"Piggy Bank" by alanclever_2000 on Flickr

I’d like to share with you how we choose to bank. I’m not suggesting that this way is the right way, because of course what works for me, may not for others.

In 2005 when we moved to Utah we were bankless. There wasn’t a national bank that was in Northeastern Pennsylvania that was also in Utah, so we had to choose a new bank. Of course, the first week of school the campus was crawling with creditors and banks. We picked Wells Fargo because it was the most accessible for us and our location on campus. Chris and I each opened our own checking and savings accounts.

The savings account with Wells Fargo never worked for me. I’d put money in the savings, but would transfer it right back out as soon as I needed it. It was just like it wasn’t even in a separate account. There was no saving going on.

Last year I discovered ING Direct. The main reason that I signed up with them was for a $50 credit if you opened a new account, deposited money, and made 3 signature purchases with the linked debit card. Nice and easy way to make $50 since I deposited $15 & purchased sodas on campus. But then I looked into ING Direct some more and realized that they were a really great bank and had good interest rates on their savings accounts.

Even after deciding to keep the ING Direct account, I still didn’t really expect myself to use it. I can’t recall what exactly made me open my eyes and see it was the perfect saving opportunity, but I’m glad I did. We now have a checking and 6  savings accounts with ING Direct. Each savings is designated to what we’re saving for (emergency, car, house, vacation, medical bills, & bi-yearly bills [car insurance, apartment insurance, etc.]). I set up an automatic transfer schedule that transfers funds weekly to each of these accounts.

There are a few reason why we have not completely transferred everything over to ING Direct. First of all, ING Direct is an internet based bank. There are no local branches. I’m not really sure how it would work if I needed to deposit a check or cash. They also don’t allow you to have checks made (you can request a check to be mailed by them for free if you do need a check mailed).

In the near future I plan on posting some more on my savings process, our “so-called-budget”, and other finance related topics. But everything I post will more than likely be how I do things. =]

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