Debit card questions!!!?

Question

i have a saving and checking acc.

for example, when i purchase something that costs $9.55, they charged me 10$ in my checking card, and then they said i saved 45cents but i dont see where the 45cents go... also how is that saving? suppose to have 45cents left...

Answer 1

There are two sides to that question.

Keep the change puts a little amount into a savings account for you.

It also puts a little additional charge on your credit card, and you will pay interest on that. No savings account pays interest on savings that comes anywhere near the interest you pay on a credit card.

If you do not pay your credit card bill in full each and every month, you will lose money with Keep the Change.

Answer 2

I have that too! its called keep the change. they round to the nearest dollar of your purchase and the extra change, like th 45 cents, goes to your savings account. the first three months you get the full extra change but after you only get 50 percent of the change.

Answer 3

Sounds like you have one of those "keep the change" programs with your debit card.  How it works is very simple.  As you already pointed out, whenever you make a purchase, the purchase amount is rounded up to the next dollar (even if your purchase was only $9.01, they'll round all the way up to $10.)  

From there (and this seems to be the missing link in your question) that amount that you were charged for that wasn't part of what you bought, in your case the 45 cents, is automatically deposited into your savings account.

The way it "saves" you money is it acts like a change jar would if you were paying with cash.  You don't really notice the huge difference between $9.55 and $10.00, but when you purchase a lot, that 45 cents adding up over and over again really makes for a good amount of savings.

To put it simply, it's tricking yourself into saving.  It makes saving money a little less painless/brainless.

**EDIT**  It is NOT true that they'll start taking YOUR change after the first few months.  What the other answerer is attempting to refer to is that they will match what you deposit (i.e., if you slide of .45 worth of change, they'll deposit an ADDITIONAL .45, too!)  After 3 months, they'll just match 5% of what you save a year.  They do not take your change.  How ridiculous would that be?

Answer 4

I did this with BOA.  I was charged for them to give me keep the change.  After I got my first bank statement and I was charged a service fee, I called up the bank and said hey, wtf??  They were like, oh, I guess our rep. didn't tell you that if you don't have at least $300 in your savings account they give you a service fee.  It should be called Give The Change!!