than I can muster for only an extra 1-2% return on my meager savings.)

I'm surprised to hear that credit card fraudsters would want to attempt 15 three cent purchases at a gas pump to test a card. If my bank froze my card, I would simply remind them that they previously requested their clients make the fifteen transactions per month to be considered a "loyal" client. Maybe it is easier to simply go into the branch and make the 15 to 30 deposits at the same time. They even offer free gourmet coffee and cookies as you wait. It seems the banks are under the impression that the more transactions we make, the more loyal we will be.

Looking at the "Fat Wallet" web site, the bank interest rates we discussed on FlyerTalk are double that of the Fat Wallet rates. With this knowledge, we could start a new website called "Obese Wallet" :)

Seeing I can't do any direct deposits how do I set up a payment on a recurring bill? About the only monthly bill I have is my utility bill and I think they charge a fee for it.

It doesn't matter to them that they asked you to make the transactions. It can still trigger fraud alerts.

Chase offered me a bonus for making 25 purchases on the Southwest Visa. I did the gas station trick and made $3-$5 purchases. They put a freeze on the account. I called and explained the promotion. They apologized and said I'm all set. Then they froze it again after 2 purchases. I called again to unfreeze. I made a small grocery store purchase and they froze it a third time. When I called again they basically said what I was doing was wrong. I gave up.

I do a recurring payment on my cable tv bill, cell phone bill, UPS shipping bill and utility bills. Many banks offer free bill pay services. Here is a link to get you started,
http://www.consumersearch.com/online-bill-paying

You might be able to do a direct deposit using Paypal. Paypal offers free US bank to bank fund transfers. See
www.paypal.com

If you have two bank accounts, some banks offer free transfers in or out of each account to other financial institutions.

Companies like Autoscribe provide the software to the financial institutions to generate web based payments. For info click on http://www.autoscribe.com/Default.aspx?tabid=98

When you think about it, a bill payment service is simply transfering funds into or out of your designated bank account. Some banks believe customers using direct deposits will be a more loyal client but you can change bill pay transfers with a few mouse clicks.

Maybe if you made 25 $0.03 cent purchases instead of 25 $3-$5 transactions it would have been OK. After all, a credit card fraudster can't drive too far on $0.75 of petrol. I've never heard of a fraudster being sent to jail for absconding with less than a dollar of merchandise. Maybe some folks live in a high crime area. Based on the information I found on the Visa USA web site, it appears that what Chase bank did to you was wrong, not just once, twice, but three times.

As the Chase bank Southwest Visa card program mandated you use their card for 25 transactions to earn your bonus, and you did exactly that, why did Chase bank say it was wrong for you to follow their instructions to qualify for their bonus? What would Chase bank want you to do to be right? Merchants have told me that Visa and Mastercard merchant acceptance procedures demand that they cannot set a minimum purchase amount, therefore any amount is acceptable.

I went to the MasterCard web site and found this download of the merchant rules manual. http://www.mastercard.com/us/merchan...ual_public.pdf

In section 5.9.3 it says:
5.9.3 Minimum/Maximum Transaction Amount Prohibited
A Merchant must not require, or indicate that it requires, a minimum or
maximum Transaction amount to accept a valid and properly presented Card.

I found the Visa USA operating regulations here: http://usa.visa.com/download/merchan...egulations.pdf
On page 280 of the Visa regulations, under section 5.2.F Prohibitions, it says:

A merchant must not: Establish a minimum or maximum Transaction amount as a condition for honoring a Visa Card or Visa Electron Card.

If it is a violation of contracted terms for the merchant to establish a minimum transaction amount, I would think a bank would be out of line for saying it is wrong for you to use your card for small amounts. After all, a $1.00 giant ice tea at McDonalds is only $1.06 with Michigan sales tax. I wouldn't want a bank telling me I must go to Starbucks instead of McDonalds because I'm not spending enough.

If cardholders have a problem with card acceptance, a phone call to customer support at the card headquarters seems to quickly resolve any issues. For Visa, call 1-800-VISA-911 or for MasterCard call 1-800-MC-ASSIST. American Express and Discover appear to have similar card acceptance procedures. You might want to call the Visa assistance center and complain about Chase bank blocking your card multiple times and request Visa USA tell Chase bank to allow your card to be used within Visa USA terms and conditions.

Many big banks definite the direct deposits as being payroll or SS benefits, clearly spelled out in the T&Cs.

You need to check the fine print of the said bank to make sure PayPal is not disqualified.

On another note, frequent smallish purchases in the dollar and cents dept, especially made at gas pump, is a good way to flag your account as rrgg posted.

Maybe I misled you. The merchant was not denying the charge, and was not setting a minimum spending amount. I was using pay-at-pump and automated grocery checkouts to avoid having to explain myself to anyone. It is Chase who was denying my charge and freezing the account.

I doubt that spending $0.03 would have made any difference. Chase has some formula which defines "normal spending," and what I did was outside that definition, triggering alerts even after I was given "highest purchase clearance." To answer your question, I didn't ask why they said it was "wrong." I assume they felt I was outside the spirit of the promotion, and that they wanted me to make typical charges. Of course this is just dumb. They didn't like the rules that they themselves wrote.

In any case, I was just responding to the comment about setting off fraud alerts like this. It can happen.

If you are "sole proprietor" you could pay yourself a payroll check as a direct deposit from one account to another.

Why would a bank not like PayPal? It handles billions of dollars of transactions every month worldwide. If they blacklist PayPal, why wouldn't they also blacklist every automated clearing house (ACH) payment provider? If a bank did this, then they would not be able to offer ACH payments to anyone. Just like Visa and MasterCard has rules, there are also ACH rules. For more info, click here: http://www.nacha.org/ or here: http://www.nacha.org/About/default.htm

If banks such as Chase are using a "frugal fraud flag" at the gas pump, and, due to their fraud concern, block your card, once they speak with you, they should easily override this automatic flag in their system. What is set to automatically block can also be set to "ignore" mode. The cardholder did nothing wrong with making small purchases. Visa USA would want to hear about this repeated abusive bank behavior where a Visa card holder is declined, multiple times. Merchants only make a profit when transactions are approved.

The smallish charges are for "testing" done by the thieves to see if the stolen card number is a good one. The pattern would be, after successful tests, the card would then be used to charge for significant amounts, usually somewhere far away from the cardholder's location, sometimes thousand miles at the other side of the world...

It is the fraud detection mechanism built in the banks' systems to freeze the card after "unusual, unreasonable" charges have been detected.

You can go ahead to dispute this with Chase or report to Visa, whatever and however avenues you choose - it aint to make any difference to change the fact that you are trying to exploit a promotion that is NOT designed for the way you contemplate to take advantage. I am not saying it is right or wrong, to each their own. However, there is a great probability for you to run into issues as rrgg described, even with a small bank and your account may be closed at the bank's discretion.

Banks blacklist PayPal regarding the direct deposit issue, precisely because folks take advantage of such to bypass the direct deposits being the traditional payroll and SS payments. Obvious answer to your question of "Why?" And now it is spelled out in many offers that require direct deposits. My advice is simply to check the DETAILS of the T&Cs and make sure it is spelled out what types of deposits qualify as direct deposits.

Basically, you dont want to go thru all the trouble for some bucks and then wound up not getting any, do you?

Besides, as someone already pointed out, it depends on how big your deposit base is, the extra bucks may not be a whole lot to warrant the trouble. After all, you probably would still want the 250K protection, and the interests are subject to both Federal and State income tax. And we are talking about it based on a FULL 12 months duration for the purpose of interest calculation - so you are going to do this EVERY Month in order to get that extra before tax.

Thanks for explaination that banks are concerned with testing a credit card before large fraudulent use. As a usually go to McDonalds daily to buy a large ice tea for $1.06, fortunately my bank must recognize this as my normal spending behavior. I would be upset with Chase Bank if they blocked my card after speaking repeatedly with their customer service department. If Chase bank blocked my card for having my daily tea at McDonalds as unreasonable and refused to honor their card, I know I would escalate my complaint to Visa and to the federal regulatory agency for Chase bank. I see the federal government stepped in to quash some of the abusive credit card banking practices against customers in the last two months. If a bank fraud detection system consistently gives a false positive and could not be set to ignore mode for recurring transactions, it would seem useless. It's almost like Chase Bank was using this as an excuse to not to pay out their advertised bonus for card useage.

Many merchants have posted signs stating that there is a minimum transactional amount for using Visa and MasterCard at their establishment. When I encounter this policy and a merchant refuses to honor the card that they advertise they accept, I call the card assistance center. After this call, the merchant is immediately reminded by the Visa or MasterCard card assistance center that they can't set a minimum (as previously explained in the merchant agreement they signed) and my card is then welcome. Remember, just because a merchant or bank says so, doesn't mean it really is.

Regarding PayPal as an ACH agency, why would a bank want to single them out and not accept PayPal inbound deposits? This would seem to be a restraint of trade against PayPal. There are thousands of other ACH agencies offering deposits. It seems strange that a bank wouldn't also block all these other ACH agencies if they really don't want to accept ACH deposits.