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UPDATE! Scotiabank "Bank The Rest"

This is an update for this blog post. It's important enough to warrant it's own post.

UPDATE! SCOTIABANK "BANK THE REST" PROGRAM:

I left the last blogpost with 2 things I wanted to ask the nice people at 1-800-4Scotia, which, as I thought about it, became three things. They are:

1)Are there any fees associated with the account?
2) Will this program push me onto overdraft? Furthur into overdraft?

and the new one:
3) What kind of interest will my savings earn?

Here's the low-down:

1)Fees

There do not appear to be any fees associated with enrolling in the "Bank The Rest Program". However, fees are associated with the accounts that you have with Scotiabank. You need at least 2 accounts with Scotiabank to be able to participate in their Bank The Rest program: a chequing account linked to your debit card for your usual transactions, and a money master savings account for the Bank The Rest savings. More on that in a second.

I enquired about student banking packages. They have a specific account for students under the age of 19, the “Getting There” package. According to the person I spoke to, this account has no fees and 20 free transactions a month. If you exceed 20 transactions, however, it’s 0.55$ a transaction thereafter.

I told them I was thinking of switching from my bank into the Bank The Rest program, but was over the age of 19. I currently have a free student banking program at my current bank. For students over the age of 19, there is no free package; there is however the “Student Banking Advantage” package, but that costs 1.25$ per month (though it is free if you keep 2000$ in your account, but if I had 2000$, I probably wouldn’t keep it there…).

So while there don't seem to be any fees associated with the program proper, there may be fees associated with the accounts required in order for it to function. Always ask!

The Scotiabank account selector reality check will give help you figure out which Scotiabank products are marketed towards your situation (Mine returned an account that has a monthly fee of 9.99$. No thanks.) You can find it here.

2) Overdraft

Bank the rest will not work if your account is currently in overdraft. It was a little bit unclear whether or not the program could actually send you into overdraft inadvertently, though the FAQ states implicitly ``Bank The Rest transfers will not be processed if the transfer will place your account into overdraft or put it further into overdraft, even if there is overdraft protection available.``

As always, ask!

3) Interest on Savings

Here’s the deal breaker.

The money market savings account, where all your “Bank The Rest” money is deposited, earns 2.25% (rate current as of May 22nd 2008) PER YEAR.

NOT 2.25% PER MONTH.

2.25% PER YEAR!

It may not even keep up with inflation at this rate!

It`s paid out (ie: compounded) monthly, but you will still only make 2.25% after one full year. In this sense, it`s like a GIC, except you have access to your money.

That`s a deal breaker. I am certainly not going to let my account compound at a piddling 0.1875% per month, certainly not if there are fees attached to it (as a student over 19, I would have to pay 1.25$ a month for my accounts).

FINAL VERDICT

I think if you are serious about saving, there are more economically advantageous ways of doing so. For some time, I had automatic withdrawls into a truly high interest savings account (which is no longer really all that high interest) from my free chequing account at my current bank.

I think if you're already a Scotiabank client, and the appeal of thoughtless automatic savings every time you spend is the most attractive option for you, by all means, get more information.

For me though, it's not enough for me to switch from my current bank.

Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room?

Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room was playing Sunday night (er...technically Monday morning...)on CBC's The Passionate Eye.

Chilling, no?

Unfortunately I tuned in about half-way (I only came in right around that whole California electricity fiasco) so alot of the accounting fraud was over my head.

What was incredibly clear however was the lack of integrity by all parties, on all accounts. As one gentleman put it at the end of the film, in a company who's motto was "Ask Why?" it appeared that nobody did.

I have decided, then, that when the time comes for me to review a book about the importance of critical thinking (as voted by you guys), the first book will be Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room.

On a personal note, this is exactly the kind of thing that inspired me to found Bridging the Gaap. The discipline of Finance has so much good to offer the world, when properly applied.

Scotiabank "Bank The Rest" Program

Scotiabank had a really neat commercial running for their "Bank the Rest" program today:

(Don't get me started on the whole "spenders vs savers" duality...like we have to choose one or the other...)

It looked interesting, so I looked it up online at banktherest.com. It's a pretty cool website, they explain how the program works and they have a great intereative demo where you can make pretend purchases and see how much you would save with the program.

I chose to pretend I was rounding everything up to the next 5 dollars, cause I'm hardcore like that. I also pretended to make purchases of lunch 5 times a week, gas once a week, and a game once a month.

It all adds up. It's 75$ in savings for the lunch (saving 3.75$ every day for five days for a month), 10.08$ for the gas every month, and 3.85$for the game.

For someone who is not inclined to save, this may be a relatively painless way of doing so, especially if you make lots of small regular purchases.

Even though I rarely use my debit card, something like this might get me to switch: it seems like it would be a painless way to start setting up an emergency fund!

There are still some questions I would like to have answered before I think about switching to this debit card:

1) Are there any fees associated with opening this account, or the high interest savings account that works in conjunction with your debit card?
2) How easy is it to go into overdraft? For example, lets say you have signed up to round everything to the next 5.00$, you have 12$ in your account and make a purchase for 10$. Will the bank still round you up to 15.00$ worth of purchases, or will the system be inteligent enough to stop if you are in danger of going into overdraft?

Well, the FAQ answers these questions (no fees for the program, nor will it send you into overdraft or furthur overdraft), but I'm still going to call and go in to get my answers, just to be certain.

If you're interested you can call 1-800-4SCOTIA (1-800-472-6842)!

It's currently 6:00pm on a Friday here, so I won't be able to call or go to the bank until later to ask, but rest assured, I'll update this post when I do!

Here's what I have learned from this today:

You can be a spender if you're a saver, but you can't be a saver if you're a spender (unless of course you find some way to save as you spend...)!

Save Early Save Often...

Yesterday night I broke the BTG site as I was trying to update it, and some data was lost (by the time you read this though it will have been recovered). I fixed it, but that was four hours or so I'll never get back.

Here is what I have learned form this experience:

1) Never work with ugly code.
2) Adobe GoLive help files are actively unhelpful.
3) Save Early, Save Often.

Off I go to triple backup the site's files!

Response to Play Money by Julian Dibbell on BTG.net

Play Money by Julian Dibbell

Here you can leave a comment on BridgingtheGaap.net's review of Play Money by Julian Dibbell (click to read the full review).

Some questions:
Did you find the review useful?
Did you find the book useful?
What do you think of the book?
Would you recommend this book to others? Why/why not?

Respond to A Million Bucks by 30 by Alan Corey on BTG.net

A Million Bucks by 30 by Alan Corey

Here you can leave a comment on BridgingtheGaap.net's review of A Million Bucks by 30 by Alan Corey (click to read the full review).

Some questions:
Did you find the review useful?
Did you find the book useful?
What do you think of the book?
Would you recommend this book to others? Why/why not?