moneytalks

I’ve written in the past about the benefits of online savings accounts vs. traditional banking. Now I hear an offer like this. Washington Mutual, or also known as WaMu, is now offering an unheard of 3.75% interest on savings accounts. The only “catch” is that you must also open a online checking account with them as well. You can open these accounts with as little as $1. For an added incentive to use their checking account they are offering $0.03 for every use of their debit card up to $250. This will be applied on your one year anniversary assuming all accounts are still open and in good standings. Lets look at the benefit of a earning 3.75% interest over lower earning accounts. Lets take our generic $5,000 example once again. Over a six month period around $92 would be earned by using this high interest account. Take this opposed to your, lets say, 1% interest in your traditional bank which would earn you right around $25. Now that’s a huge difference! Just go to www.wamu.com, click on savings accounts and follow any instructions. Basically free money, who can pass that up?