Update 1/5/2021: Rate is now 1.25%, down from 2.5%.
Update 4/12/20: First Advantage Bank is merging with Reliant Bank, and accounts will be transferred over to Reliant Bank in May. The “Max Earnings” accounts will be grandfathered as a special “Max” account. We don’t know what the rate will be, but will keep readers updated.
Update 3/21/20: Rate reduced to 2.5%
Update 3/13/20: Rate decreased from 3.5% to 3.00%.
Update 2/4/20: Rate decreased from 4 to 3.5%
Update 8/9/19: Rate decreased from 4.50% to 4%.
Correction: This account will still be available, they are just introducing a new account as well.
Update 4/30/19: Letters have been sent out saying that on June 1st these accounts will be product changed to an Advantage Basic checking account. This account does not earn interest and has a $6 monthly fee. Hat tip to reader Jeff S
3/27/18: Account is now limited to only Tennessee and Kentucky.
3/22/18: Account is now available nationwide. 3/16/18: Rate has increased from 3.04% to 4.50% APY. Another nice feature of this account is that after $10k, you still get a solid 1.40% APY additional balances of $40k (total $50k).
Offer at a glance
- Interest Rate: 4.5% APY if requirements are met
- Minimum Balance: $100 to open
- Maximum Balance: $10,000
- Availability: TN and KY only
- Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum specified
- Additional requirements: eStatements & 10 debit card transactions
- Hard/soft pull: Hard pull, please note they do this hard pull after you enter your SSN and click here. More info here. Report of a soft pull
- ChexSystems: Yes
- Credit card funding: Up to $15,000. Visa, Mastercard & Discover only
- Monthly fees: None
- Insured: FDIC
The Offer
- First Advantage Bank offers a rewards checking account that earns
3.04%4.50% on balances up to $10,000 if the following requirements are met, otherwise the APY is 0.05%:- Make 10 or more debit card purchases (10 per statement cycle, must clear the account during the statement cycle)
- Sign up for FREE eStatements
- Set up recurring Direct Deposit or ACH (once to the account per statement cycle)
Avoiding Fees
This account has no monthly fee to worry about.
Our Verdict
Most people will be interested in this account just for the credit card funding, unfortunately it’s a hard pull as well and that will put off a lot of people. The 4.50% APY rate is from the best available, unfortunately there’s a $10k limit on that. We’ve add this to our list of high interest rewards checking accounts.
PSA: Check your accounts to see if you were charged a $25 service for the old grandfathered accounts after the United community bank merger. Starting July 2022, i was charged $25 fee for not maintaining 25K balance. And it is impossible to get hold of anyone if you are out of state. As they don’t help over CS and they keep transferring to branch #28 if opened online originally (and no one picks up in that branch). I am still fighting to get the ac closed.
Just wanted to alert you the level has dropped down to 0.6% sometime last month. With t-mobile being 1% finally closing these accounts.
Did anybody receive a notice about APY drop? I just checked my accounts and after required transactions it is showing 1.24%. Last month was 2.5%. I don’t recall getting any notices. I am not sure if rates dropped, limits were lowered, both? Anyone have info? Thanks
I see the same thing. I never received any notice.
Same thing here without any advance notices.
Didn’t notice the drop until today, when the interest posted 🙁
No longer worth it, so I’ll just dump the funds into the T-Mobile
account, but keep this open for possible future increase (?)
That is my plan too Dave. Remember, if at ANY POINT the account drops below $100 they will charge the monthly fee (not average daily balance). HTH
Is the monthly fee charged immediately or not until the end of the cycle? What if you pull all the funds and then close the account the next day?
Sorry, I don’t know
Most banks will wait til the end of the cycle, maybe even the next cycle. But I would NOT expect rates to ever go back up. This is a grandfathered account that they are clearly trying to get people out of by slowly decreasing the rate over time. This is clearly not the type of account reliant wants.
Mod – please update the top of the site to indicate the rate went down to 1.25%
I dont think this account is consistent with Reliant’s mode of operation. I think they will continue reducing the fee. Only reason I’m not closing is cause I can’t get better than 1.25% yet 🙁
Done
Does anyone know if the minimum balance on the Reliant grandfathered accounts is still $100 to keep fee-free?
No idea Jeff. They are not very clear with the terms after the switch
Yes it is https://www.reliantbank.com/fab/personal-accounts/
Does anybody know the APY for balances over $10,000 if your account is grandfathered? Thanks
If my math is correct, I earned 2.5% for the first $10,000 and 0.85% over $10,000 for my 2 accounts in September. Looks like TMobile Money is better to stash overflow. HTH
Does anyone know if the max balance for the interest rate is still $10,000 per account?
No idea Jeff. They are not very clear with the terms after the switch
FYI: I was told that statement cycles will remain as they were
and that all debits made before the 8th will count towards
this months requirement.
Hey Doc,
Reliant Bank has $200 checking promo
https://www.reliantbank.com/personal/personal-checking/free-checking/
That seems like a very easy bonus. Unfortunately it’s only available in-branch.
Thanks
Got this one already: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/tn-murfreesboro-branch-only-reliant-bank-200-checking-bonus/
They’ve now converted the accounts to Reliant Bank. All existing online banking information transferred fine, but it looks like they’ve fudged some numbers. I finished the 10x debit requirements on both (2x) of my “Max Earnings” accounts on May 3rd. They decided to post $0.11 of interest on May 8th, and the interest rate on my accounts show 0.05%, not the 2.5% promised, despite meeting the debit requirements. No idea what they are doing with the May 8th interest payment or statement cycles, but I never had issues with the calendar-month statement cycle in place at First Advantage.
Checking my accounts today, I see the interest rate is now 0.85%.
My #1 account is showing 2.49%, yet the #2 account was
showing .85% yesterday, but showing 2.4473% today.
They may still be updating everything..
It updated again. It’s now 2.4899%
Yeah…I’m seeing 2.38% in my account currently.
Update: Thank you for the follow-up comments. I also see the 2.4899% stated interest rate on both accounts as of 5/14/20. However, still not sure what the May 8th small interest payment means relative to the statement cycle interest. We’ll see at month’s end…
William Charles — The documentation I received in the mail states that current rates for the new Max account at Reliant will be maintained for now, but will be subject to change. Unfortunately, First Advantage is down to 2.5% APY now.