Wachovia's Way2Save program provides users with a 5% APY return on cash deposited into a savings account as well as a bonus of up to $300 dollars. That's pretty good. Sounds too good to be true, right? There is no catch but the program has some unique characteristics that won't appeal to everyone.
To participate in the program, you need to open a checking account and then a Way2Save savings accounts. Both of these accounts are free so there is no problem there.
Once you open the account, you can fund it in one of two ways.
- $1 transfer from your checking account to your Way2Save account for each Check Card and electronic payment transaction. That is, every time you make a debit card transaction or pay a bill online, they will transfer a $1 from your linked checking account to your savings account. That means you have to have money in your checking account to transfer. The program is trying to automate your savings by matching the money you spend with $1 saved. Clever.
- Recurring automatic transfer from your checking account to your Way2Save account, $100 maximum per calendar month. So the maximum you can directly deposit per month is $100, for a total annual amount of $1,200.
Interest Rate
The interest rate you ean on this money is currently pegged at 5% APY the first 12 months and then drops down to 2% APY for years 2 and 3. The rate is variable meaning it can be changed at any time.
Savings Bonus
Wachovia will also pay a bonus on the balance in the account at the end of each 12 month period. This bonus is:
|
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
So, if you manage to put $2,000 in the account between periodic transfers and $1 transaction transfers, Wachovia would provide a bonus of $100 at the end of the Year 1. You'd need $6000 in the account to receive the $300 maximum. That's 67 debit or bill pay transactions per month. It's a lot but I know people who do that many.
If you do have the level of activity, you can receive a 5% bonus from Wachovia and potentially receive 5% APY. In addition, it forces you to put some money away. That's not a bad program.
Thanks to BankVibe for pointing out the program.
Comments
jonnnny
March 03, 2010
put 1,200 into the checking and set it up to automatically deposit 100 a month(1,200 a year),, i also put in another 3,800(thats all i have to work with) into the checking for a total of 5,000. i then went into bill pay and put my own name as a biller. this is the crazy part... you cant make the same monetary amount payment on the same day.. in other words you cant make 10 $1.00 payments,, but you can do like i did,, take an hour and do this. make the first payment $1.00, then next $1.01, $1.02, $1.04 etc... the point i am making is your sending money to yourself and every payment moves $1 from checking into way2save, hard part is you will receive hundreds of checks in the mail all for increment amounts starting at 1.00 then 1.01.... go to bank, cash all the checks, then deposit cash back into wachovia checking,, in my first month i moved $1,100 from checking to way2save plus the $100 automatic deposit. so far wacovia hasnt caught on.. good luck
Is this review helpful? Yes:0 / No: 0
Add your Comment
or use your BestCashCow account