Keeping my change with Bank of America
First off, a disclaimer…I dont work for Bank of America. That being said, I think their “Keep the Change” program is an incredible way for the “troubled saver” to actually save some money. I think it was back in November of 2005 when I first heard of this program, and we immediately signed up. How does it work? Well, for every debit card purchase that you make, BofA will round up your purchase to the nearest dollar. So when your bill at 7-11 comes to $4.81, BofA will debit your account for $4.81, and transfer $0.19 to your savings account automatically. This in effect makes your bill at 7-11 $5.00. Now, I realize that $0.19 is not a lot of money, but say you make 3 different purchases on your debit card during the day as follows:
7-11 - $4.81 - $0.19 transferred to savings
Grocery Store - $101.02 - $0.98 transferred to savings
Gas Station - $40.32 - $0.68 transferred to savings
Total savings for that one day would be $1.85. If you did the that same amount of purchases every day, you would be saving $1.85 X 30 days = $55.50 per month, or $666.00 PER YEAR.
This to me seems like a no-brainer. I mean, how much would you really miss $1.85 per day? Ever since we enrolled in it, we have not missed the extra dollar or 2 every day, and its been nice to see the savings account go up without even making an effort. This program is great for people that might have trouble putting aside money every time they get paid.
The added bonus to the Keep the Change program? For the first 3 months, they will match your savings up to $250…and aft r that, they will match 5% of your savings. Free money is ALWAYS the way to go! Its like getting a company match on your 401K, but without having to put the money away yourself..its all automatic, you dont miss the daily withdrawals, and it all ads up in the end.
If you do bank with BofA, please be sure to look into this program. We have socked away hundreds of dollars without any effort, and we just got our first matching funds check for nearly $200 in free money!
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3 Things About Money | Nov 27, 2006 | Reply
This post put me into decision mode. I’ve been thinking about opening a Bank of America account and laying it out like that — decision! Thanks.
jay | Nov 27, 2006 | Reply
I was a little confused about where the actual free money was coming from when I saw the commercials, but it’s a little more clear now. I’ve been looking for a reason to switch banks lately anyway. Are there fees on this account?
david | Nov 27, 2006 | Reply
No, there are no fees on their checking accounts right now, if you sign up on their homepage, they are offering free checking and bill pay at http://www.bankofamerica.com/index.cfm
Brendan | Feb 2, 2007 | Reply
Keep the Change just isn’t that cool. First off, you’re not saving that much money. Second, they don’t match that much (a $250 annual limit). Third, Bank of America doesn’t pay interest even on their savings accounts. If you setup to automatically transfer to a better account it might get you somewhere.
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david | Feb 2, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the comment Brendan. However, I disagree with your basic premise of its not saving that much money. Sure, its not like taking a set amount out of your account every week or so and saving it, but its an automatic thing that doesn’t hurt you at all. What other bank matches your savings even up to $1? None that I know of. And Keep the Change should be in addition to a regular savings plan that everyone should have. We put away an additional $30-$40 per month using Keep the Change, and we don’t even notice that it is gone and we don’t count it towards our weekly automatic transfer to a money market account. So in my mind, its pretty cool because I don’t notice it is even missing at a dollar or 2 a day, and at the end of the year we have $400 or so saved up “by accident”. BofA does pay interest, even if its a little, and we barely keep any money in their savings account, we move it to our ING account.