Keep the change – Savings Account

Keep the change – Savings Account

Before I get started, no I’m not getting any kind of reward for promoting this program, but I do think it’s a great idea. The program is called Keep the Change and it’s offered by Bank of America. It’s basically a savings account built into your debit card. There is no charge for the service and it can help you save a few bucks per year, depending on how often you use your debit card.

How it works

Each time you buy something with your Bank of America Check Card, they round your purchase price to the nearest dollar amount and transfer the difference from your checking account to your savings account. This amount then collects interest in your savings account throughout the year. It’s not the only method you should use for saving but just another way to supplement your savings. Another added bonus is that it makes your checkbook tracking easier because you are only working with rounded numbers.

My Experience

I must say I’ve already done something similar to this in the past. After graduating from college and getting my first “real job” I always rounded amounts in my checkbook to the nearest dollar. If something was $15.67 I rounded to $16. The problem was that I never balanced my checkbook until I got married almost 2 years later. The good thing was that when I closed the account I had over $200 extra dollars in my checking account, the bad news is that if I would have put that in a savings account I could have had more. So in my opinion this is a great service offered by Bank of America.