What's the highest yield account that can be used to easily pay your credit card / debit card balances? Because having even just $20k sitting in a checking account ready to pay bills you're losing out on $1,000/yr.
My credit union pays 3.25% on checking if you jump through the hoops (online statements, 10 debit or credit card transactions a month, $300 ach credit/month or $5000 balance across checking, savings, loans at the credit union).
It's the same rate they have for savings... they've previously had competitive savings rate, but they have been raising rates slowly this time.
I had thought the online high yield savings accounts also had high yield checking, but I don't see much currently. I only saw one offer from a bank whose name I don't recognize.
Some of the brokerages offer a checking account that sweeps into money market, or checkwriting against moneymarket holdings, you can look around a bit there.
A savings account of some description at the same bank as your checking account. Transfers between accounts owned by the same person at the same bank are instantaneous from my experience.
I always keep a balance in my checking to ease my mind, but the bulk of my monies I keep in a savings account next to it and I transfer as needed prior to paying the bills.
I bank at Alliant Credit Union, and there's no restriction, ever since Reg D took effect. It's a pretty solid credit union, which almost anyone can join, if folks are interested in a commercial bank alternative, but aren't all-in on brokerage.
I sum up a reasonable estimate of what my monthly expenses will be (with a small safety margin) and move that from my savings to my checking before monies need to start moving out. That's one transfer. If I find myself short, I make additional transfers as needed which isn't often.
If I screw up (shit happens) I have overdraft protection so the checking just pulls from my savings with no overdraft fees, but ideally this never happens.
Of course, none of this actually matters because transfer restrictions on savings accounts were lifted as pointed out by a sibling commenter. The only reason I don't just pay straight out of my savings is because I simply prefer to keep outgoing monies to my checking account.
Brit here so not exactly answering your question but I set things up so that the money is in the right place a few days before.
i.e. for simplification, try to get all bills to come out on the 1st, then make sure that $20k hits the account on the 25th. For the rest of the month it can be empty.
This. Fidelity has a rather nice BillPay service and can accept direct deposits for paychecks. The only thing one really loses is access to a human teller to obtain beyond-ATM levels of cash.
