Paying attention pays off
Posted on November 2, 2008
Filed Under Saving | Leave a Comment
Last month, I made 3 simple changes to our checking account:
- Exchanged our ATM card for a Visa debit card
- Signed up for E-Statements
- Used the debit card for 12 transactions that we normally would have used cash for
I’m not really a big fan of using debit cards for purchases, because like credit cards, they make it kind of easy to spend more money than maybe you intended. However, our credit union has a program in which, by meeting the above 3 requirements (you also need direct deposit, which we already had) , they pay 5% APR on checking account balances up to $50,000. I’d noticed this before, but it never occured to me how much difference this could make.
We just got our first E-Statement with the new interest rate, and we made a little over $11.00 in interest for October. Woo-hoo!!! This is compared to less than 60 cents per month that we used to get. It also happens to be a higher rate than we get on our Fidelity Money Market account, in fact it’s higher than most CD’s that are currently on the market. Plus, it’s completely liquid – no 4 year lock-in. The only down side is that the rate could drop, but we’ll take it while we can. Wish I had done this earlier. Oh well, live and learn. I’ll pay better attention next time.
Cheers,
Ken
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