ChaChing Checking

• 2.01% APY* on balances up to $25,000
• 0.25% APY* on amount of balance over $25,000
• 0.25% APY* on full balance if qualifications are not met
• Nationwide ATM fee refunds (up to $25)*
• No monthly service fee
• No minimum balance requirement
• Free online banking and bill pay
• Free eStatements
• Free mobile banking available
• Overdraft protection
• One free box of basic checks per year
• No minimum deposit to open

Check out our current rates.

Qualifications

It's so easy to qualify for the full ChaChing rewards that you're probably already doing it. Simply do the following each monthly qualification cycle:

• Access online banking at least once
• Receive free eStatements
• 1 direct deposit post & clear; total direct deposits at least $400
• 12 debit card purchases of at least $5 post & clear

That's it. And if you don't qualify, don't worry. There's never a penalty. You still have free checking and still earn dividends waaay above the national average. And you can get back to earning the highest rate and ATM fee refunds the very next cycle.

*Annual Percentage Yield (APY) accurate as of 10/15/11. ChaChing Checking rate tiers are as follows: 2.01% APY applies to balances of $0 - $25,000 and 0.25% APY applies to balances over $25,000 if qualifications are met during the monthly qualification cycle. 0.25% APY applies to all balances if monthly qualifications are not met. All balances will earn 0.25% APY – 2.01% APY if monthly qualifications are met. Rates may change after the account is opened. Fees may reduce earnings. Qualifying transactions must post and clear the account during the monthly qualification cycle. Transactions may take one or more business days from the transaction date to post to an account from the date the transaction is made.Transfers between Pioneer accounts do not count as qualifying ACH transactions. Minimum to open account is $0. ATM fee reimbursements up to $25 provided only if qualifications are met within the monthly qualification cycle.

After four months of not qualifying, this account will be converted to a MyChoice checking account.

Since so many banks are eliminating free checking, yet Pioneer is not only keeping free checking, but paying massive rewards on top of it...it might be natural to ask "what's the deal?"

We can break it down to two factors, philosophy and technical stuff.

Philosophy

For starters, we're a not-for-profit credit union. Our entire purpose of existing is to make your financial life better, primarily by paying higher dividends and offering lower rate loans. So when banks charge fees for checking, it's not really because they would lose money otherwise. It's more like their leadership decided, "you know, instead of $14 Billion, we should make $14.3 Billion this year."**

Technical Stuff

Believe it or not, there's a lot of behind-the-scenes work to process paper checks. It's money well spent to protect you from fraud. But it costs less for us to process electronic transactions. We also save money when you receive eStatements electronically instead of mailing paper statements.

Here's where we circle back to the Philosophy part. Instead of lining our pockets with those savings, we pass them on to you. We do that by rewarding you with higher dividend earnings or other premium Relevant Checking rewards.

**This is not an actual transcript (after all, their meetings are held behind closed doors). This is used for dramatization purposes only. But, you gotta admit, it sure feels like this is how it goes down.