Maybe it works differently where you are from, but here (EU) there's usually a bunch of companies taking money out of your account via SEPA or transferring money to your account (salary).

This is usually rent, power, water companies etc. so it's not that quick to switch as you'll have to update your bank credentials everywhere. Depending on how much you use the account that might be a lot of work and it's not "30 minutes of work".

In the US most things are best paid with a credit card except for the biggest costs because it’s considered a liability to spread bank account info around too much (banks generally aren’t too helpful when a breach occurs, whereas credit card companies will happily wipe away fraudulent charges), plus you’re missing out on points.

The only thing I had to change over when switching checking and savings to a different bank was which checking account my mortgage payments were getting pulled from.

American here. Almost all of my monthly payments for utilities, mortgage, daycare, car payment, etc...those are all direct funds transfers. Using a credit card would be too expensive for those. Some payments only occur via credit card (internet service, and until recently, T-mobile cell phone service, though they now accept direct fund transfer for that).

If I changed bank accounts, I'd have to untangle a bunch of monthly bills to a new account.

Fair. I don't have a car payment or children at this point which are the two big other costs where credit cards definitely don't make sense.

A bit surprised on utilities though. Nowhere I've lived on the west coast has charged a service fee for paying electric, gas, water, phone, etc with a credit card.

That's true. I could pay might electric bill without a fee.

https://utilities-self-service.ebill.seattle.gov/SeattleUtil...

Even PSE doesn't fee it. I guess why I bothered with checking account is that my credit cards expire far more often than I change bank accounts, I had a nasty fee once from Comcast because I didn't update my auto pay credit card in time.

The person you're replying to is meaning how savings accounts work in the US. You put money in them and let it sit, earning interest. Changing savings account banks is quite easy.

Checking (or "demand") accounts work like you describe and people are slower to switch them for that reason.

> Maybe it works differently where you are from

It is not normal here to have direct debits from savings accounts. That is what a checking account is for. Since Apple does not have a checking account, most Apple Card/HYSA users have a regular bank account somewhere else already. That's where the debits would be happening, so moving the money from one HYSA to another is low impact.

And as someone else mentioned, it's pretty common not to use debit at all. I use my Apple Card for all my utilities in addition to all my regular purchases. I can move money from my checking account over to my Apple card/HYSA in a couple seconds, so it works out pretty conveniently.

In Europe I have zero reason to even get a credit card: all bank accounts have an IBAN number, and works with every other bank that is part of the EU banking system. including any online ordering I need to do.

Why would I sign up for a system that hands my money over to a US bank, no matter how much they lose on that deal.

In the US you can get huge amounts of credit on credit cards and only pay the minimum for the rest of your life with an interest rate of 35%.

It's a giant dept trap that only partially has come to Europe due to those pesky regulations making it difficult to put teenagers in huge dept. /s

If you don't mind sharing, what made you make the switch two weeks ago? And which bank did you move to for the shared HYSA?

Certainly. In our case we were simply consolidating finances, so we got a joint HYSA. The bank account we used was with UFB Direct which is a neobank backed by Axos Bank. They've got the usual FDIC coverage and stuff. The reasons I went with them:

1. 5.25% interest rate

2. Can pay cheques out of the HYSA (some x times / month I think, but it didn't matter because my target was 1 time).

Effectively, that means I don't need to pay rent out of a different account. I can leave the HYSA in place and set my rent cheques to go out of there. This means I can run pretty lean on my other accounts. I only have to cover the credit card bills.

The interest rates they're providing also make total sense considering current rates: they have to be rolling short-term treasuries and skimming the spread. Seems fine to me for a HYSA.