Summer’s Best Giveaway: An iPod touch

Here’s the best giveaway we’ve seen this summer – a free iPod touch for opening a new checking account at Bank of the West.

The offer is available to residents of 19 states from Wisconsin to California (see the list at the end of the post) and is good through Sept. 3.

To qualify for the iPod you must open one of three types of personal checking accounts, establish a monthly, recurring direct deposit of at least $500, and pay 10 bills online or make 20 debit card transactions.

The least expensive iPod touch, with 8 gigabytes of memory, retails for about $200.

The three checking accounts to choose from are:

Free Checking with no monthly service charge, no minimum balance and online banks with free bill pay and unlimited use of Bank of the West ATMs.

Choice Interest Checking that pays (very little) interest on your balance and charges a $10 service fee if certain requirements aren’t met.

Choice ATM Checking provides free unlimited cash withdrawals at any ATM for one year and imposes a $10 service charge if requirements aren’t met. (But it’s only available to residents of Arizona, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma or Oregon.)

Since Free Checking comes with the fewest requirements, it appears to be the best account for the majority of applicants.

Interest checking pays so little interest it’s probably not worth the effort. The top rate of 0.50% APY is only available on accounts with balances over $50,000.

Be sure to read the “more details” link under each account, so you will know what is expected of you as an account holder.

Accounts can be opened at Bank of the West branches or online by residents of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Beats a toaster in our book.