Lake Michigan Credit Union offers a checking account with an attractive 3% interest rate on balances up to $15,000. This is quite a good deal as other high-yield options are typically throttled at just $5,000. There are, however, a few hoops you have to jump through in order to get this 3% rate, see Lake Michigan Credit Union: 3% Reward Checking Account On Up To $15,000, and there is also a hard pull (Transunion) done at the time of account opening.
The good part was always that at the time of account opening you were able to fund it with up to $15,000 with a Visa or Mastercard. (These are always showing up as purchases, not cash advances).
Sadly, they’ve now lowered the max credit card funding to just $2,000. Even if you open multiple accounts, the limit is still $2,000 total combined.
Keep in mind that the LMCU account is still a robust option for the sake of its high-interest rate. Until now, the hard Transunion inquiry at the time of account opening was ‘offset’ by the $15k credit card funding and that’s no longer the case, but if you aren’t inquiry sensitive for Transunion this won’t be an issue.
Thanks to multiple readers who pointed this out in the comments. We’ll update the bank account funding page to reflect the new reality.
Update November 2015: The limit is now just $50, as multiple readers noted in the comments here.
View Comments (19)
I also just went through the sign up / app process and noticed that they have a listed a combined $50 limit on opening deposits (as Rufus and Mike mentioned) for the savings and checking accounts.
Does this prevent one from funding the 3% account with a credit card to the $2000 mentioned? Or can one simply open the savings account and then go back and open 3% savings with a $2000 credit card charge?
It shows only Max $50 deposit available
Thanks, I'll update
Same -- $50 maximum deposit permitted.
Ethan, no.
Its a system enforced higher limit. Actually it was 1990 + 5 (Saving) + ALS (5).
Weird that I got a message saying that.
Thank you for applying for a membership with Lake Michigan Credit Union! A member services representative will contact you within two business days.
Any of you received such message ?
Standard reply. You should start receiving new account material in the mail without any follow-up call. You might get a welcome email as well.
It turns out they needed some ID Docs to process my case. I submitted and the account was approved last week. Now waiting for my account information to arrive so that I can pay CSP back.
Thershope, have you successfully funded more than 2k?
Thanks. I will report my own data points in few days.
@Chuck,
when did you get notice of this from the users? The latest comments I can see in the thread from Geoff who said he was able to fund with CSP for 10K.
Three data points here https://www.doctorofcredit.com/lake-michigan-credit-union-3-reward-checking-account-on-up-to-15000/#comment-176897
I opened a max checking account with LMCU online with 10k deposit from a CSP that posted on 9/16/2015. Is this a recent change? If so, looks like I opened in the nick of time.
Just a separate data point, for any LMCU members who also have AMEX Bluebird, all transfers (including as little as $1) count as a "debit card purchase" 10 transfers from Max Checking to AMEX Bluebird of $1 each, will fulfill the "debit card purchases" requirement.
Great idea, thanks!
Can anyone confirm if Bluebird can still be used to count as the 10 debit card purchases? I'd like to set up an LMCU account, but the debit card requirement is what is tripping me up right now. I'm getting mixed answers, with some saying that Bluebird doesn't work, and others saying that it does work.
Oh .. wanted to apply for this account and CSP and was hoping to meet the minimum spending.. My bad.
Is this for certain states or available nationwide.
Nationwide https://www.doctorofcredit.com/lake-michigan-credit-union-3-reward-checking-account-on-up-to-15000/