I finally came to stumble upon this myself. Anyways… if you haven’t heard or seen yet (especially for BofA members), Keep the Change, the new program developed by Bank of America lets you save money in a weird way.
From what I read, it’s pretty much a way for them to get you to keep using your BofA Debit Card. I recall that every debit card transaction from BofA assesses a fee of $0.35–0.50. In terms of the program, you pretty much get charged to the nearest dollar. Lets say your purchase total (from your debit card) comes out to $8.75. BofA will charge you $9. The remaining $0.25 will then be automatically transferred to your Savings, and matched by BofA. The matching will be 100% for the first 3 months in the program, then 5% thereafter.
I don’t know to what extent this might be a plus. But for the first 3 months, it’s way worth it I’d say. I just don’t know about the 5% thereafter. However, as commenters over at Strange Brand generally concluded about the program, it’s probably better to just save in whole rather than being opted in the program.
Other blog posts regarding this, can be seen over at Avalon Star and Bargaineering. Its just weird that I never saw the BofA banner about the program. It’s been on the very top of their homepage for the past couple of weeks. Maybe it’s because I just use the BofA site to check out my accounts, transfer money, and/or pay bills.
Anyways, let me know if you guys and gals are on the program or at least thinking about it. I’m very interested in saving money, as well as getting FREE money for that instance. 100% matching sounds good but man oh man, 5% thereafter… even ING Direct 3% (plus) sounds better than this.