First Banking Center offers 6.01% APY

Most banks offering high interest online accounts go after large deposit sums. Makes sense, right? After all, if they are paying you the big bucks to hold your money, they don't want to be dealing with small amounts.

So here's an anomaly. First Banking Center, which is an FDIC-insured bank based in Burlington, Wisconsin, is offering a 6.01% APY Rewards Checking account, which is pretty remarkable right now, considering that the Fed rate keeps dropping. The catch is, it is for amounts under $25,000! On any deposit amount over $25,000, you earn a measly 0.50% APY.

The account also has some other strange requirements. You must use your debit card at least 10 times in a month (!), you must set up either direct deposit or ACH auto-debits, and you must "think green" and receive online (as opposed to paper) statements. If you fail to meet any of these three requirements in a month, you will receive only 0.10% APY on your balance, which is like no money at all...on a $25,000 balance, that comes to about $2.08/month (versus the $125.21/month that you would have gotten at 6.01%). Whether or not you meet the serequirements, they reimburse you for ATM fees, there are no minimum balance requirements and no monthly fees.

This account is not for me, largely because of the ten monthly debit card transactions. I'm a credit card points chaser. But if you don't care about points, all you need to do is set up an automatic payment to a utility like the gas company or electric company, or get your paycheck deposited directly (which you should do anyway), and you can earn a nice tidy little pile of interest for a chunk of your nest egg. What's nice about this APY is that it doesn't seem to be introductory either...as long as you can meet their requirements, it's yours.