Bank of America Says "Keep the Change" (KTC) - Treat Yourself to Change After the Holidays.
By: AskBlax

Struggling African Americans (like me!) tend not to save money; dare I state the obvious which is that we also don't tend to have much left to save. Although not directly tied to motivating African Americans to break out of poverty, Bank of America has a new goal that might cause me to retract that statement. Very few banks offer incentives to anyone, let alone African Americans, for saving money with their institutions. While over the years, many social organizations and government agencies have put together programs and conducted studies like the Individual Development Accounts and Welfare Reform: A Case Study to basically tell us what we already know – African Americans are economically disadvantaged and need a leg up when it comes to saving. Besides, everyone knows that all the real government incentives to save money, like tax breaks for IRA accounts, college funding accounts and mortgages, are primarily created for the middle to upper income folks. And many of us are amongst the pseudo wealthy class. However, the majority of us are not. Therefore, those tax breaks do not incent most of us one bit. They simply do not apply to us.

And while some may feel compelled to go off on a judgmental tangent about how African Americans simply make excuses for not saving, I caution those people to please save it for someone who also really doesn't "get it". Perhaps they don't relate to old "can't draw water from a turnip" phrase. In other words, it is difficult to justify a trip to the bank at a time when gas prices have doubled within a year only to deposit a few coins -- especially for people who barely have the finances to survive from week to week.

But suppose somebody were to match, dollar for dollar, the amount of money you saved – no strings attached, no 12-week financial education class, and no "lifetime commitment" to a government program which undoubtedly comes complete with financial management "overseers". Suppose you didn't even have to drive to the bank to handle the deposit transaction. Suppose every penny you saved was matched and contributed to you just for being a customer? Wouldn't you save money then?

Well, that is exactly how Bank of America has chosen to motivate people to save. It might not sound like a big deal, but Black folks might be interested in knowing that Bank of America recently started a "Keep the Change" program that is pretty much 'off the chain' as far as encouraging savings. The program promotes paying for your holiday and other purchases with your Bank of America debit card because whatever "change" is left over will be transferred from your checking account to your savings account automatically. This, as a minimum benefit, saves you a trip to the bank to make your deposits.

But, it gets even better. Bank of America will match whatever "change" due you as a result of a debit card purchase rounded up to the next whole dollar. This means that if you purchase a $10.00 gift for your friend and 50-cents gets added to the purchase price to cover tax such that your total debit is $10.50, your checking account is charged $11.00 and the extra 50-cents goes into your savings account. Then Bank of America promises to add an additional 50-cents to your savings account to match your own 50-cent contribution. Unlike many other banks, Bank of America does not charge you a fee for using your debit card for this kind of transaction, so the return you reap on your money is 100% -- all profit!

Another important piece is that Bank of America has not imposed a minimum purchase restriction on qualifying purchases. In other words, if you purchase a $1.00 pack of gum and pay $1.05 by the time tax is added, you send the 95-cents change to your checking account and Bank of America will match that 95-cents, too. Even gas station purchases qualify as long as the purchase is paid for with your debit card. Just make sure the pump stops at $5.01 instead of $5.00 and you end up earning a 99-cent rebate from Bank of America. That certainly eases some of the pain felt for paying the overly inflated gas prices doesn't it! Many thanks to Bank of America for this novel idea. Many thanks to them for seemingly saying they don't mind giving people a little something back.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleJoe.com

WWW.AskBlax.com is a small, Black-owned web portal founded for the purpose of providing a resource to African American writers.

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