How To Save Money At The Bank
How To Save Money At The Bank
When asking people what are the most important principles of managing your money successfully, “saving money” almost always comes at the top of the list of answers. We’re constantly looking for money-saving deals, whether it be when buying groceries, clothes, or big ticket items like cars and houses. Most of us keep our money in banks, and those banks in turn charge us various fees for the convenience. But we have to be careful that unreasonable banking fees don’t end up siphoning hundreds of dollars out of our savings and/or checking accounts every year. Here’s how you can go about saving money at the bank.
Picking The Right Bank
We’re not at the comparison stage yet. We’re simply talking about geographic presence. Some people pick a bank because it’s close to work and then find out there’s no close branch around their home, or vice-versa. You need a bank that is reasonably accessible from where you gravitate around most of the time. After all, those “savings” we’re talking about won’t do you any good if you have to drive long distances to get to your bank.
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Once you’ve honed in on the banks that offer the best “coverage” for your needs, then you can move on to what they have to offer. You can go about it in two ways. You can either search online or pick up the phone and call to get the information. Although the big banks do an excellent job of keeping their sites updated with the latest rates and fees, it’s also recommended that you speak to a live person, and you might get some information in a way that’s more easily understandable than you would on a website.
Comparing Interest Rates And Various Charges
Every bank has a detailed list of everything they pay (interest rates on checking accounts if applicable, savings accounts, certificates of deposit, money market accounts, and so on) and everything they charge (interest rates on loans, lines of credit, credit cards; fees for overdrafts, bank checks, replacement checks, balance requirements, and so on). Figure out what you’re going to need most and then do an apples-to-apples comparison of what those offers will mean to you in particular. Which brings us to:
Convenience Banking
Banking is a service industry. So when choosing between a handful of banks to know which one you will do business with, it all boils down to what one can offer you that the other ones can’t. It can be:
- Free online banking
- Free online bill pay
- Weekend and/or evening hours
- 24-hour toll-free number for assistance
- Free notary service to customers
- Interest on both checking and savings accounts
- Competitive fees for checks
- New account bonus
The list goes on and on. The key is to make sure that higher fees in other areas don’t offset the advertised savings.
Managing Your Checking Account
Once you’ve opened your account (especially if it’s a checking account), you need to stay on top of it. One of the first things that you need to learn is how to balance your checkbook to avoid accidental overdrafts and the hefty overdraft fee that comes with it.
Another thing you need to learn is cash management. Rather than pay ATM fees for using an out-of-network ATM machine, make sure to withdraw enough money at your own bank. Also, it’s good to know about alliances between national chains and banks, such as Duane Reade & Chase, or 7-11 and Citibank, to name just those two.
If your bank has a minimum balance requirement, make sure you have that amount in your account to avoid service charges because your account went under a specified balance.
Those tips sound simple enough, but in reality they can save you hundreds of dollars every year.