Best Places to Park Floating Money

If you have a ton of cash to float for 15 months due to 0% APR offers, you might want to put it into places that earn good interest.

+----------------------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Item                 | Interest  | Conditions                                             |
+----------------------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Insight Prepaid Card | 5% APY    | 1. Must transfer money from the prepaid card into      |
|                      |           |    the built-in savings account.                       |
|                      |           | 2. The savings account has a maximum balance of $5,000,|
|                      |           |    but the accrued interest allows it to exceed the    |
|                      |           |    limit and earn additional interest.                 |
|                      |           | 3. Multiple accounts are allowed by applying for       |
|                      |           |    additonal cards and using different usernames.      |
|                      |           | 4. Interest is compounded daily and paid quarterly.    |
+----------------------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Northpointe Bank     | 5% APY    | For each month,                                        |
| Ultimate Account     |           | 1. Interest rate applies to the first $10,000 only     |
|                      |           | 2. Receive $100 in direct deposits or $100 in external |
|                      |           |    withdrawals                                         |
|                      |           | 3. Make 15 debit card purchases                        |
|                      |           | 4. Enroll in e-statements                              |
+----------------------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Lake Michigan Credit | 3% APY    | For each month,                                        |
| Union                |           | 1. Interest rate applies to the first $15,000 only     |
|                      |           | 2. Receive 1 direct deposit                            |
|                      |           | 3. Make 10 debit card purchases                        |
|                      |           | 4. Log into online banking 4 times.                    |
|                      |           | 5. Enroll in e-statetments                             |
+----------------------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| I Savings Bonds      | 1.96% APY | 1. You cannot withdraw for 1 year                      |
|                      | (05/01/17 | 2. If withdrawn before 5 years, a penalty of the last 3|
|                      | to        |    months of interest applies                          |
|                      | 10/31/17) |                                                        |
+----------------------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Vanguard Short-Term  | 1.92%     | 1. Open a Vanguard brokerage account                   |
| Investment-Grade Fund|Yield (ttm)| 2. Minimum $3,000 investment                           |
| Investor Shares      |(06/18/17) | 3. 0.20% expense ratio                                 |
| (VFSTX)              |           |                                                        |
+----------------------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Ally Bank No Penalty | 1.50% APY | 1. Minimum $25,000 deposit                             |
| CD                   |(11 months)| 2. Early withdrawal penalty of 90 days interest applies|
+----------------------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Self-Help Federal    | 1.31% APY | 1. Minimum $500 deposit                                |
| Credit Union Money   |           |                                                        |
| Market Savings       |           |                                                        |
+----------------------+-----------+--------------------------------------------------------+

I opted to park my floating cash into several Insight accounts as well as a Northpointe Bank Ultimate Account. The Ultimate Account is useful since I can make transfers in and out for regular usage. For the balances that couldn't fit into those accounts, I put into LMCU's Max Checking, although they don't allow external transfers. You'll have to do an ACH pull or write a check if you want to transfer your money.

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