Tulsa World: Redneck Bank offers fun, a nice rate of return

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Redneck Bank offers fun, a nice rate of return

By DON MECOY NewsOK.com
Published: 3/11/2009 11:58 AM
Last Modified: 3/11/2009 12:01 PM

If you’d like to earn 5.25 percent interest on your checkin’ account, you might be a redneck.

The Redneck Bank — "where bankin’s funner!” — is payin’ some of the most mouth-waterin’ interest rates on checkin’ accounts in the whole U.S. of A. You can even git yer Redneck Bank debit card with or without the brayin’ horse on it ("We want to be your ‘mane’ bank!”)

The Internet bidness, er, bank is an arm of Snyder-based Bank of the Wichitas, and the brainchild of Wade Huckabay whose family owns three Oklahoma banks. The Redneck Bank name was an attempt to differentiate its Web site from thousands of online banking operations, Huckabay said.

"Our target market is people with a sense of humor,” he said. That apparently is an untapped market, as the Web site signed up customers in 45 states in 45 days.

The Huckabay banking family also has banking Web sites targeting customers who are patriotic (AmericaNetBank.com) and high-tech enthusiasts (Evantagebank.com). But Redneck Bank has become an Internet sensation since it officially launched in November, Huckabay said.

Blog chatter and e-mail forwarding sent Redneck Bank’s page views soaring in January, he said.

"It took off like a rocket,” Huckabay said. "It’s been quite a challenge to keep up with the volume.”

‘You get humor’

Redneck Bank offers 5.25 percent interest rate on FDIC-insured checking accounts for clients who use the bank’s debit card for at least 10 point-of-sale transactions monthly and agree to online-only statements. Other Internet banks offer similar deals, Huckabay said, but they’re not as much fun.

"There’s 9,000 banks on the Internet,” he said. "If there are 100 customers looking for an Internet bank, let’s take one of those and let those 9,000 banks fight it out for the other 99.”

Keith Hazelton, director of economic research for the Oklahoma Bankers Association, said Bank of the Wichitas "is a great hometown Oklahoma bank.”

"They clearly have chosen this as a way to differentiate themselves,” Hazelton said. "Instead of a toaster, you get humor.”

After a consultant firm produced a list of potential names for the Internet bank that failed to elicit the response Huckabay was seeking, he spent hours looking up unused Web site names. Redneck Bank was Huckabay’s favorite, and was selected by the two most senior of the bank’s board members.

But the decision wasn’t unanimous. "My sister was appalled,” he said. Huckabay’s late grandfather, who bought the Snyder bank more than 60 years ago, probably wouldn’t have cared for it either, Huckabay said.

"He told me ‘there’s been a lot of changes in banking, and I’ve been against every one of them,’” Huckabay said.

The welcome mat’s on the porch at Redneck Bank, even for bluebloods. New York and California are among the top home states of customers.

"I don’t say that I’m a redneck,” Huckabay said.

"It’s simply a bank name,” he said.

By DON MECOY NewsOK.com

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	Report Comment heybunny, tulsa (3/11/2009 12:29:16 PM) wow... how stupid.
	Report Comment LocalBoy, B.A. (3/11/2009 12:40:10 PM) Sign me up!
	Report Comment Otis_McCracken, (3/11/2009 12:50:37 PM) Mite as well have a since of humor about all them hidden churges and fees...
	Report Comment joker5, (3/11/2009 1:19:29 PM) How DARE they try to come into Oklahoma and find people with a sense of humor! What they need to do is start the "Whiners Bank". The debit card would have a picture of an elephant crying into his bag of money, holding a gun in one foot and a rebel flag in the other.
	Report Comment J, (3/11/2009 1:26:57 PM) I'm just surprised nobody had targeted all the bumpkins in Oklahoma yet. Instead of just proving what hillbillies live here, now you have a physical object small enough to fit in your wallet (you know... the one with the Lynyrd Skynyrd logo attached by a chain to your belt loop). The great thing is that the card is also red, just like the reddest of the red states. Ironic, isn't it?
	Report Comment Bubba, Bixby (3/11/2009 1:38:28 PM) lol...I love it, I'll have an account there by the end of the day.
	Report Comment Ironhead82, (3/11/2009 1:49:29 PM) Evidently, most of the posters here have no sense of humor. I say, YEEEHAAW, way to go !
	Report Comment J, (3/11/2009 4:22:59 PM) I have a great sense of humor. I just grow weary of propagating the stereotype that we're inbred hicks in Oklahoma and this doesn't help.
	Report Comment BarefootOkieGal, Sacramento (3/11/2009 6:16:57 PM) Busy checkin' my neck, here in Flat Sac, Californeeeehaw!
	Report Comment BarefootOkieGal, Sacramento (3/11/2009 6:24:07 PM) J - There just CAN'T be bumpkins left in Oklahoma! Most of my kin moved out West!!! (Improved the property values in Coweta, no doubt...)
	Report Comment okie ridgerunner, small town (3/11/2009 6:36:31 PM) BarefootOkieGal, when i lived in calif i could always tell a okie gal because they were the ones who were bare foot and pregant.a little humor is good for the mind and heart.
	Report Comment Bubba, Bixby (3/11/2009 7:00:22 PM) "J, (3/11/2009 4:22:59 PM) I have a great sense of humor. I just grow weary of propagating the stereotype that we're inbred hicks in Oklahoma and this doesn't help." No you don't, you're just spoiled sour puss who needs your butt busted. I travel to the N.E. on business a couple of times every year and they love the way I speak and act, especially the "yea ma'am" and "thank you sir". I can't tell you how many times I've heard "you're from the south, aren't ya?". We're okies, and some of us are proud that we can look at a male bovine and tell if it's a bull or a steer, drive pick-ups, own guns, and can sing every word of Sweet Home Alabama.
	Report Comment JSG, Tulsa (3/12/2009 5:19:44 AM) "J, (3/11/2009 4:22:59 PM) I have a great sense of humor. I just grow weary of propagating the stereotype that we're inbred hicks in Oklahoma and this doesn't help." If you don't like the stereotype that we Okies have then why don't you just exercise your right to move somewhere that has a stereotype that best fits you..good luck finding a job at one of those places right now.
	Report Comment WindRider, Heavener (3/12/2009 8:28:31 AM) If the shoe fits wear it LOL that is if you have shoes...
	Report Comment shaw411, Scottsdale, AZ (3/12/2009 9:33:32 AM) We have our share of Rednecks here in Phoenix.
	Report Comment BarefootOkieGal, Sacramento (3/12/2009 2:42:27 PM) Shaw411 - While my hometown, Sacramento, tends to be on the more liberal side, the entire rest of the Central Valley of California tends to be a bit more conservative, and if they could build a fence around us I do believe they would... the only reason my neck ISN'T red is because I've got hair hanging down to protect it, but overall I'd have to say that the term "redneck" describes a whole lot of folks in California! (Quite a lot of whom may have actually started out in Oklahoma, including my family...)

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