Emigrant Direct No Longer Offering Third Party Debits

For some of you, this is small fries. However, to me, this is a BIG PAIN. Currently, my paycheck is directly dumped into my Emigrant Direct (ED) account, and my rent, student loan, and credit card payment are all debited directly from it. This was a great little system while it lasted. I first heard of this alarming news no, not from Emigrant Direct, but from Jonathan at My Money Blog (on whom I have a small crush if you couldn't tell by the amount I reference his site). Check out his post about the policy change from ED.

Thus began my quest for a new account. After much consternation and comparison shopping, I've settled on the GMAC Money Market Account (MMA) for several reasons:

A. Free Checks and Limited Check-Writing Ability (an improvement from the online-only ED). You are allowed six outgoing transactions, whether via debit card or a pull of money from your account (i.e. to pay a bill). The six outgoing transactions is standard fare, so that's no surprise. If you exceed that limit, it's $10 per extra charge.

B. Check Card (another improvement from ED).

C. ATM Fee Reimbursement. Refunds for up to four non–GMAC Bank ATM charges per month and no transaction fees from GMAC itself, up to a total of $6.

D. No Monthly Service Fees. This is true if you maintain a $500 balance. If less than $500, fees do apply -- $5 per cycle with direct deposit and $7.50 per cycle sans DD.

E. Higher Yield -- 5.10% versus 5.05%!

Take down the sign, folks. I'm sold. However, if you're not, and you are in the market for a new account, you really cannot go wrong with Bankrate or the Banking Guy. The two combined offer almost unrivalved thoroughness.