It's always nice when you can get your checking account to give you some money back, especially when it's to the tune of a couple hundred dollars. If you open your first Citizens Bank checking account between April 9, 2011 and May 6, 2011, you can earn up to $240 over six months by using online bill payment. Each month, if you make at least five bill pay transactions at $50 or more, you'll get a bonus of $40 for that month. This bonus offer is good for the first six months of your checking account, so you can earn up to $240.

Since there are multiple banks doing business under the Citizens Bank name, this offer relates only to the bank owned by Royal Bank of Scotland and doing business in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

While Citizens Bank doesn't offer any condition-less free checking accounts, there are still ways that you can get the monthly service fee waived. If you opt for their Green Checking account, the $4.99 monthly service fee is waived if you make five bill pay transactions each month. Since you'll be making the five bill pay transactions each month anyway to get the $40 bonus, just keep up the bill pay transactions and the checking account will remain free. Alternately, if you maintain an average balance of $1,500, the monthly service fee for the Green Checking account will also be waived. The Green Checking comes with one additional bonus: it offers Green$ense.

With Green$ense, every time you pay without paper (like using a debit card or using online bill pay), you will earn a 10-cent bonus on each transaction you make and you can earn up to $120 per year in Green$ense bonuses. For this account, you will automatically be enrolled in paperless statements and online bill pay, and you will receive a debit card made from recycled plastic. You must have at least 10 eligible transactions in a month to receive a Green$ense earnings credit for that month. If you have at least 10 eligible transactions in a month, you will receive 10 cents for each eligible transaction up to a maximum of 100 eligible transactions in the month ($10 monthly cap).

In this economy, it's hard to think about saving a lot of money long-term. However, even just putting a little bit away is better than nothing at all. As we all know, it's extremely difficult to find good interest rates in today's market, but Astoria Federal Savings is offering a five-year CD with very competitive 2.65% APY. This CD only requires a $500 minimum deposit, so even if you only have $500 to invest, the CD will offer you the peace of mind that your small investment is safe, secure, and earning you one of the best interest rates available in the market. Interest is compounded daily, credited quarterly and also at maturity.

One of the disadvantages of CDs is that your money is tied up and you cannot access your deposit without penalties until the CD matures. Although the Astoria Federal Savings CD also does not allow you to withdraw your initial deposit without penalty, it does give you a different option: you are able to withdrawal your credited interest, without any penalty at all. Of course, you won’t have the same liquidity that you would have with a money market account, by any means, but it's nice to have the option to at least withdrawal be interested, if needed.

Astoria Federal has 85 banking offices throughout Brooklyn, Queens, Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester counties.

Internet banks have, on average, offered better rates than many brick-and-mortar banks because they are able to keep their overhead costs low. Generally, lower overhead costs means that they can offer customers a better rate of return on their money. Not only do many Internet banks offer higher APYs, many accounts also come without any monthly maintenance fees and some even offer additional free perks.

However, when you find an Internet bank offer that has a higher APY than your local bank, you should always check the fine print because that higher APY still could come with balance requirements, monthly account maintenance fees, and other stipulations that could end up eating all of the money you earn on that higher interest rate, and then some.

Take, for example, California First National Bank, otherwise known as CalFirst. Just based on the name of the bank, you would assume this entity has physical branch locations in California. The fact that this bank only has a virtual presence isn't a bad thing in itself, but minimum balance requirement and fees that come with this bank’s money market account would make you think that you're dealing with a brick-and-mortar bank with higher overhead costs. CalFirst’s Money Market account pays 1.08% APY, which isn't bad in this economy. However, interest does not compound on this account. According to the bank's Terms and Conditions page, interest is credited to your account monthly. If you close your account before interest is credited, you will not receive interest.

Additionally, you’re allowed only six withdrawals per month and each withdrawal after that will cost you $10 per withdrawal, and if your balance falls below $5,000 you'll be stuck with a $20 monthly maintenance fee ($5,000 is also the minimum amount required to open the account). This doesn't mean that you shouldn't open an account with CalFirst, it just means that you should always read the fine print and the terms and condition so that you fully know what you're getting into. Just because a bank is an Internet-only bank doesn't mean their accounts offer the best deal for your banking needs.

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