Whenever you go to a wedding and want to purchase a gift, there is usually a list of stores that the couple is registered at. You’ll go to the store, look up their registry, and purchase an item on their list that hasn’t already been taken. Recently the idea of a gift registry has expanded to monetary gift registries for weddings, gift registries for baby showers, and now there are even monetary gift registries for college savings.

Most 529 college savings plans allow parents to invest money on behalf of their children to pay for college on a tax-advantageous basis. Depending on your 529 plan, the money could be invested in stocks, bonds, CDs, or just about anything. Freshman Fund has brought a unique take on the idea of a 529 college savings plan.

Freshman Fund allows parents to setup a 529 savings plan for their children and then invite friends and relatives to contribute to their child’s college education. Imagine for a moment that you have a child who was having their one year old birthday. Friends and Family members might buy them a toy to play with or a new outfit that they’ll inevitably grow out of in a few months. Either way, the gift given is usually forgotten about within a year.

Imagine for a moment that your friends and family invested that money on behalf of your child into their 529 savings plan. If you were to receive 10 $25 gifts for your child, you would have $250 deposited into your account. Over the course of 18 years, that money would grow to $1,922 if it were invested into a decent mutual fund. That’s a lot better than a few toys or items of clothing that will be gone in a few months.

The monetary gifts from friends and family members won’t replace your personal college savings for your child, but it’s a great way to reduce the amount of money that you and your child will have to pay for school. There’s no reason why a few decent sized gifts throughout the course of your child’s childhood couldn’t pay for a semester or two of college.

For balances up to $30,000, you can earn 5.06% interest on your Interest Plus Checking Account with Heartland Community Bank, and receive free ATM transactions nationwide.  

For each statement cycle, meet the following requirements to keep your 5.06% interest:

• Make at least 10 check card transactions
• Receive a monthly Electronic Statement
• One direct deposit or ACH Auto Debit
• Access Online Banking

In addition to a sky high interest rate, and free ATM transactions nationwide, meeting the above requirements with your Interest Plus Checking account also entitles you to write unlimited checks per month, without paying a per-check fee;  not be restricted to having a minimum balance requirement, no monthly service charges, and access to Overdraft privilege is available.  You’ll receive a free ATM or Visa check card with your account, as well as the ability to bank by phone or via Internet Banking.

The Bank of Blue Valley makes it possible to earn interest similar to what you’d earn on money saved in a certificate of deposit through your every-day checking account.  The Performance checking account earns 5.38% interest (5.51% APY) up to a balance of $25,000.

Performance Checking

In addition to the premium interest rates earned on balances held in a performance checking account at the Bank of BlueValley, you get up to $25 in nationwide ATM fees refunded to your account if you make at least 12 signature based debit card transactions per cycle and have a direct deposit or ACH debit transaction per cycle.  If you don’t meet these basic requirements, you still earn base interest of 1.24%, so all is not lost!

You can open a Performance checking account with no minimum deposit requirement.  There are no monthly service charges to keep your account or minimum monthly balances to maintain.  You get a complimentary debit card and access to your account online – which includes online bill pay.

In addition, your account entitles you to Complimentary Financial Planning Services and a Complimentary Trust Review, as wel ass a Complimentary Investment Services Review.  Bank of Blue Valley’s Wealth Management Division works with account holders to help them plan for the future. You receive the initial financial planning meeting as a complimentary service, and then subsequent progress checks are offered to all Bank of Blue Valley’s clients.

When you choose the Smart, Essential or Tuned In Checking Accounts from Capital Bank, you have the option of upgrading those accounts to take advantage of a number of bonus benefits.  For Essential and Smart checking accounts, you can earn rewards for a fee of $3.99 a month; and just $1.99 for Tuned In Checking accounts.  Rewards and benefits include:

Local and National Dining Savings – Save up to 50% on dining from fine dining to casual eateries and fast foods with an average annual savings of $100.

Local and Online Shopping and Services Discounts – Save up to 50% on professional services (automotive, grocery, beauty, home, dry cleaning, gardeniing, music, video, etc) Annual savings value estimated at $25.

Travel, Hotel and Recreation Discounts – Save on hotels, theme park tickets, sporting events and car rentals.  Estimated annual savings over $350.

$5,000 Travel Accidental Death Insurance – Get automatic protection whenever you travel through a scheduled airline, bus, train, taxi or your own car with a $5000 travel accidental death insurance coverage. Estimated annual value of $12.

Payment Card and Identity Theft Protection – Losing an ATM/Debit card is no big deal with this protection.  Call the toll free number!  If you are the victim of identity theft, you could be reimbursed for up to $1,000 on identity theft recovery expenses.  Estimated annual value of $30.

All Capital Bank checking account options offer great service and value, with or without the addition of the above rewards program.  The Smart Checking offers interest earning checking without fees, and requires a minimum deposit of just $100.

Tuned In Checking refunds your ATM fees and pays for your music (up to $9.99 per month in iTunes music).

Essential Checking doesn’t charge monthly service fees, allows unlimited transactions and a Visa Debit card.

National City Bank offers several checking account options.  If you open one between now and December 31st, 2008, you can qualify for a $150 Visa Gift card.  That’s a nice little bonus for yourself – or to give as a holiday gift!

To qualify for the gift card, here are the 3 steps you must take:

1. Apply online, visit your local National City branch or call 1-800-622-6650 to open your checking account by 12/31/08.

2. Use our Switch Service to set up a $250 direct deposit from your paycheck into your new checking account. Direct deposit must be received within 60 days of your account opening.

3. Accept our free National City Visa CheckCard** and make at least 10 purchases within the first
60 days

Your checking account choices with National City include:

Elite Checking – Minimum $50 to open your account, a $15 monthly fee (unless you have a $10,000 balance and that fee is waived); one box of free checks, and a 2% APY.

Free Checking Plus – Minimum $50 to open your account, No monthly fee, one box of free checks.  This account does not earn interest.

Interest Checking Plus – Minimum $50 to open your account, $10 monthly fee (or maintain a $1,500 minimum daily balance and skip the monthly fee), one box of free checks.  The interest earned on this account depends on your balance – up to $4,999.99 earns .25% with higher balances earning higher interest.

Interest Checking – Minimum $50 to open your account, minimum $10 monthly fee (or maintain $1,500 minimum daily balance and skip the monthly fee), no free checks.  Interest is the same as Interest Checking plus, up to $4,999.99 earns .25% and higher balances earn additional interest up to .60%.

Free Checking - Minimum $50 to open account, no monthly fee, no free checks, and no interest earned on your balance.

Online application for a checking account with National City is limited to residents of FL, IL, IN, KY, MI, MO, OH, PA, WI.

Delta Community Credit Union is the largest credit union in Georgia.  It has 172,000 members.  Membership eligibility requires that you are a resident of one of eleven counties in Georgia, OR a member or employee of a large number of associations or organizations.  A complete list is available here: https://www.deltacommunitycu.com/Personal/join/eligibility.asp

If you are not in the state of Georgia, it’s easy enough to become eligible for the Delta Community Credit Union.  Look into the GettingAhead Association.  To become a member of this association, you pay a $5 annual fee – and receive countless benefits and financial educational opportunities in exchange for that membership- as well as becoming eligible to then become a Delta Community Credit Union member.

A Delta Community CU health savings account helps you save for medical expenses with tax benefits.  Health Savings Account benefits include:

• Tax Savings. You can deduct qualified contributions to a Health Savings Account from your gross income on a federal tax return – even when you aren’t itemizing deductions. If you take distributions for qualified medical expenses, they are tax-free and your accumulated funds grow with tax-deferred earnings.
• Decisions & Control.   It is up to you whether you use your account to pay for current medical expenses or save for future expenses.
• Transferable. Money in a health savings account isn’t tied to any particular job or employer.  It’s like an IRA – if you change employers or retire, the money remains in the account.

There are a number of ways you can get money from your health savings account with Delta Community Credit Union.   You are given an online account management system, checks, and a debit card that can all be used to pay for qualified medical expenses. ‘ll be able to manage your account online and write checks or use your HSA debit card to pay for qualified medical expenses.

ViewPoint Bank is offering two very good special rates on their certificate of deposit products.

The special rate on 60 month Certificate of Deposits with a $1,000 minimum deposit is 5.25%; while the special rate on a 12 month Certificate of deposit with a $1,000 minimum deposit is 4.25%.  (Interest rates are subject to change until you open the CD, after which the rates are locked in until the certificate reaches it’s maturity date).

If you don’t yet have $1,000 available to take advantage of the special CD promotions with ViewPoint Bank, you might consider their Regular Start Up CD or IRA – with only a $100 minimum deposit required, you can earn 4.18% on a 12 month CD or IRA.  Use this to put your money to work for you and as you grow your savings, move them to a higher yield, longer term certificate of deposit for even greater earnings.

ViewPoint Bank Absolute Checking Earns 4% Interest

Open an Absolute checking account with ViewPoint Bank with a minimum of $100, and you’ll receive a checking account that earns 4% interest (up to $50,000 balance).    There are no monthly services charges regardless of what your account balance is, no ATM charges, and free checks helping you earn more from your checking account balance.  To qualify for the 4% interest account, you just need to either sign up for direct deposit or use the free online bill pay options within your account, receive your statements online instead of through the mail (save some trees and postage!) and use your Absolute Checking Visa Debit Card 15 times per month for purchases.

At a time when every penny you can hang on to counts, you don’t want to be wasting money paying unnecessary banking fees.  With Trustco Bank, you can get a Free Interest Checking account that allows you to earn interest on your balance – without any of those unnecessary bank fees or monthly service charges.   Of course, you’ll have access to your money whenever you need it through the ATM around town and around the world, as well as through unlimited check writing.

When Trustco Bank says “no fees”, it looks like they mean it!  This is what your Free Interest Checking Account will include:

• 3 Boxes of Trustco Blue Checks per year for free
• No need to keep a minimum monthly  balance
• No monthly service charges
• Internet Banking included
• Open your account with a low minimum deposit 
• Competitive interest rate compounded monthly
• Write as many checks as you need, no extra fees
• Monthly statement with cancelled checks
• 24-hour account access with your ATM/Debit Card
• Overdraft protection (Credit approval required)
• You can scheduled automatic loan payments for Trustco Loans, and get a reduced rate
• Regular transfers from checking to savings, Christmas Club or IRA account at no charge
• Electronic direct deposit at no charge

Trustco Bank currently operates in the states of New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Florida and Massachusetts, with the interest rate your free interest checking account earning dependent upon your location – ranging between .20% and 1%.

Millennium Bank offers a variety of certificate of deposit options for people looking to stretch their money a bit further.

You can choose a certificate of deposit maturity term between a short 30 days (currently earning 1% interest) to a more traditional period of five years (currently earning 3.45%)  Unlike some banks that require hefty deposits of $5,000 or more for a CD, Millennium Bank allows a $1,000 minimum deposit.  If you do happen to have $100,000 available for opening your certificate of deposit, you get special rates.

Current Certificate of Deposit Rates ($1000 minimum deposit)

• 30 Days – 1%
• 180 Days – 3.20%
• 1 Year – 3.45%
• 18 Months – 3.45%
• 2 – 5 years – 3.45%

CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT SPECIAL OFFER EFFECTIVE NOVEMBER 1st

Currently, Millennium Bank is running certificate of deposit specials for CD’s that meet certain requirements.  Open a 90 day or 9 month CD with a minimum of $5,000 for higher interest rates; A 90 day certificate of deposit under the special will earn 3.54% (Annual Percent Yield 3.60%) while a 9 month CD will earn 4.17% (Annual Percent Yield 4.25%).

Rates are subject to change without notice.

The Interest Plus Checking Account offered by Heartland Community Bank is available with a bonus rate of 5.06% APY on all balances up to $30,000 balances. Accounts will over $30,000 balances will earn 1.31% APY. Along with the bonus rate, Heartland offers free use of ATM’s nationwide.

In order to qualify for the bonus APY rate, account holders need to fulfill monthly requirements or the rate of .30% APY will be applied to your account.

The following list outlines the requirements for each statement cycle:

You must perform at least 10 check card transactions each month.

You must register to receive your banking statements electronically.

You must link at least one direct deposit or ACH automated debt transaction to the account.

You must access your bank account through the online interface.

Heartland Community Bank does not charge any service fees for written checks. There are also no minimum balance requirements. Account access can be done online or via the telephone at no cost.

Heartland Community Bank is located in Arkansas and the bank has been insured since 1934. Out-of-state applicants are accepted and can use the online application form but the bank requires that account holders mail in the initial deposit and the signature card.