How many savings accounts should a person have?
By katsmeow1213
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
United States
March 25, 2011 1:52pm CST
I currently have 1 savings account through the same bank hubby and I have our joint checking account. I've been trying to get a savings account through my credit union as they offer better interest rates, but due to some old debts I wasn't able to. These debts have since been paid off.. but I'm currently having trouble getting my ChexSystems cleared up (long story!). However the manager at my credit union is going to allow me to set up the account anyways because I can prove that I've paid off the old debts.. and hubby and I have a joint savings account there in good standing. If I open this account I will have 3 savings accounts!
Our joint account gets money direct deposited every week from hubby's paycheck. This is exactly enough to pay our rent every month.. and we do this so that we don't accidentally spend our rent money.
But I don't know what to do about the other 2 accounts. Neither are joint accounts, only in my name. Ultimately I'm saving up for a down payment on a house.. so I suppose I could have one account for that and the other account for emergencies and such. But I'm just not sure if it makes sense to have multipe savings accounts.
How many savings accounts do you have and what are their purposes? Do you think I should have 2 savings accounts or should I take the money out of the bank and have just 1 savings account at the credit union only?
4 people like this
17 responses
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
28 Mar 11
Our family only has one very small savings account right now because instead of saving money at this point in time, it is important for us to pay off the debt that we've accrued before we sock money away. That said, I don't think that it matter how many savings accounts that you have. The little one that I have which is left over from when I was working at the hospital is not drawing very much interest, but I don't touch it so I know that as long as there is a little bit of money in there we are never really broke.
1 person likes this
@dodo19 (47336)
• Beaconsfield, Quebec
27 Mar 11
At the moment, my husband and I have one joint savings account, which we share. I think that a lot of people do just have one savings account, because it does seem a lot easier to manage. I don't think that you should have only one account, because other people do. We're all different, and our needs are all different. I think that you should have the amount that you feel like having.
1 person likes this
@cutepenguin (6431)
• Canada
26 Mar 11
I just have one joint savings account with my husband. We have talked about getting a second one for specific savings goals, but I don't think we'd have more than two. This just makes it easier for us to keep track of our money - everybody is different in how they like to divide up their money.
1 person likes this
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
25 Mar 11
i THINK ONE would be sufficent & i'd have it at wherever they are paying the best interest. Good interest is a thing of the pass but one place might be better than the orther. It sure is good to check them out.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
25 Mar 11
For now I'm going with the 2, because I think I'll get some fees if I try to close the first one already since I only opened it a couple months ago. Also the first one pays it's interest monthly while the other only pays quarterly.. so if I keep both for awhile I can see which one truly does offer the better interest rate.
1 person likes this
@ANTIQUELADY (36440)
• United States
25 Mar 11
VERY PROUD OF U, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. hAVE A GOOD WEEKEND.
@shia88 (4571)
• Malaysia
26 Mar 11
Hi,
From my point of view, a person can have several bank
accounts as he likes, as long as he can manage his
bank accounts well, he can have lot of bank accounts under
his name.
For me, I have only one bank account which i found that
it is more than enough. I don't see the point of holding
several bank accounts,unless I do set up an online business,then
I might consider a few more bank accounts to make my customers
more convenience for the payment transaction.
1 person likes this
@sathishkumar3660 (325)
• India
26 Mar 11
It is necessary for everyone to have a bank, which will be useful in many ways. I have 2 savings account in 2 different banks. One i am going to use for online transactions and another one for my normal savings purpose.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160949)
• United States
25 Mar 11
I do not know. It makes sense to me to have one for long term savings goals like the house and another for the short term goals, like an emergency fund. Set an upper limit on the emergency fund and if the account exceeds that, move it to the other account that pays more interest. If they do not charge you to have the account you may as well keep them both.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
26 Mar 11
They don't charge me.. so I guess I will keep them both.
@danishcanadian (28955)
• Canada
29 Mar 11
I have two; one for short-term savings, and another one that I use as a vacation account, and after our vacation, we'll use it for another longer-term goal that we have, aybe something new for the house.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
29 Mar 11
How do you decide how to divide funds into these accounts? Do you just take what's available and split it between the 2 accounts?
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
25 Mar 11
We are doing so well.. it's surprising really. We don't have much more income than we used to because I'm trying really hard not to use my paychecks for anything aside from saving and paying on debts.. but somehow we seem to have a lot more money than we used to.
@dawnald (85146)
• Shingle Springs, California
25 Mar 11
Right now I have one that I divert enough money into so that I can cover my car payment, and I have one for each child that I transfer $20 per month into.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
25 Mar 11
That's something else I eventually want to do.. start a savings account for each of the kids. Probably won't be enough to pay for college.. but anything will be better than nothing.
1 person likes this
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
25 Mar 11
Right now I have a savings account at a bank where everytime I use my debit card it takes one dollar out of my checking and puts it into my savings. This works for me because It's a way for me to save without having to worry about transferring money etc. The only thing that stinks about it is I must use my debit card atleast once per month, but that's no problem as I use my debit card to pay my cellphone bill.
I am without a job so any money I get is usually through online and so most of the time all I really do is pay my phone bill, though im getting better at earning online and so can afford to splurge a little bit as well. My plan is to save up enough for a car and then use that money to pay for a car no more then say $2000.
My bank told me to come back to them as they can give me a quote from five different companies on car insurance, though I am almost certain I am going to go with Allstate.
In any case, I would have to say that you could always close out all the other savings and keep the one with the credit union as it's higher interest.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
25 Mar 11
If you don't currently have insurance, Allstate probably won't take you unless you plan to go on someone else's account. Even though hubby had been on his parents account for years.. they still wouldn't let him get his own policy.. so we went elsewhere.
1 person likes this
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
25 Mar 11
hmm, well I had been on my husband's account but well that didn't work out (won't go into detail). But I guess i'll try and see and if not I may go with farm bureau or something though I've heard horror stories about them.
@SydneyHazelton (4586)
• Singapore
6 May 12
I think the number of accounts one has depends on the purpose of having them. I have two savings account. Both are savings account although I'd rather have one savings and another current account where I can issue cheques from. Anyway, one account is where my salary goes in. That is also the account I used to pay all my bills and monthly expenses.
The other account is for emergency funds and savings. I know how much I would spend in a month and anything extra from my first account, I would transfer to a second account. Some people deposit money regularly. That would be applicable for people with regular income. However, I don't have a regular income, thus I need to make sure that I have enough for those months I have less than usual or save more for months I have a bit extra.
The most important thing is to track all accounts that you have. There is no point having multiple accounts when you do not know how much you have in each one. Thus, each account must have a purpose.
In addition, my husband I contribute to a household account every month. We pay household bills and groceries from this account. We don't have a joint account together. I never believed in it.
@naveend (19)
• India
22 Jul 11
I do not think that having multiple saving accounts help in any way. You may go ahead and use one account for savings. Since you are saving the amount for a down payment on a house,you should invest that amount to increase its value rather than keeping in a bank which may not beat the rate of inflation.
You may calculate if your bank/Credit union is really giving good returns or not by following below scenarios:
a) If the bank or Credit union interest rate is 4% (this is just an example) and inflation rate is 2% then your net profit is only 2%. We need to subtract the inflation from net profit to get the exat interest rate we are earning.
b) If you are getting 4% interest on your amount from credit union and the inflation rate is 5%, then you are loosing the value of your money (1% lost) and it is not worth keeping with credit union.
@my_name_is_coco (4333)
• Philippines
26 Mar 11
for me the quantity of the savings account doesn't matter.what matters is the reason behind saving money.I have one savings account in an ATM.this savings account functions both as savings and emergency money.I have mutual fund account which I treat as my "bank" with a bigger interest.if I decide to withdraw my dividends,then I would rather have them in passbook account.
@bounce58 (17385)
• Canada
29 Mar 11
I think I also have 3. Two of which have just like a hundred dollars in them.
I could remember a year when on of these inactive savings account was the flavor of the year! It had something do with the interest rate that they had then. Now I keep the fund on one.
I would keep those other accounts. It could be a good 'holder' for things I would like to save up to. So, that it doesn't get mixed in with the regular checking and savings account.
@katrinapaz (2436)
• Philippines
26 Mar 11
i have 2 accounts and i think that is enough. One is a debt card where my salary goes into every month and the other one is a savings account that i have put up with my boyfriend. We decided to have a joint account so that one will ask permission from the other to get money from it thereby preventing us to spend it on anything. I think having less accounts equals to less worries because the maintenance fees.
