Hellobee Boards

A higher interest rate would be nice!! Ours is like .01%. but I've heard some people's banks are 5%+!!

The only things that would incentivize me to save more are things like matching programs with vesting periods and programs where you can buy a financial instrument and get another at either a discount or free, like buying a share of stock and getting an option on that share for free.

I already have a credit card with no annual fee, my bank offers a year end summary that shows spending categories and I don't really believe anything that's "cash back" really is free...they have to make up the cost somewhere, so it's either in higher interest rates in mortgages or loans or in fees.

I think it would just be better education and help to know where your money is and where it is going. I think so often people just simply don't know where there money is being spent. If you could get a monthly report (that was fairly accurate) that showed that of the $,4000 you had in income this money you spent $400 (10%) on eating out I think that would be a real eye opener to a lot of people.

Rewards don't really help the real issue.

Something like my credit union has -- if you have 3+ accounts with them, you get a higher level of membership and interest on checking and a higher interest rate on savings. That's what prompted me to open a money market account with them, which is just as liquid as their savings but has a higher rate of return. And now I get interest on my checking, too.

As someone who worked in banking for years as well as having experience with it as a consumer I think the best thing would be to NOT look to your bank as a place to help you save money. People tend to forget that banks are businesses, they are there to make money..not help you. I'm always highly, highly skeptical of any savings/rewards ploys because I've seen how they make up that money in terms of overdraft fees, check cashing fees, etc. It's a terrible thing but when I worked in banking and people's accounts were overdrawn and they had to pay fees we always joked that that money was going into our Christmas party fund. It was a good wakeup to me as a consumer that the bank does NOT exist to help me in anyway that doesn't make them money.