Are you frustrated with your monolithic, impersonal, tasteless bank? Do you love ice cream, waffles, and other treats? Do you wish you could get rid of your bank AND get more ice cream? If so, and you live in Pittsburgh, you may be in luck:
Mr. Clay said customers who make deposits earn interest in the form of “exclamation dollars.” A $100 deposit is worth $5.50 a month that can be spent on ice cream, waffles and coffee in his store. It works out to be a straight 5.5% monthly interest rate, he said.
Whalebone Cafe Bank, in an ice cream store, has started accepting deposits, making small loans, and offering interest in the form of gift cards. It all started when the owner got frustrated with high bank fees and decided to open his own, more friendly, more delicious bank. There isn’t a savings account in the country offering a 5.5% monthly interest rate right now, so even if it is in Ice Cream dollars, it might be worth it.
In case you’re worried about the quality of your return, “State regulators did visit the parlor ‘and reported that the ice cream was good.'”
You can find more, including a dive into the relevant banking regulations at the original Wall Street Journal article: Ice-Cream Bank’s Rocky Road.