Wainwright Bank, a regional bank based in Massachusetts, is offering a $200 Series EE U.S. Savings Bond when you open a new Value Checking account and have direct deposit. $10 minimum to open, and no minimum balance with direct deposit. Wainwright Bank & Trust Company is FDIC-insured.
*To be eligible to receive a free $200 Series EE U.S. Savings Bond you must open a new Wainwright Bank personal checking account and have a recurring payroll, Social Security or public assistance Direct Deposit made to the account; limit one bond per household; bond will be mailed within 90 days of account opening; account must be in good standing with active Direct Deposit at time of Bond mailing.
Updated: Called in and asked a few questions. Seemed like a nice regional bank. They said no credit check, but they do a Efunds/ChexSystems background check. You can open online, but they just end up printing it out and processing and approving it manually, so can take a few days. You don’t need a MA address if you open online, but you do if opening in-branch.
You can request initial order of checks with application, or decline. I forgot to ask the cost. It is unknown if you can simulate direct deposit with an ACH transfer from an online bank or PayPal.
Note that a EE bond is only worth half as much as its face value initially, so the bond is actually worth $100 right now. They currently only earn 1.30% interest, but in 20 years they are guaranteed to be worth at least $200. I’d probably just cash it out after a year and avoid having to keep track of it. Thanks to reader Susan for the tip.
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I use this software from the Treasury Department to keep track of my savings bonds so I can leave them at the bank in a safety deposit box.
http://www.savingsbondwizard.gov/
Please let us know what you find out Jonathan…I’m interested, but I want to hear what you say before I start this account.
Called in and asked a few questions. Seemed like a nice regional bank.
Re: Credit check. They said no credit check, but they do a Efunds/ChexSystems check to make sure you haven’t had a bunch of bounced checks or other account abuse.
You can open online, but they just end up printing it out and processing and approving it manually. You don’t need a MA address if you open online, but you do if opening in-branch.
You can request initial order of checks with application, or decline. I forgot to ask the cost.
Do you break your paycheck into multiple direct deposit deductions to get the bonuses for these accounts? Do you have to go to HR or someone in your company each time you want to do that?
Many of these banks require direct deposit, but I am not sure how to take advantage of these and meet that requirement.
>>> in 30 years they are guaranteed to be
>>> worth at least $200.
That’s not correct, it’s guaranteed to be worth $200 in 20 years.
>>> I’d probably just cash it out after a year and
>>> avoid having to keep track of it.
Okay, but remember there’s a penalty for redeeming a EE bond in the first 5 years.
What about the ACH direct deposit requirement? That’s a big question. Can you use paypal or some equivalent or do you actually have to set up direct deposit from your employer?
Oops, they earn interest for 30 years, but they are guaranteed to double in 20. I probably won’t mind losing 3 months of interest for holding less than 5 years. I’d much rather put the money to use elsewhere. The Treasury seems to have really given up on promoting savings bonds.
Instead of using a safe deposit box, you can also consider converting to electronic form. Anyone else keep misplacing their secret decoder card for TreasuryDirect?
This would be Wainwright Bank, right?
I haven’t misplaced the it yet, but at least the information on the decoder card can be retrieved through yodlee.
during the application, it asks you the source of dd, which in my opinion means that they’ll check your dd manually…
any idea if a $1 paypal recurring deposit will satisfy the direct deposit requirement? otherwise this deal is a nogo for me.
Sounds good to me, as long as ACH push counts as DD.
Does anyone who opened the account know how long this account is required to remain open to keep the bonus? Is it until the bond is received?
Not a bad offer even though the bank is only offering series EE bonds…the bond is still free just for opening up a checking account. You really can’t beat that.
there is an option to fund by cc. up to $1000.
I intend to fund this way using the Schwab 2% card.
then etrade push $5 a month to hopefully satisfy dd requirement.
Is there anyway to get direct deposit if your employer does not offer it?