Comments on: SmartyPig Interest Rate One of the Highest in Online Banking

By: The Switch: From Paying Interest to Earning It

The Switch: From Paying Interest to Earning It — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:02:26 +0000

[...] I tried to soak up as much about saving and investing as possible. I scoured the Internet for the best saving rates, learned all I could about CD rates and bonds and stocks, and moved my tiny savings pile from bank [...]

By: Daniel

Daniel — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 12:59:41 +0000

I have a SmartPig account and love it. The savings goals are nice because I can automatically save and see if add up until I reach my goal.

The social aspect seems silly to me. I don’t think now is the best time to be asking friends for money to help me reach my goals. Nor do I want my goals to be public.

I also don’t like that once I reach my goal, I must either start a new goal or adjust my goal in order to keep saving. Once a goal is reached, automatic savings stops.

Still, these two issues are minor and I absolutely love the 2.15% interest rate. That’s significantly higher than anything else I’ve seen around.

By: Russ T

Russ T — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:41:42 +0000

I have been usind SmartyPig to fund two zero percent interest loans I have. We got zero percent interest for 24 months on one account and I am just putting enough in the account every month to pay it off in 22 months. Collecting the interest I would be losing by sending in the payment. I swear by SmartyPig. We all would like to have more than 2.15%, but now a days, it is better than nothing. Going to start saving for another emergency fund for me and the wife.

By: Bobbi

Bobbi — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:31:35 +0000

I have used Smarty Pig several times. I saved my emergency fund and am working on a Christmas fund right now. I save for Christmas last year this way also, it was great. I just transfer the money back to my checking or savings account when I have reached goal. I think you can just leave it there also though so you can still make the interest on the account. Not sure about that though, will have to check it out.

By: Budgeting in the Fun Stuff

Budgeting in the Fun Stuff — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:26:44 +0000

We use Smarty Pig for our emergency fund and our tax account since both of those are normally not touched. We’ve been happy customers so far since February of this year. Michael’s comments actually pretty much hit the nail on the head for what I was going to say.

By: Jenna

Jenna — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:24:08 +0000

Thank for posting this information Art (and for the blog post as a whole Frugal Dad). Definitely interested in using Smart Piggy for gift cards – great presents if you can bump up the end amount! Would be a good idea for group presents if everyone chipped in. Will need to check it out now.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:59:32 +0000

I’ve been using smarty pig now for a few weeks. I like being able to setup several sub-accounts savings goals (i.e. ‘car replacement’, ‘gift giving’, ‘vacation’) and having the flexibility for auto-deposits into each on different schedules (once a month, twice a month, every 2 weeks, etc). I did run into one small speed bump with the limitation of 6 transactions from my credit union savings account. But if I use the checking account there isn’t any limitation. The interest is only posted once every quarter. One thing you have to work around is that in order to withdraw the money from smartypig, you have to stop your savings goal. So when I want to use my ‘vacation’ savings, I’ll have to stop that goal, withdraw what I need (and if I don’t need it all, I’ll have to transfer what isn’t needed to another goal first), and then setup another vacation savings goal. Also, if you hit your goal (i.e. if your ‘vacation’ savings goal is $1000 and the account hits $1000) – it will stop depositing money into that account, so you’d want to make sure you set the bar high enough so it doesn’t stop the auto-deposits unexpectedly. All in all, for me it’s still worth the little things to work around get the higher rate. They are also pretty new so I’m sure new features are still being developed.

By: Will Blog for Shoes

Will Blog for Shoes — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:30:06 +0000

I’m intrigued by Smarty Pig. Sounds great!

By: Art

Art — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:18:52 +0000

Just remember that the gift cards are fixed dollar amounts. So, for Itunes the smallest gift card is $10 or $15 I believe. The smallest Amazon card you can select is $25. In my case, I selected the $500 in gift cards and the interest and bonus was sent back to my Orange Checking.

By: Frugal Dad

Frugal Dad — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:49:41 +0000

Thanks for clarifying the bonus features, Art. I’ve seen the mention of Amazon and iTunes specifically in advertisements, but did not understand how the rewards bonuses were earned.

My daughter is an iTunes regular; perhaps I can encourage her to save a bit here to earn a boost on her savings. It wouldn’t take much to earn another song or two, and she’s already saving the money to convert to offline iTunes gift cards.