How many bank accounts should you have?

[neiltc13]

At least two. With different banks.

If anyone has been following UK news lately they will have seen that one of the biggest banks (Royal Bank of Scotland) suffered a software failure last week and it meant that payments into and out of people's accounts were being delayed by many days. A lot of people got into bad situations because they had just one bank account and no backup accounts or credit cards.

It is most definitely worth having accounts or credit cards with different banks so you can cope if the bank (for whatever reason) fails to give you access to your money.

 

[Jessica Lares]

I'm not "good" with money or anything myself, I just don't see how savings accounts are a good idea unless they are keeping up with inflation and the amount you have in there is for an emergency fund.

But if you have 5 accounts or whatever, why not just dump them all into one of the 5.5% accounts and make more money from the interest?

Savings accounts are good for emergency reasons. Just having insurance doesn't cover everything, and having that money just sitting there will be very, very, very helpful when that day comes. Your house could get destroyed by a storm tomorrow and that's a $100,000 investment gone, what are you going to do if you only make $50,000 a year and most of that already goes to other bills?

It's better to keep it separate, it's just easier to manage that way. It has little to do with interest and more about maintaining it by adding to it every month or whatever.

And yeah, like someone else said, you have accounts based on how much money you have and how much is guaranteed by the FDIC.

I just have one.

 

[jknight8907]

6 right now, due to a move to an area where my previous bank has no locations, and some leftover accounts from previous times that I never closed out. I'm working on cleaning everything up right now, and will end up with 'only' 4...checking, savings, IRA, and stock investment account.

 

[fireshot91]

I have 5 bank accounts, 3 banks.

3 in one bank (Checking, Savings, Student Savings). (Student savings gives 3.5% interest for the first xx amount)

1 CD in one bank.

And 1 checking account in another bank.

 

[Surely]

These three accounts at the same bank:

• 1 checking account for bill payments
• 1 checking account for salaries and ATM (our bank only) withdrawals
• 1 savings account for the bulk of our liquid

We keep the checking accounts separate so that it is more difficult for a fraudulent withdrawal of any significance to occur. We purposefully keep the bill payment account balance low for that reason, and transfer in enough for bill payments. Besides workplaces, no one else (besides the bank) knows the account number to the salaries account.

We also have an account with a brokerage for investment purposes.

Edit: yikes the formatting of my post does not show up on Tapatalk

 

[Happybunny]

I have three.

One current, one saving, and one (trust) for grand children.

 

[Mousse]

2. Personal account and a Joint account with my Wife for bills etc.

(both accounts should be in her name though, if you know what I mean )

I hear ya, brotha.

Anyhow, I've only got one account (joint checking). It makes it harder for banks to rob me when there's only one access point.

 

[yg17]

I have a checking and savings account a local credit union.

My 401k from work is through Fidelity, but I'm not sure if that counts as a bank account.

 

[eric/]

Savings accounts are good for emergency reasons. Just having insurance doesn't cover everything, and having that money just sitting there will be very, very, very helpful when that day comes.
It's better to keep it separate, it's just easier to manage that way. It has little to do with interest and more about maintaining it by adding to it every month or whatever.

I'm not disagreeing with having money saved up, I just don't see the point in having to have two separate accounts. Now, I'm not saying you can't manage your money or anything, but that seems like that is something that somebody who isn't mindful of their money would do.

Let's say you have $4000 you want to have saved in case of anything. Ok, put that in your checking account, and just don't let your checking account drop below $4000.

 

[Surely]

I'm not disagreeing with having money saved up, I just don't see the point in having to have two separate accounts. Now, I'm not saying you can't manage your money or anything, but that seems like that is something that somebody who isn't mindful of their money would do.

Let's say you have $4000 you want to have saved in case of anything. Ok, put that in your checking account, and just don't let your checking account drop below $4000.

See my post.

 

[eric/]

See my post.

Ah. Eh, I'm not really concerned about that but I see your point.

 

[h1r0ll3r]

Checking
Savings
401k

Seems to work well for me. Plus a 5 gallon bucket I use to put all my loose change in

 

[Liquorpuki]

Checking, Savings, Brokerage, 457, Roth IRA

 

[Iscariot]

• Chequing account with a low balance and low daily withdrawal limit to help prevent fraud, used for daily purchases
• Credit card with cashback rewards and a low credit limit for daily use, again kept low to help prevent fraud
• Credit card with a very high limit that is used only for big purchases
• Savings account with liquid funds
• High-yield tax free savings account
• RRSP mutual funds
• An enormous glass jar for the OBSCENE amount of change you get in my stupid $2-coin-having country

Every account is with a different bank. If you have full access to any one account you would still not gain access to the other funds.

 

[Shrink]

Just one...with a TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF MONEY in it.

 

[gramirez2012]

I have two, Checking and a Savings. That's all I need.

 

[samiwas]

I have one checking account and one savings account with the same bank, one mutual fund, one personal retirement account, one retirement account through my union, three stocks, and one asset-managed account.

Still doesn't really make sense. You don't gain anything from the interest on the account, and you have to maintain a minimum usually, which means the money is just stuck there doing nothing.

You don't gain anything from leaving it in a checking account, either. At least the interest rate on a savings account is a little bit more than checking. And it keeps the accounts separate in case of any fraudulent activity (which has happened to me). It also keeps that money out-of-sight, out-of-mind. At least for me.

Much, much better to invest it, and if you need a cushion (which is definitely understandable) you may as well just leave it in your checking account, or something you can readily pull out.

Investing everything is not always the best strategy. I had a decent amount of money in investments. I don't watch them like a hawk because I'm just not the day-trader type. I let them sit and stew. Between March of 2008, and February of 2009, my stocks lost 73.5% of value, my mutual and managed funds lost 22.4% of value, and my retirement accounts lost 21.2% of value (none accounting for inflation, so the losses are actually a bit more technically. The stocks have still not regained the value they had in 2008, although they are getting close (but they are still WAAAAY down from where they were a decade ago). During the same period of time, my savings account? No loss.

Investing is not always the best. It depends on what risk level you want to take on.

I'm also still interested in the people who say "BUY APPLE!" You might get a fairly decent return, but the days of becoming fabulously wealthy off new investment in it are over, in my opinion. It's gone seven-fold in four years' time, and nearly 70-fold in a decade. But another seven fold would put the stock price at over 4000, which I just don't see happening. I wish I could go back to October of 2000 and sell my two big stocks and buy Apple...I'd be sitting on about $10m right now.

 

[Abstract]

I'm not "good" with money or anything myself, I just don't see how savings accounts are a good idea unless they are keeping up with inflation and the amount you have in there is for an emergency fund.

You're right, but I'm not good with money either. I don't know if it's worth investing in stocks at the moment, and I don't have enough money to invest in property where I live, since property is so incredibly expensive at the moment. Melbourne is one of the most expensive cities to live.

But if you have 5 accounts or whatever, why not just dump them all into one of the 5.5% accounts and make more money from the interest?

What?

I earn the same amount of interest, whether the savings is in 1 account, or 5 accounts.

$100 * 1.06 = ($20+$20+$20+$20+$10+$10) *1.06


When I get paid, around 35% of my take-home salary goes into one of my high-interest savings accounts. From that account, set amounts get transferred into the other 4 accounts.

I find it so much easier to save money this way, as opposed to just having all my money in a single savings account.

The accounts are free, and this bank encourages you to save for specific purposes by using separate accounts for each goal.

 

[iJohnHenry]

The accounts are free, and this bank encourages you to save for specific purposes by using separate accounts for each goal.

Finally, the beauty of electronic transfers, without the fees associated with teller-initiated ones.

Too bad most banks still insist on money for some services that are really computer-driven.

 

[ruvil]

1bank, 2 accounts(1 main acct for debit card etc and one savings).

 

[eric/]

You're right, but I'm not good with money either. I don't know if it's worth investing in stocks at the moment, and I don't have enough money to invest in property where I live, since property is so incredibly expensive at the moment. Melbourne is one of the most expensive cities to live.



What?

I earn the same amount of interest, whether the savings is in 1 account, or 5 accounts.

$100 * 1.06 = ($20+$20+$20+$20+$10+$10) *1.06


When I get paid, around 35% of my take-home salary goes into one of my high-interest savings accounts. From that account, set amounts get transferred into the other 4 accounts.

I find it so much easier to save money this way, as opposed to just having all my money in a single savings account.

The accounts are free, and this bank encourages you to save for specific purposes by using separate accounts for each goal.

100*1.06 = 106
106 * 1.06 = 112.36
112.36*1.06=119.10(16)

20*1.06= 21.2
21.2*1.06=22.47 (2)
22.47*1.06=23.81

23.81 (82)*5 = 119.05

I guess it depends, but from what I know the bank(s) generally round off the extra percents (the 2 and 82 in this case), and in turn you won't get as much.

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You don't gain anything from leaving it in a checking account, either. At least the interest rate on a savings account is a little bit more than checking. And it keeps the accounts separate in case of any fraudulent activity (which has happened to me). It also keeps that money out-of-sight, out-of-mind. At least for me.

As far as I can tell the only benefit if you don't have an inflation beating savings account is just so you don't spend it. That's up to personal preference, I suppose.

Investing everything is not always the best strategy. I had a decent amount of money in investments. I don't watch them like a hawk because I'm just not the day-trader type. I let them sit and stew. Between March of 2008, and February of 2009, my stocks lost 73.5% of value, my mutual and managed funds lost 22.4% of value, and my retirement accounts lost 21.2% of value (none accounting for inflation, so the losses are actually a bit more technically. The stocks have still not regained the value they had in 2008, although they are getting close (but they are still WAAAAY down from where they were a decade ago).

Yeah but considering what happened during that period, you just got caught in a bad time. The fact that the stocks are returning kinda goes to show that investing is a good option over the long term.

During the same period of time, my savings account? No loss.

Well you might have the same amount of cash in there, but if you didn't beat out inflation with your interest rate, you lost a bit of money every year basically for no reason.

Investing is not always the best. It depends on what risk level you want to take on.

Well, compared to letting it sit in your savings, I think it's definitely the best option.

 

[MorphingDragon]

I only have one bank account with -$1.5k in it.

Feels bad man.

• An enormous glass jar for the OBSCENE amount of change you get in my stupid $2-coin-having country

At least you got rid of pennies now.

 

[Surely]

Well, compared to letting it sit in your savings, I think it's definitely the best option.

Not always.

 

[senseless]

A stable dividend paying stock is worth accumulating on market declines. A decent utility or pharma company easily yields 3%.

 

[eric/]

Not always.

Well, in the sense that just about everything isn't 99% certain, sure. But just letting your money sit in an account getting eaten alive by inflation is not really a great idea.

You have to make your money work for you, and it's definitely hard to do.