Crazy banking idea?

[nmboone]

I would like to know what everyone thinks about this bank account that Capital One offers. It's one of those accounts in which money goes into a savings account every time you use your debit (.50 each time). Before you say anything about it though, I'm well aware that I could do much better just saving in a high interest account, which I do!

So here's what I'm thinking: since Capital One MATCHES 100% of every thing you save for 3 months, I'm thinking it might be a decent short term way to make some extra money. After that they match 5% and I would most likely just shut the account down. I use debit for everything and rarely carry cash, so I would probably make approx. 15 debit transactions a week (on average. sometimes more or less). I would still hold my other checking account. The only bad side I can see is I would have to transfer my direct deposit over and possibly have to do something with my old checking in order to avoid charges since it depends on dd. I do not find anything about a limit that they will match up to and I estimate (if there is actually no limit to this) that I could make up to around $120 (basing this on 20 debit transactions per week) for 3 months.

Can anyone think or know of anything that might go wrong with this Lucille Ball harebrained plan of mine?? Does anyone have this account and can tell me more? It simply can't be that easy, so I might end up going to a branch and talking with someone tomorrow since I'm off work. Well, thanks for any thoughts about this, it would be fun if it actually could work!

P.S. If you're thinking I would spend more money through debit, I most definetely would not, lol!

Edit: I also found that I will make $15 for my first dd, then $15 for my first online bill pay.

[simpletron]

you getting $.50 per transaction, so it is fair to compare it to a reward credit card. a very typical reward is 1% cash back, so if most of your purchases are $50+, then you are better off with using a reward credit card instead of your debit card. also a lot of cards offer 3% or 5% back in certian categories, which corresponds to 16.66+(3%) and 10+(5%) purchases. So you may be better off with a reward credit card depending on spending patterns.

there is nothing wrong with your plan, and yes it is that easy to make the money. just get out after 3 months, because it isn't worth after the promo period. thier plan is to get you in the door with this program and make it a lot of work to leave(change DD, bill pays, transfer money,...)... lazy people don't change back and the bank makes more money in the long run. also ask your employer if they can do multiple direct deposits because I'm allowed to split my paycheck into 3 direct deposits for 3 different accounts.

I looked up the plan for a NY zip code and found the following. the limit is $300/year and you get $25 instead of $15 for DD and online bill pay.

edit: just noticed you're in baton rouge. the limit is 300/year there with $15 for DD and online bill pay.

[Radiance]

Check what your local credit union has to offer.
Credit unions don't have budgets to run ads on TV or any other media.
But they sure offer very good deals for banking.

[safari]

Is there a minimum purchase requirement to qualify for the $0.50 credit? If you could find something online that costs one penny and make 600 transactions, you'd earn $300 in no time, and it would only cost you $6.

[nmboone]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts! I'm going to talk to someone shortly about opening an account.

Safari: I don't think there's a minimum purchase, but I do think there might be a minimum of debit transactions per week, possibly 15 looking at the website.

I hope that they don't try to make me stay for a year or something like that!

[safari]

Safari: I don't think there's a minimum purchase, but I do think there might be a minimum of debit transactions per week, possibly 15 looking at the website.

Did you mean to say the maximum of 15 transactions per week, meaning you will only get $0.50 credit for the first 15 transactions every week?

[nmboone]

Update: So I went to talk to Capital One today and there weren't any necessarily "bad" things about it. I was fairly happy with everything they told me about it and the guy who explained everything was really nice. The only thing I would have to think about is that I will have to keep it for one year. And also I'm not sure about transferring everything and how much trouble it will be.