Flagstar Direct, the online banking division of Flagstar Bank, is offering $100 bonus for its Express Checking Account. As a new customer, after you open a Flagstar Express Checking Account (the account can be opened online and the process takes about 10 minutes to complete), your money will start to grow because the account is an interest checking account, which means you will earn interest by having your money in the account. Currently, Flagstar has a four-month bonus interest rate of 1.0% for the Express Checking Account, regardless the amount of balance. The on-going interest rate of the account is 0.85% APY, which will be the rate you will get after the four-month promotion period. With the bonus rate, the first year blended APY will be 0.9% APY.

The 0.9% APY may not seem to be very impressive, but you need to put it in perspective and compare it with others and once you do that, you will realize that this offer is actually pretty good. The Fed has kept its benchmark lending rate at close to zero for almost three years. As a result, banks, online and B&M alike,  have repeatedly cut yields of their savings accounts in the past few years. Right now, savings account yields at popular online banks such as Ally Bank, Sallie Mae Bank, ING Direct and FNBO Direct, are all around 1.0% APY. Therefore, if you can only get 1.0% APY from a savings account, the 0.9% APY from the Flagstar Express Checking Account doesn’t seem too bad at all. Plus, the checking account doesn’t have the limitation on the number of withdrawals per month as the savings accounts do.

To make this offer even sweeter, Flagstar will give you another $100 bonus if you set up a direct deposit or ACH transfer of at least %250 in the first four months after account opening. If you don’t plan to use this account as you primary checking account and use it to pay all your bills, direct deposit may not be that desirable, but the CH option is quite handy and can be set up easily. If you use ACH to make the initial deposit into the account (a $1 minimum is required to open the account), if you can just use that linked account to make automatic ACH transfer of $250 per month and get the $100 free money at the end of the promotional period. Some other benefits of the checking account include:

• No monthly maintenance fees
• No minimum balance
• Free checks for life
• Free Identity Theft Protection

Of course, Flagstar Direct isn’t the only online bank that offers interest checking account. To give you an idea on how they compare with others, take a look:

• EverBank Yield Pledge Checking Account: 1.51% three-month bonus rate, 1.02% APY for the first year; $1,500 minimum;
• Ally Bank Interest Checking Account: 0.50% APY for balance less than $15,000, 0.90% APY for balance greater than $15,000; $0 minimum;
• FNBO Direct Billpay Account: 1.0% APY; $0 minimum.

As you can see, Flagstar Interest Checking Account is very competitive, especially with the $100 bonus offer.

• Mimi’s Café: Till April 15, a $7.99 breakfast purchase gets you a free four-pack of muffins.
• White Castle: Tax Day coupon, good for 15% off at participating locations now through April 19th.
• IHOP: “Kids Eat Free” dinner promotion. From 4-10 p.m. throughout April, children under 12 receive one of 14 menu items for free with the purchase of an adult entrée.
• McCormick & Schmick’s: Annual Tax Relief Celebration, (1) On April 15, guests who come for the Early Filer’s Happy Hour will receive a $10.40 gift certificate to use for future meals. (2) April 18th is the Procrastinators All Day Celebration, which features $10.40 entrees and drink specials at the bar, as well as more $10.40 gift certificates.
• Arbys: April 15 is Free FryDay at Arbys. Visit the fast food chain’s Facebook page to download a coupon for free curly fries.
• PF Changs China Bistro: On April 18, PF Chang’s offers a Tax Relief promotion, featuring a 15% discount on all food orders.
• Cinnabon: The chain offers gustatory comfort with what else? Cinnamon rolls. On April 18, from 6-8 PM, participating stores will give away two free Cinnabon Bites to each guest.
• California Tortilla: April 18 is Free Chips and Queso Day at the mid-Atlantic Mexican chain. Throughout the day customers will receive complimentary chips and cheese dip (or salsa for the lactose intolerant) with any purchase.
• MaggieMoo’s Ice Cream and Treatery: For the third year running, the ice cream parlor chain is giving away Tax Day freebies. This year, on April 18, visit participating MaggieMoo’s between 3 and 6 p.m. for a free mini sundae.
• Bruegger’s is offering a pack of 13 bagels and two tubs of cream cheese for $10.40 through Monday with a downloaded coupon.
• Free photocopies. Get free copies (limit 25 pages) of tax returns at participating Office Depot branches through Monday.
• Free workouts. Bally Total Fitness offers free workouts on Monday, and members can get free personal training.
• Free dates. Online dating site Chemistry.com offers free three-day memberships on Monday
• Free massages. Through Monday, HydroMassage centers offer free 10-minute mini-massages

I have talked about how free checking accounts, which we took for granted so far, have changed lately after new bank laws have been enacted since last year. These new regulations, which are all good laws BTW, intent to protect consumers by prohibiting banks from imposing arbitrary high interest rates on credit cards and charging outrageous bank fees. However, banks are very fast to adjust the way they do business in order to make up those lost revenues. One item that was quickly put on the chopping block is free checking account. BB&T Bank and US Bank will soon replace their free checking accounts by accounts that require either direct deposit or minimum balance to avoid monthly charge. Now Bank of American, the largest bank in the nation by assets, has raised the bar even higher for small customers.

BofA has already have the direct deposit/minimum balance requirement in place for its MyAccess Checking Account. And like BB&T Bank and US Bank, it only requirement customers to make one qualified monthly direct deposit into the account to be eligible for fee waiver. There’s no information on how much the direct deposit has to be, which means that you can make $1 direct deposit every month and get the monthly maintenance fee of $8.95 waived. But starting May 24, you will have to make at least one large deposit every month if you don’t want to pay the finance charge. From BofA website:

Effective with statement cycles beginning on or after May 24, 2011, meet one of the following requirements during each statement cycle:

• Have at least one qualifying direct deposit of $250 or more made to your account each statement cycle.
• Maintain an average daily balance of $1,500 or more in your account.

While these requirements (direct deposit, $1,500 or more balance) have been adopted by more and more banks, particularly large banks, BofA is going a little further to require a specific amount of deposit in order to get the fee waiver. Will other bank follow suite?

In case you are not familiar with CapWest, here’s a brief history of the company and products they offer.

CapWest Mortgage is a wholly owned subsidiary of Farmers Bank & Trust Company, a chartered bank located in Columbia County, Arkansas. CapWest is pretty new to us, but FB&T has a long history, going back to 1906 when it was created as a family owned bank. As a Fannie Mae direct lender, CapWest Mortgage, established in 1971 with its headquarter in Overland Park, Kansas, has the flexibility to offer multiple loan products to qualified borrowers at a lower cost, with no hidden fees or markups. Since CapWest has licenses to originate loans in all 50 states, it’s not a concern that we may not be able to get a loan from them.

Currently, CapWest offers a range of loan products to qualified borrowers, including 30-, 15- and 10-year fixed rate mortgage loans, 5/1 ARM, and a number of loan refinance products. Since CapWest is a prime lender, it requires borrowers to have good or excellent credits in order to obtain a loan from CapWest (it’s always a good idea to get your credit scores from all three bureaus before applying for a mortgage so you know whether you can get the best loan rates or not). Using their free online quote, I got current rates of our mortgage ($410K loan, in Northern Virginia) at different terms:

• 30 Year Fixed Rate: Rate 4.875%, Points 0.000%, APR 4.898%, Closing Fees, $6,999.83, Payment $2,169.75
• 20 Year Fixed Rate: Rate 4.500%, Points .000%, APR 04.531%, Closing Fees $6,999.83, Payment $2,593.86
• 15 Year Fixed Rate: Rate 4.000%, Points 0.000%, APR 4.039%, Closing Fees $6,999.83, Payment $3,032.72
• 10 Year Fixed Rate: Rate 3.375%, Points 0.000%, APR 3.431%, Closing Fees $6,999.83, Payment $4,030.36
• 5/1 Adjustable Rate: Rate 3.375%, Points 0.000%, APR 3.477%, Closing Fees $6,999.83, Payment $1,812.59

For 15-year fixed, the rate now is only slightly higher than the one we got last year at 3.925% APR. Through CapWest’s Home Path program, you will get low down payment and flexible mortgage terms, no mortgage insurance, no appraisal, and finance up to 97% of your loan, even when you credit may not be perfect. And once you become a customer, you will be a customer of CapWest for life, which makes you eligible for further discount if you refinance your mortgage with the lender. Benefits you can enjoy include:

• VIP Service
• Cheaper loan – $997 off every future transaction with CapWest Mortgage
• Guaranteed rates under the national average
• Peace of mind knowing you have the best possible offer without any hassle
• Streamlined process
• Less paperwork
• Work with a lender you know and trust
• Refer a friend, family member, or co-worker and they will receive 50% off our standard fees.

Furthermore, if you are a member of Costco, you can save more money with CapWest because it’s a Costco approved national lender, whether your membership is at Goldstar level or Executive level.

Lender Fees have been capped at $600 for an Executive members and $750 for all other members. In addition, the borrower will pay for what is typically called 3rd party fees, such as appraisal, title, and credit report. These fees vary based on the details of your loan. All out of pocket expenses, lender fees and closing costs will be discussed with you at the time of application.

If you are in the market for a home loan, whether it’s for new purchase or refinance, check out CapWest Mortgage, get a free quote and compare the rates with other lenders using comparison tools from LendingTree.com and see which lender has the best rate, lowest cost and terms that you are comfortable with. It’s always good to shop around.

Discover Bank is the online banking arm of Discover Financial. Its history, however, went back to 1911 as a community bank, Greenwood Trust Company, located in Delaware. The company joint Discover Financial Group in 2002 and has since been known Discover Bank. So even though Discover Bank is quite new, its predecessor has been around for a while. In addition to issuing Discover Credit Cards, Discover Bank also offers customers a range of banking products, including Online Savings Account, Money Market Account, CDs, and IRA CDs. Among them, the most attractive product in my option is its Online Savings Account for several reasons:

• The account has a very competitive rate: At 1.15% APY, Discover Bank’s rate is 5 times the national average;
• The account requires a low $500 initial deposit for new account;
• The account doesn’t charge a monthly fee;
• The account has no minimum monthly balance requirement to earn interest.

To have an idea of how Discover Bank compares with other popular online banks, let’s take a look at their current rates because, when selecting an online bank, I always look the rate first. Without a good rate, an online bank will never attract me since I am not really expect to do a lot of businesses other than moving money between my checking and savings account. The only reason I want to have a high-yield savings account is to earn interests. As for Discover Bank, its wins over other banks because its rate beat most of the well knowns online banks, such as ING Direct (1.00% APY), FNBO Direct (1.00% APY), Sallie Mae Bank (1.10% APY) and Ally Bank (1.00% APY).

The rate itself may not be as high as you would like to have, but, as you can see, it’s a very decent rate comparing to other banks, especially when the overall yields of savings accounts are so low, mostly in the lower 1% range, thanks to the Fed’s policy that has kept its benchmark lending rate close to zero for more than two years.

Above is a chart of Discover Bank Savings Account rate history since December 2008, when the rate was at 2.75%. Things changed a lot since then.

Here are some extra facts about Discover Bank:

• Discover Bank routing number is 031100649
• Discover Bank FDIC Certificate number is 5649
• Discover Bank has 2 domestic branches  located in 1 state

So what do you think about Discover Savings Account? A good option for earning  more interests?

Chase Freedom Visa Signature Card, issued by Chase for people with good credit, is now running a limited time promotion for new customers. If you apply for and get approved for the Freedom Card, you can get $150 in bonus once you spend $500 or more in the first three months of becoming a cardholder. A very good promotion for those who are interested in the card, isn’t it? Since the Freedom Card employs a bonus cash back program to reward card members with 5% cash back when shopping in the bonus cash back categories, the potential of getting more rebates for the first three months is even greater. Let me explain how it works.

• From April to June 2011, you will receive 5% cash back with you shop in home improvement, home furnishing, lawn and garden stores. These are the bonus cash back categories for the current quarter.
• If you are approved for the Freedom Visa Signature Card and you use the card to shop at, for example, Home Depot, and charge $500 on the card before June, then you will get $25 bonus cash back.
• And since you meet the $500 spending requirement for the $150 sign up bonus, you will qualify for the new card member bonus of $150, that brings the total cash back in the first three months to $175.

For only spending $500, that is equivalent to a return of 35% in three months or less. Not too shabby, right?

In addition to the 5% bonus cash back, you can also earn 1% rebate when using the card for purchases that are not covered by the bonus categories in the current quarter. For the entire year of 2011, the Freedom Card has these quarterly bonus categories that let you get 5% cash back:

• January to March: Grocery stores and drug stores;
• April to June: Home improvement, home furnishing, lawn and garden stores;
• July to September: Gas, hotels, and airlines;
• October to December: Dining, movies, charities, and department stores.

And you can get all these great benefits without paying an annual membership fee

The Freedom Card currently has an APR from 11.99% to 22.99%, based on your creditworthiness. These APRs will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate. The card doesn’t offer low intro rate, so it may not be a good choice for balance transfer (balance transfer fee is either $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater), even though the transferred amount counts as eligible spending for the sign up bonus.

So, what do you think? Is Chase Freedom Visa Signature Card the credit card you are looking for? If so, get it now and get $150 free money before it’s gone

Last week, Scottrade became the latest discount broker to offer commission free ETFs to it customers, joining the competition with some of its larger rivals. In my early post on where to buy ETFs for free, I noted that several brokerage firms, including Fidelity, Vanguard, TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab, have been to let their customers trade exchange-traded funds (ETFs) without commission charges in the past couple of years. The difference between these offerings isn’t just what and how many ETFs are commission free, but also where the funds come from. Of the four, Vanguard and Schwab all issue their own ETFs, so it’s understandable that only their own ETFs are allowed to be traded without commission. As for Fidelity and TD Ameritrade, their ETFs are from third parties, such as iShares, so they can give investors more choices of funds, not just from one issuer.

For Scottrade, it followed the same approach as Vanguard and Schwab, that is, launching its own ETFs and offering only those ETFs for free to its customers (of course, you can still buy other ETFs from Scottrade, but they won’t be commission free). As we know, most ETFs are essentially index funds, meaning that they take a passive investment approach by tracking some kind of indices. For Scottrade’s newly launched 15 ETFs, as listed below, they all track indices credited by Morningstar, which you may know as an investment research firm that rates mutual funds and stocks.

• Focus Morningstar US Market Index ETF (NYSE:FMU)
• Focus Morningstar Large Cap Index ETF (NYSE:FLG)
• Focus Morningstar Mid Cap Index ETF (NYSE:FMM)
• Focus Morningstar Small Cap Index ETF (NYSE:FOS)
• Focus Morningstar Basic Materials Index ETF (NYSE:FBM)
• Focus Morningstar Communication Services Index ETF (NYSE:FCQ)
• Focus Morningstar Consumer Cyclical Index ETF (NYSE:FCL)
• Focus Morningstar Consumer Defensive Index ETF (NYSE:FCD)
• Focus Morningstar Energy Index ETF (NYSE:FEG)
• Focus Morningstar Financial Services Index ETF (NYSE:FFL)
• Focus Morningstar Healthcare Index ETF (NYSE:FHC)
• Focus Morningstar Industrials Index ETF (NYSE:FIL)
• Focus Morningstar Real Estate Index ETF (NYSE:FRL)
• Focus Morningstar Technology Index ETF (NYSE:FTQ)
• Focus Morningstar Utilities Index ETF (NYSE:FUI)

Even though those Morningstar indices are not as widely used as other indices, Scottrade and its subsidiary FocusShares are able to offer these funds at extremely low expense ratios (ERs), even lower than Vanguard funds. The Scottrade ETFs have ERs from 0.05% (US Market Index ETF) to 0.19% (Technology Index ETF). To see how low these ERs are, just compare FMU against its Vanguard equivalent, Total Stock Market ETF (VTI), which has an ER of 0.07%.

However, as we know, when it comes to selecting which funds to buy, costs such as expense ratios are not the only factor to consider. We also need to look at a few other things that will also affect a fund’s performance over time, such as tracking error of the fund’s underlying index and trading volume which will be reflected in spread. For Scottrade ETFs, they only account for 15 out of more 1,000 funds that are currently available, which means initially the trading volumes will be light and the spread will be large. Therefore, it may be better to take a wait and see approach.

Nevertheless, I still think this is a good move for Scottrade to step into the ETF business as exchange-traded funds have gotten a lots of attentions and increasingly become the favorite vehicle to build a diversified portfolio. If you are interested in getting a Scottrade brokerage account to invest in these new ETFs or other stocks, you can open an account with promo code KGKP0724 and receive 3 commission free trades.

Now the list of banks getting rid of free checking accounts just got a new member. BB&T Bank, headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, will replace its free checking account with a new account, called BB&T Bright Banking, effective June 3rd. But, like US Bank, this isn’t just a name change. Gone with the old name too is the fee-free checking. With the old account, customers can enjoy features of the account such as

• No minimum balances
• Free online banking with bill payment
• Free Check Card
• Overdraft protection options

With the coming changes, however, there are certain conditions to be met if you don’t want to pay a monthly fee, including

• Direct Deposit OR
• $1,500 ($2,000 in KY/IN) average checking balance per statement cycle OR
• $6,000 ($7,500 in KY/IN) combined in deposit and retail outstanding loan balances to include Checking, Savings, Money Rate Savings, Investor’s Deposit Accounts, Retail Loans, Lines of Credit, and Credit Card balances OR
• Any BB&T personal mortgage

If you can’t meet any of these conditions, then, sorry, you will be charged a $10 monthly account maintenance fee, which is significantly higher than what US Bank will charge for the same service. The new rules will apply to old checking accounts. If you recently became a BB&T Bank customer and got your free checking from February to April, you will get a 3-month waiver from June to August if you can’t meet the requirement.

With free checking harder and harder to find these, what are the options if you don’t want to pay the service charge either because you are not able to maintain the balance or set up a direct deposit? Well, as I mentioned before, one option is to switch to an online bank that does offer free checking. Some of them even pay interests for money in the account. Since online banks usually do their business online, thus no branch offices, the overhead is lower than most B&M banks. This allows them to pay higher interest rates than B&M banks do and keep offering free checking at the same time. Two of the banks that I mentioned early are as ING Direct and Ally Bank, both have high-yield savings accounts and interest checking account. Not a bad options if you are into avoiding unnecessary fees and earning a little extra at the same time.

Since banks now can’t raise credit card interest rates to 30% at their will and collect overdraft fees if the customer doesn’t explicitly enroll in the overdraft protection program (in this case the transaction will simply declined if there isn’t enough fund in the account), they are looking for other ways to make up what could be billions of dollars in lost revenue. And one of the areas that was targeted first is the free checking account, a product that was first introduced in the early 1990s in an effort to encourage people with less savings to use banks, not just the free products but, hopefully, other  fee products as well, to conduct businesses. With a free checking account, the account owner usually doesn’t pay a monthly fee for using the account, even when the account has a very low balance. But the free checking accounts are disappearing, fast, not only at large national banks, but small, regional banks alike.

Starting May 15th, US Bank, one of the largest banks in the country, will replace a number of free checking accounts with one account called Easy Checking. While US Bank says that for existing customers, bank account number, automatic payment or direct deposit, and online bank access will not be affected after the migration, one key difference between old, truly free checking account and the new Easy Checking Account is that after May 15th, you will need to maintain a minimum account balance of $1,500 to avoid a monthly fee of $6.95 (with online statement) or $8.95 (with paper statement). The monthly account maintenance fee can also be avoided if you make a combined direct deposit of $500 or more.

Of course, this is likely just the beginning of the trend. Other big banks such as Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase are also reportedly testing the idea of adding fees to checking accounts. Maybe now is a good time to look at other banks, those smaller, online banks such as ING Direct and Ally Bank, for free checking account options.

The offer is from Mango Savings. According to the website, this offer is currently available to Mango Prepaid Card customers who are also enrolled in Mango’s recurring direct deposit program. The savings account has no minimum deposit requirement (of course $1 is the minimum to earn interests), however it does put a limit on the amount of deposit that earns the generous APY. According to the website, you can earn 5.01% APY for deposit up to $5,000 in your account. Any money above the limit will earn only 0.10% APY (the account has a maximum deposit limit of $10,000). Given its extremely high yield, it makes sense to put a ceiling on how much you can earn.

Even without the promotion, the standard rate of Mango Savings Account also looks pretty good. For balance below $5,000, the standard yield is 3.0% APY. The yield for balance above $5K is the same as the promotional rate of 0.10% APY. Following is a list of fees charged by Mango Savings Account.

• Monthly Fee $5 (waived with $500 monthly load)
• Domestic ATM Withdrawal $2 (limit $500-600/day)
• Foreign ATM Withdrawal $2+2% (limit $300-400/day)
• Bill Payment $1
• Check $10
• Foreign Purchase 2%

Mango Prepaid Debit Card

As mentioned above in order to get the Savings Account, you need to be a Mango Card Account first. If you like the Savings Account, you can get a Mango Prepaid Card to qualify. The prepaid debit card has no activation charges, no overdraft fees, no credit checks, and no bank account is required. Before using the card, load at least $500 per month onto the card to avoid the monthly fee. If you load less than $500 a month, there is a monthly fee of $5. Besides, your funds are fully FDIC-insured.You can use it anywhere MasterCard is accepted, and you can even send money within the U.S. from your mobile phone.

Here are some features of the Mango prepaid debit card if you are interested:

• FREE MasterCard Prepaid Card Signup & FREE Shipping
• FREE Direct Deposit + Get $20 Signup Bonus
• Earn High Savings Interest Rate!
• No fee Domestic Purchase/Signature Transactions
• Pay your Bills in minutes from your online account
• Instant Virtual Card Shop Online Today
• No Fee to Check Your Balance With a Text Message
• Wireless Alerts when your card is swiped
• Send and Receive Money Securely With Any Mobile Phone
• FREE Mango iPhone App (Download from iTunes Store)
• $0 Activation Fee
• $0 First Monthly Fee Try it For FREE
• $5 Monthly Fee WAIVED when You Load at Least $500 Per Month
• No Hidden Fees / No Overdraft Fees
• FDIC Insured up to $250,000
• No Credit Check/ No Bank Account Required
• FREE Account Management Over The Phone or Internet
• Refer friends and family and make money