How to Always Meet the Debit Transaction Requirement On Your Bank / Credit Union Account

There is a way to ALWAYS qualify for the dividend on your bank / credit union account.  Typically there is a minimum of 5-12 debit transactions each month in order to qualify for a high interest dividend rate.  When it gets towards the end of the month and you know you don’t have enough transactions to qualify, you can use the following strategies.  One way is to donate $1 to a charity online 10 times each month.  While this does work, must of us are unwilling to spare that many funds every month, but we can adapt that concept to benefit ourselves.

This will require you create a blog page (I recommend www.Blogger.com), and a PayPal account at www.paypal.com.  Both accounts are free and take minimal time to setup.  Once you have established these accounts, create a "Donate" button through PayPal and copy and paste the code into your blog (You can see a sample at the top right corner of this blog).  It’s that simple. 

Every month “donate” to your page and meet the transaction requirement for your account.  The only down side is that it will cost $0.33 per dollar donated.  For example, if each month you needed to hit a minimum of 10 transactions, you would “donate” 10 times @ $1 per donation costing $3.33 overall.  Note you will need to use a different email address for the donation than the one you provided to open the PayPal account.  After the 10 transactions have cleared, you can transfer the money from your PayPal account right back into your checking account.

The money you obtain from using a credit card with a good cash back rewards program instead of a debit card will offset the $3.33 cost.  It also allows the money that is technically already spent to accrue interest the entire month in your high interest checking account instead of being paid out immediately through a debit card transaction.  Pay off the credit card at the end of the month to avoid paying any interest.
 
This new idea concept is going to save me $4.35 per month on my Chase account that has a maintenance fee of $6 per month (Due to inactivity).  I keep the account open because I received a $125 to open it, and it doubles the rewards interest I get on my Chase credit card.