My bank has forced me to save money! :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-19-2004
My bank has forced me to save money! :)
7
Fri, 01-07-2005 - 2:53pm

We got a notice around October stating that in order to avoid any monthly fees, all savings accounts must have at least $200 in them by Jan 1st. I was slightly irritated at first~ thinking "The nerve of them!" But then I realized that they are doing us a favor!
Now I am forced to leave that money in there! Even if it is just $200. My DH and I usually nickel and dime that savings account to death anytime money is in there.

Right now we are focused on paying off debt, so we don't save. If something comes up, I use the money I was applying to the debt. When we get this last cc and then my student loan paid off, then we will have the money auto deducted from his check to our credit union savings. It is 30 minutes away and we have no debit card for it, so it won't get touched.

But I have a nice feeling just knowing there's $200 sitting safe and sound~ there's no way I'd take a penalty to have it! Thanks S&T Bank!

;)Nikki

Avatar for mymartes
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 01-07-2005 - 3:04pm

That good. However, have you thought about leaving at least a little over $200. In case, you have to some of that money. Then you won't be below their limit for a free account.

Just a thought.

MYM

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Fri, 01-07-2005 - 3:11pm

My bank savings account is like that, too. It is a very good thing. At least they're doing something positive for us.

cheers,
slojuly

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-04-2004
Fri, 01-07-2005 - 3:18pm

Thanks for the post, it made me take 5 minutes to look at my bank, no minimum for savings, but I have been meaning to find out what I was paying $5/month on my checking which is suppose to be a free checking account. Turns out it was for a plus package that gives me free checks, well I don't get $60 worth of checks out of this plus package every year, so I decided to cancel the feature and I will just purchase my checks through Current (or somewhere cheaper if anyone has suggestions?!?)as I only use checks to pay bills. I now have another $5 snowflake each month! :)

~leanne

~leanne

deciding to be happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect, but that you had decided to look beyond the imp

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-29-2003
Fri, 01-07-2005 - 3:32pm

NO min on our savings...our checking has no fee if over $200. Well, for the past several months, we have gotten a $5/mo fee for being below that (occasionally even below $0 - not good). Anyway...this month we should be able to stay over $200 all month AND I was able to transfer $100 to savings. Big yeah. Now we have over $100 in savings. (we had kept just enough in savings to not close the acct).

Sola

Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Fri, 01-07-2005 - 5:14pm

Our bank has that too, unless you have direct deposit and then they waive the minimum requirement and you get it free because of the direct deposit.


I know in my Freedom Account, when I opened it (same bank so it's easy for transferring money, etc..), once I put the $200, I immediately subtracted it from my ledgers so it doesn't exist to use.

Avatar for nicholasaleksandr
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-29-2003
Sat, 01-08-2005 - 11:03am

it is important to check those statements, twice (different stores ) i found that they debited my atm card twice for the same purchase but aprrox 5 days apart each time. They are ( the stores, not a bank error)always very sorry and fixed quickly but you wonder how many times they do get away with it!

mary anne

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-22-2004
Sun, 01-09-2005 - 8:11pm

My sister's accountant ordered her some business checks online at walmart.com.

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