[NH,ME] Northeast Credit Union 2.5% Checking on up to $15,000

Update 4/3/20: Lowered to 2.5%

Offer at a glance

  • Interest Rate: 4.00% APY
  • Minimum Balance: $5,000
  • Maximum Balance: $15,000
  • Availability: NH, parts of Maine
  • Direct deposit required: Yes
  • Additional requirements: Yes, see below 
  • Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
  • Credit card funding: Yes, up to $1,000 per account (e.g savings & checking = $2,000)
  • Monthly fees:  Waived with $5k balance
  • Household limit: None mentioned
  • Insured: NCUA

The Offer

Direct Link to offer

  • Northeast Credit Union offers a 4% APY rate on their Elite Checking account on balances up to $15,000.

Note there is a minimum balance of $5,000 to be eligible for the 4% rate.

The following qualifications are necessary for the 4% rate and to waive the monthly fee:

  • Get a direct deposit
  • Signup for e-statements
  • Minimum of 20 debit purchases per month
  • Minimum average daily balance of $5,000

Credit Union Membership

The following people are eligible to become a member of Northeast Credit Union:

  • Live, work, worship, or attend school in New Hampshire or in Southern York county, Maine
  • Live within a 30-mile radius of a branch location
  • Have a family member who belongs to Northeast Credit Union
  • Work at one of over 75 affiliated companies

Avoiding Fees

Note that this account is different than most rewards checking in that it requires a $5,000 balance to waive the monthly fee. It’s mainly worth doing this deal if you’re sure you’ll have at least $5,000 in the account at all times to waive the fee.

Our Verdict

For those in the target area, this is one of the best high-interest account options since most alternatives have more difficult requirements or lower limits. Hopefully, there isn’t a hard pull for signup, let us know if you try.

We’ll add this to our list of Best High Interest Savings Accounts – check there for additional options.

Hat tip to Depositaccounts

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33 Comments
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Alex
Alex (@guest_1047967)
September 3, 2020 01:59

I just got an email update from them that the 2.5% APY is only for the $5,000 – $15,000 amount (so the first $0 – $4,999 is 0% APY). They tried to claim this was a “glitch in the system” even though the 4% (and then 2.5%) has always been on the full $15,000.

Either way, according to my statement close interest from last month, this is effectively a 1.65% APY account now. (It says 1.65% interest in the dividends received, instead of the previous 4% or 2.5%).

Yes, you do get 2.5% on $10,000 if you have $15,000 in the account, but the opportunity cost of having to maintain $5,000 just to get any interest should probably be factored in.

Still a fine account and hopefully the interest rate goes back up in the future, but as of now the effective APY has dropped like most accounts of this type have been doing.

Alex
Alex (@guest_1050899)
September 9, 2020 01:32

This has since been reverted back for whatever reason, and is also updated on their rates page (the full $15,000 gets 2.5% as long as all requirements are met).

They also went back in and added the dividends I should’ve gotten despite their mention of a glitch, so that’s nice (just $10, but still appreciated).

jon
jon (@guest_1051382)
September 9, 2020 23:08

i got this email too, wasnt sure what it meant since they have always done interest on the whole balance up to 15k. not sure what happened

Alex
Alex (@guest_950862)
April 3, 2020 00:01

This has now been lowered as of April 1st. It’s only 2.5% APY now. Maybe still worth it, but definitely not as good as it was.

Joe
Joe (@guest_851327)
November 30, 2019 22:16

Is there a minimum amount, that is acceptable for the direct deposit? Would $20 every month be enough?

Joe
Joe (@guest_851326)
November 30, 2019 22:15

Is there a minimum amount, that the direct deposit needs to be? Would $20 each month work?

Wesley A GROTH
Wesley A GROTH (@guest_812852)
September 21, 2019 15:54

Thinking that if I have this account-do i have to set up DD or can I toss money out of Premier members?

Em
Em (@guest_730820)
March 5, 2019 12:45

For the cc funding – i left the application before i went through with the funding (decided to do it another day to extend the float period), forgot which part i was at, but they had saved my credit card information without me actually funding the account. They called me up to ask if there is any issues. Found out that there’s no hard limit on the amount funded on the phone as she said she could do any amount. I asked if 5000 was ok and she said yes. Went with 2000 due to float issues.

Anonymous
Anonymous (@guest_624121)
July 30, 2018 19:40

venmo works for the DD requirement

Dan
Dan (@guest_628591)
August 11, 2018 10:32

thanks for posting, that’s the data point i was looking for (non payroll). i will try venmo as well

Alex
Alex (@guest_630014)
August 15, 2018 22:35

It’s extra work, but if you’re hard up for a DD source then you may want to look into Amazon’s MTurk / Amazon Pay. Basically do a few short surveys on MTurk for a couple bucks, transfer it into your Amazon Pay account, and then withdraw that into your bank account. YMMV but it works as a DD for many banks, which is fairly legit consider you’re actually working to make the money.

Will also end up with a 1099 at the end of the year and have to pay taxes on the money you make on MTurk, though. Should be negligible if you’re only doing it for bank account recurring DD purposes.

Dan
Dan (@guest_676140)
November 21, 2018 01:30

cool thanks did not know about that

Dan
Dan (@guest_611540)
July 2, 2018 08:32

anybody use an ACH transfer method to successfully meet the direct deposit requirement?

Jon
Jon (@guest_615200)
July 10, 2018 12:27

I tried but it didnt seem to work, thankfully we have ADP at work for direct deposit so I can take 20 bucks out of each pay check to fund meet the requirement

Dan
Dan (@guest_615443)
July 10, 2018 22:19

Thanks. Do you have a negative data point for the method you tried? Also what do you use to satisfy the 20 debit transactions?

jon
jon (@guest_628926)
August 13, 2018 12:18

I paid an electric bill which met the requirements of CCU bank for ACH, but that did not seem to work for NECU, I also tried venmo transfer to bank which i believe worked in CCU but I cant remember, this did not work with NECU.

As for the 20debit transactions, same with CCU, i wrote an automated script to buy 20x $.50 giftcards on amazon, and i do this once a month

b
b (@guest_599912)
May 27, 2018 22:16

Will only pay 4% rate on the first $10k beyond the $5k min. balance

Dan
Dan (@guest_615441)
July 10, 2018 22:17
  b

Can you clarify? So it pays 4% on $0-$15,000 or $5,000-$15,000? like if you have $15,000 in there and meet the requirements, you’ll get the 4% on that full $15,000 right?

Alex
Alex (@guest_630012)
August 15, 2018 22:30

I’ve been getting 4% on the full $15k. I’m not sure what the other person is talking about.

It is based on the amount of days in the month, as usual, so you won’t always get the exact same amount every month, but it’s definitely 4% on the full $15k.

jon
jon (@guest_590073)
May 3, 2018 17:30

I can confirm I was able to fund 2000 on a credit card upon opening the account. YMMV but the representative was able to do 1000 in checking and 1000 in savings, which you can then balance out for the elite checking.

I can also confirm the $2000 showed up as purchases on the citi double cash

Chris
Chris (@guest_591050)
May 6, 2018 13:52

Sorry for the dumb question, but are you saying you are paying $2,000 to this 4% interest account from your citi double cash card so that you can get the 2% cash back bonus? Could you do this every month so as to sort of get bonuses twice, once through citi and once through the 4% account?

Jon
Jon (@guest_615197)
July 10, 2018 12:26

no, you have the option for an intial funding from credit card, and rather than 1000 total, i was able to do 1000 for both the checking and savings, totalling 2000, with 2% cash back on my citi card