| Easy $250 from Bank of America |
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dbe1351
Member
Cash: $ 3.75
Posts: 17
Joined: 04 Feb 2006
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| Easy $250 from Bank of America |
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Probably heard of their new program - "Keep the Change" - I wasn't a customer but I opened a checking / savings account online selected a debit card - and enrolled in this savings plan.
Pretty much free money - they match the first $250 in savings each year.
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Sat Feb 18, 2006 8:50 pm |
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Jaszbo
Preferred Member
Cash: $ 35.90
Posts: 177
Joined: 03 Jan 2006
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I think it's actually a rip off. http://www.bankofamerica.com/promos/jump/ktc/?adlink=000302072g350000c430
Basically the first three money, what they do is every tranaction you do they take the change and charge you in your checking account and then moves it to the savings account. For instance say you buy something for $3.75, they will charge you $4, then move 25 cents to the savings account and match the 25 cents. The only way possible this can work is if you do a few 100 tranactions a day and guess what, it's only for the first 3 months. After that they only match 5%, I mean when I just thought 100% was horrible for the first 3 months, 100% is horrible. At the sametime correct me if I'm wrong, but they are charging you for your savings account. I'm not seeing any deal at all.
with citicard you can get 300 dollars a year. With BOA's card you'll be lucky to actually clear 50 dollars in all honesty.
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Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:17 am |
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dbe1351
Member
Cash: $ 3.75
Posts: 17
Joined: 04 Feb 2006
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It's working for me...you only need a whopping $300 in your savings account to avoide the monthly fee - so that isn't an issue...and since i use my debit card for the majority of my day-to-day purchases - might as well pick up some free money.
Citibank doesn't have any branches or atms in the south - so not really an option to bank with them.
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Sun Feb 19, 2006 3:08 am |
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Jaszbo
Preferred Member
Cash: $ 35.90
Posts: 177
Joined: 03 Jan 2006
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I'm referring to citicard credit card. I'm against using debitcards unless you have a real problem with control and debt.
I actually think citicard is horrible, unless you pay it off in full each month, then the average person will get the most benefits.
Let me tell you that after the 3 months that save your change doesn't make you much money. Let's do an example. Let's say that every single day you make 3 tranactions and you have 50 cents in chance. Listen that's been very generous as most people won't even do that. Ok so now I take 1.50 a day times 30 days and that brings me to 45 dollars.
They will match 5% of that 45 dollars. So they will give me $2.25. It's better than nothing. They forced 45 dollars into your savings, so they could give you $2.25. Are they benefiting our are you? If I was a bank I would love to force that kind of money in the savings.
Anyway let me compare it now to the citicard credit card. This card gives you 5% back on all gas, groceries and drugs, plus 1% back on everything else. Now personally I spend over 100 dollars a month on gas, so right there that's 5 dollars. If you go to the grocery store and spend 100 dollars a month, that's another 5 dollars. Say you purchase books and anything in between and you spend a few hundred, you'll get another 1% on top of that.
I've been bring in the limit of 300 dollars a year. If you put almost everything you spend money on it ,that 1% does go a long way. Say you take a trip and the ticket costs 200 dollars, you just made 2 dollars. It slowly starts to add up.
The BOA save the change isn't a bad deal the first 3 months as they pay 100%, but after it's not such a good deal.
I actually do use BOA, but it's only for my desposits. I use an online savings account that yields 4.25% and a checking account that's 3.01% that both are online. I use BOA as a quick place to deposit checks and transfer then to my online checking account that's making me money. My checking account online doesn't charge me for any use of ATM's and if another ATM charges they will refund me, so I'm happy with that, but there's BOA ATM's all over the nation, so I like keeping BOA open. It would be nice to have one place to do my banking, but having a checking, savings at different place we're talking about way over a thousands of dollars earned
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Sun Feb 19, 2006 4:58 pm |
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dbe1351
Member
Cash: $ 3.75
Posts: 17
Joined: 04 Feb 2006
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I see your point of view. I'm just a big debit card user. I have rewards based credit card as well.
I'm the same way - bank with bofa for day-to-day use (deposits, debit card, etc..) - but put my liquid savings in a higher-rate online account - currently doing ING but will jump if a much higher rate comes along.
Guess it depends on your preferred payment method. I've never been a big credit card user.
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Sun Feb 19, 2006 10:26 pm |
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jacksonian
New Member
Cash: $ 1.20
Posts: 6
Joined: 26 Jan 2006
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quote:
Originally posted by dbe1351
I see your point of view. I'm just a big debit card user. I have rewards based credit card as well.
Guess it depends on your preferred payment method. I've never been a big credit card user.
Why would you use a debit card instead of your rewards credit card? If you pay off the credit card each month, it shouldn't be a problem. You can at least get 1% back on most credit cards, plus fraud protection and some offer warranty extension.
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Sat Mar 25, 2006 2:52 am |
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Kiaser
Senior Member
Cash: $ 43.05
Posts: 209
Joined: 12 Apr 2006
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I was able to obtain the $250 in 3 months. Now I'll be closing the accounts and moving it to a money market fund  Thanks Bank of America!
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Wed Apr 12, 2006 8:29 pm |
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