I’m participating in Bank of America’s Keep the Change savings program. I enrolled on October 27, and I’ve accumulated $64.60 in “change” — the amount rounded up from my debit/checkcard purchases — through January 6. BofA will match that $64.60 as long as I keep my savings account active, which I see no reason not to. So it’s not too shabby. It’s a little more work, since I have to reconcile lots of little transactions from the bank transferring over each day’s “change,” but it’s worth it in my opinion. I set up an automatic $25 transfer to my savings account from my BofA checking account to avoid a monthly fee. Then I just transfer that money out, along with any substantial savings that have accumulated, and put it in an ING Direct account to earn more interest. So if you can work the system like I’m trying to, it’s not a bad deal at all. Yay for saving money!
bank of america keep the change update
Published January 10th, 2006
Tagged bank of america, keep the change money
23 Responses to “bank of america keep the change update”
- 1 Pingback on Jan 17th, 2006 at 1:10 am
- 2 Pingback on Jan 27th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
- 3 Pingback on Nov 24th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
I live in Atlanta, Georgia, and work as a 
keep the change is a great idea. i´m up to $27 right now.
Keep the Change seems like a sneaky trick to me, but I mentioned your post in my blog as someone who is a fan of it. I plan on writing a more detailed post about it in the future. Smart move though transferring it to an ING account…much better than BOA.
I haven’t heard any more of this program lately…..
The first thing I thought of when I heard about this is “isn’t this a sneaky way to get people to bounce checks?”
You will remember that $9.50 purchase, and the $15.23 purchase, but will you remember all of that extra “change” being removed from your checking account? So what happens if you come up a $1.01 short at the end of the month because you’ve “saved your change” and you bounce a check? That costs $32 or whatever. Far more than anyone is going to earn in interest from their very small contributions to their savings account.
Why not just put $100 in your savings account at the beginning of the month and call it even?
If you do not have sufficient funds, then BOA will not subtract the difference for that day. plus for the 1st three months, they will match it. How can you pass up free money!!!
Read the Fine Print!
1. If it’s a DEBIT transaction it doesn’t count.
2. They don’t transfer the money from uyour checking to savings the same night. They keep your money for a day. Imagine the tens of millions of dollars of float they get every day.
3. They don’t match your funds for about 13-14 months.
Think about it. If B of A wasn’t making a profit on this they wouldn’t be doing it.
-Doug
Doug, it does count if it is a debit transaction. Shortly after I opened my account, I wanted to confirm this for myself. So on 10/31, I had mostly checkcard transactions (run like credit) and one debit transaction where I made a purchase and also added on some cash back, using my PIN. The transfer to savings for the day was the total of all the roundups, including the checkcard transactions as well as the debit transaction.
Of course they are making money on this program. I would expect them to make money on the program and would be concerned if they weren’t. But if it’s win-win, why is that a problem?
Mark Tee 21 Feb 06
I got into this Keep the Change program for one reason and one reason only. The $250.00 Matching for the first three months. It is not the first time that I recieved money from BofA for a promotional program. Just play by thier rules and at the end they deposit the money in your account. I think $250.00 free money for just buying things with your debit card is worth it
But… be aware. (I did not say ‘beware’) most products in the store cost x.95 or x.99. Add five of them together and the total is still x.92 or less. That amounts to maybe 8 cents KTC transfer and 8 cents match. Not much when you consider you are trying for the maximum of 250.00.
My son solved this problem by studying the gum counter. When we were aware of the transaction total he would grab the appropiate item and tag it on the bill pushing the total over the dollar to 5 or 10 cents. Therefore making the KTC transfer 95 cents (approx) and the match 95 cents. This works well, just buy your stuff in smaller groups thus increasing the transactions more often. only problem was I had a car full of gum and candy. My son has made this a project with me to improve the KTC transfers because he gets lots of stuff. We took better control of our purchases by using the self checking counters that you find in some grocery stores. We close the transaction after a few dollars (and cents) then open a new transaction and buy a few more items. This works good, but you have to do it late at night or very early so no line of impatient people form behind you.
This brought the best idea yet. Self serve gas pump. I stood with my debit card for twenty minutes filling up my tank at $1.01 at a time. I made 35 transactions on a receipt four feet long. At 99 cents for the KTC match, my gas only cost me 2 cents per gallon. This worked great for achieving the max of $250 but the next week when it was time to fill the tank again, all the gas stations did not let me use mt debit card at the pump any more. I had to go in to the cashier. Try telling them you want to make a purchase on your card for $1.01 or even 3.05. They think you are crazy. But I only have one week to go for the 100% match promotion and I am up to $210.00. So far that is $70 per month free money!
Wake up! Free money! 2 cent gas! All you people stop your griping. There is not too much oppertunity to make money without working, risking investment, or begging out there. Because it is Bank of America, you know it is legit. Not a scam or conspiracy. Just a promotion for saving.
you a**hole, your charges of 1.01 probably ended up almost costing the gas station to give you the gas, there is a minimim fee that visa changes a buisness every time there is a debit purchase, that is why people will refuse to let you charge, usually under 10 dollars *sigh*
What a joke this program is! They are not giving you JACK! They are transferring the difference from your checking to yuour savings. BIG F’ing DEAL! Then, they claim to match what differences you transfer at 5%. BIG DEAL PEOPLE! BOA is a rip off and this is another way they are trying to scam people.
blewtoo, are you some kind of idiot? Learn to read. They match the difference 100% that they are transferring from your checking to your savings for the first three months.
“first three months” - They are training RATS people…and you are THE RATS!!!!! LOL!!!!
I did nearly the exact same thing as you Mark, except didn’t do 30 transactions. Whenever myself or my girlfriend got gas I would use my card and spend $xx.01. I saw the guy after you called you a dumb***, but he’s not going to collect an extra $250.
Mel~ It’s cool to hear from someone that agrees with me. Most folk I talk to are sure that it is some sort of scam. They probably believe the conspiracy that the U.S. Government planned and executed 9/11. I have just approached my 1 year aniversary of this Keep the Change program, and even though Bank of America says that they need 8 long weeks before the money shows up in my savings account, I believe that it will happen. They have not yet welched on any deals that they have offered me in the past. Just by trying out thier promotional programs I have recieved $160.00 so far and all have been programs that benefit me anyway. Good Luck with yours, I’ll let you know when I get the money.
I did try this one last year on june… I just received an email saying that for a year I saved $94.90 and they will match the one I saved for three months which they say is $36.xx this june 14. The problem is I transferred my savings money to my checking due to low funds last month I just completely forgot about the “keep the change program” and I use my debit card(checking) often… Now Im wondering if I will see the $36.xx as promised tomorrow. Since my savings is like about $20.xx now. =P I will let you know what happens with mine.
I received my keep the change today for $36.60 and they deducted me $10.25 as well for federal taxes…FYI to people in the program…
I have just signed up for this through LaSalle (BOA’s newest acquisition). This is not a way to make you rich or to pull one over on ‘the man’, it is simply a painless way to sack away a little cushion. It takes the place of using cash and throwing pocket change into a big bottle in your living room, and with the APY they offer it really is a cyber piggy bank. The match is nice and should be utilized as much as possible, but take into account how much your own time is worth—20 minutes pumping gas or an extra 30 minutes at the grocery store are not worth it to myself. The true reason for this promotion is to benefit BOA, they receive around 2% of every transaction paid for by your card, the more you use your card the more money that they make. Sorry for the long post, really just needed to write it down for my own benefit. Cheers and keep savin!
My office got started with direct depost and they offered their keep the change program. Double check and see if your not getting $5.00 a month taken out. I have and so have others. Thats $ 60.00 a year so whos keeping the change? Try Wachovia instead. They take ot $1:00 each time you use your atm no matter how you spend each time and its a much faster program. No rounding off small change just make sure you subtract a $1:00 and watch it grow. You can also have up to $100 transfered each month to savings and their program goes to $500 to max out you keep The $1:00 program. For me BOA is a rip and Im now with Wachovia
Gayle, Wachovia’s new program sounds really interesting. Those dollars would definitely add up very quickly!
Lasalle or Bank of America program is a total scam. I was doing the 1.01 gas thing and the bank shut down my card.
I bank at the branch in Cascade Michigan (28th st and Thornhills Drive). The branch manager who is a total bitch should be fired for how she treated me. No employee of mine would stay on the job if they treated a customer how I was treated. It is not in the literature anywhere that this is not appropriate usage and her account representatives told me to use the card in this manner to get all the available dollars. I wrote the gals name somewhere and I am going to try may dardest to get her fired if I have to go to the ends of the earth to do it.
What a complete bitch.
This is a Bank of America scam.
They are not giving you anything.. they are actually rounding up to the next dollar and rather than giving you the rounded up part.. they are CHARGING your Checking Account for that amount and putting it into a savings account. So.. what is the deal… They rob you to pay you? How stupid! They take money out of one of your pockets and put it in another pocket and say … look at what we are doing for you. Something doesn’t smell right with this deal.