jrr7

Based on my interpretation of the disclosure, it seems to be the case that this account always earns 5% and always charges a $5 monthly fee. In other words the monthly fee cannot be avoided.

This results in an APY after fees of:

• $1000 : (1.12%)
• $5000 : 3.74%
• $10000 : 4.36%
• $25000 : 4.74%
• $50000 : 4.86%
• $100000 : 4.93%

In other words, not an amazing account unless you've got serious money.

markber, can you put the 3 month promo rate of 5.00% into the list of promo rates?

www.amboydirect.com

4.00% regular APY for $30,000-$250,000 balances

But they have a special on for a 5% rate for 3 months for balances $30,000-$100,000

Here's what I know:

• Some people have no business being on the Internet, let alone doing banking online.
• There are always going to be thieves out there who support themselves through fraud. (It would cost society too much to hunt them down, and plus, new thieves are minted every day.)
• If one particular method of fraud becomes difficult for thieves, they just move on to another one.
• Most thieves are lazy enough that they don't steal excessive amounts of money. The others go into politics or become CEOs.
• People who have their money stolen online will be less likely to bank online in the future.
• There are virus writers out there who will sell control over virus-infected PCs to anyone for the right price.

Here's what I conclude:

• Universally implementing two-factor will initially reduce the amount of fraud related to phishing.
• Some people who would have had their money stolen and would have stopped banking online will continue to bank online.
• The lazy thieves will initially move on to more lucrative pursuits.
• The smarter thieves will start buying access to compromised computers and move on to more advanced tricks that are more difficult to detect, and which two-factor does nothing to stop. (man-in-the-middle, dns poisoning, arp poisoning, routing table poisoning)
• As a result, ordinary, non-stupid people will be more likely to have their bank accounts compromised, and it will be harder to trace the criminals.

The best way would be to pay a recurring bill like 'net access fees, Netflix membership, or the like. It would be better to carry around the card to buy sticks of gum, single postage stamps, etc. but that's just asking for trouble since you won't remember whether you've made 0, 1, or 2 purchases this month, and you might accidentally buy something expensive with the card.

You would have to make a minimum payment of 4% of the total balance, all of which would reduce the balance at 0%. And then the amount of balance at 15% (or whatever) goes up.

Say you borrowed $10,000 at 0%, and each month you make a $10 and a $35 purchase. You make the minimum payment each month.

Your effective interest rate starts at 0% but goes up pretty smoothly. At the end of year ... your balance is ... and the effective interest rate is:

1 6568 1.23%
2 4465 3.63%
3 3177 7.65%
4 2387 13.57%

Shortly after year 5 begins, your original balance (at 0%) is paid off. So it wasn't "for life", it was for 4+ years, and you wind up with a several-thousand-dollar balance at a high interest rate (unless you can transfer the balance elsewhere).