Has anyone else heard about this new offering from Bank of America here in the United States? Americans are not saving much money, but this offering makes it much easier.

Basically when you use this card for any purchase it rounds up the total and drops the difference into your savings account.

Say you go grab a coffee and a sweet roll on the way to work and it is $3.12. You will get charged $4.00. The extra 88 cents will the be placed in your savings account. I think this is a pretty ingenious savings method as it does not hurt much and will not kill you at the end of the month but it will add up and best of all it requires no work.

I am really hoping this idea catches on or I may have to go back to BofA.

It's a good idea but I think America needs tighter fiscal controls to really encourage savings at the Federal level. Greenspan left with cheers but he also left an economy that rewarded borrowing and punished savers in my opinion.

That's a pretty neat idea actually - I wouldn't mind using something like that myself.

The real question here is how long until the banks use credit cards and not debit cards in this way - where the offset in savings is lost for the consumer anyway due to charges and interest.

As a debit solution though that really is fabulous - and makes balancing easier I'm sure.

That's wild. I haven't heard anything about that. But when it comes to savings in general, the individual should force himself to save. Pay yourself first: a small % of each paycheck startiong when your young in stock funds and forget you have that money until you're ready to retire. All of your bills will somehow get paid. Or at least the same bills that would have been paid had you not paid yourself first....IMHO of course.

I try to aim for saving at least 10% every month, but then again there are always situations in which you won't be able to save really, if you happen to be purchasing big stuff in a certain month. but the 10% rule's fine for me.

Ninikins: Good for you. If you can keep up that 10% savings, you'll have a nice little nest egg by the time you're ready to retire.

Actually, I bank with BofA, but I haven't signed up for the program yet, although I like the idea. I'm very much a procrastinator about things like this.

As far as savings goes, I signed on to a program where they automatically take $25 out of my checking account every month and shift it to my savings account. It isn't much, but it's more than most of the people I know manage to save every month, and by doing the transfer, I avoid the service charge on my checking every month. Which I think is a good program for encouraging people to save a little every month.

I am looking for an ATM/debit card which is based on a US bank account and I wonder if this card would be the solution to my problem. I need a card that is US based, in which I can encash my egold and paypal funds as I am living outside of the US.

I do not Bank with them. I don not much prefer their interest rates for their account. I like the idea of the rounding up and depositing it into saving though. Maybe other financial institutions will follow suit if this turns out to be a rally good thing.

I so very much agree with you. I was reading a book the other day that talked about how America hadn't lived off debt like it does today since before the great depression.

Although I like the idea behind the savings debit card, it would be better if they would give me the money instead of taking mine .

I guess its a good idea but as everything in this world theres always a loop whole not in our favor. you should do more research.

thats a very unique idea, would work too. I wish my bank that I used now would offer it, but I just got an offer for rewards on my debit card, so I'm taking advantage of that.