I have had US Bank as my checking account home for 11 years, in that time I have earned just over $40.00 in checking rewards.

They used to pay every October when I first opened the account. A few years ago they changed it to once you got to $10.00 you could request the reward, but reward dollars were only good for 2 years, if you did not claim them or they did not get to the $10 limit you lost them.

Well Today I read another persons post about checking points and that got me thinking. So when I went into my checking account rewards section, it has changed again.

Now I have a balance of $0. Seems that the .01% reward on all debit card purchases has been changed to select businesses having different rewards points percentages, and the only businesses (5) that I actually use are not paying in store rewards just online rewards. But Rewards where reduced to requests allowed at $5.

I Do Not use my Debit Card online, I use my CC, then pay off the CC.

So since the Rewards Checking is of no reward to me I need to start looking at other Checking accounts so that I can find a rewarding partnership. I would like a local bank or an online bank that I can scan checks to. I do not like the idea of having to mail a check to be deposited into my checking (So ING orange Checking is out of the loop). What IF it is one of those rebate checks and it gets lost in the mail or delayed in the mail and it says on the check must be cashed within 30 days.

I went to the Savings Advice Forums and located a link for Checking Rewards based on my State. The problem is the higher paying ones don't have many Locations. I want to be able to bank when I am also out of state if need be.

The other thing that sucks is that I have almost all my automatic payments coming out of this non-rewarding account. I will have to go in and reset up all my automatic transfers etc. Oh well.

If BF is going to take over the utilities, I guess this is as good a time as any to start looking for another bank since some of the automatic payments would be stopping. I think I will have to keep this account open for a few more months though so that I know the afterschool daycare final autopayment clears on April 5th.

I am not looking for much.
1. Some Sort of Rewards - either from debit card usage or based on the balance I have in the checking account.
2. Free ATM usage at either their bank machines or at certain machines if online bank.
3. Online Access
4. Deposits made either at a local bank or online such as scanning the front and back of the check.
5. Overdraft insurance or low low fees.
6. No Debit Card required transactions (while deployed will need to use star card for cash not debit card).
7. allows actual checks. (again sorry ING)


I don't have a smart phone but I am thinking of going that way because I am thinking of going to Straight Talk which would be cheaper than I am paying for cell service now. So if the bank had a banking application that would be cool also. I know of one bank that does the check scanning that you can take a picture of the front and back of the check using your phone to make the deposit.

So Far
ING Orange is a No!
US Bank is what I am leaving!

Wish me luck...