To start the New Year off right, I just finished opening up a new online Barclay's Dream money market account. I already have a regular Barclay's money market, which I currently use for three purposes:
1. As a place to transfer money from my checking account when the balance there gets higher than I need (since I earn no interest on checking). Currently a regular Barclay's online money market earns .90%.
2. As my so-called emergency fund. It's basically liquid money. I don't dip into this too frequently, but when I have a big ticket purchase, I transfer money from here back to checking so I don't have to cash out any mutual funds. It's usually something I use for big home improvements, like my new roof.
3. My property taxes are due twice a year, and rather than let the money sit, earning no interest, in my checking account, I transfer $500 a month to my Barclay's account so the money is there when I need to pay the bill in January and July.
Now Barclay's has debuted its new "Dream" money market account (https://www.banking.barclaysus.com/dream-account.html),which gives you the following benefits above and beyond its regular money market:
1. Interest is .95%.
2. BONUS #1: You're supposed to use this account to save money for a specific purpose, whether it's for college, a car, house, retirement or whatever. Every time you make consecutive deposits for 6 months, they give you a 2.5% bonus on the total interest you earned over that time.
3. BONUS #2: Make no withdrawals for 6 consecutive months and earn another 2.5% bonus on the past six months of interest earned.
You can only contribute a maximum of $1,000 a month.
I figure I'm planning on saving anyway, to bulk up my emergency savings, so this will allow me to have a dedicated account for that; the other account will be solely for property taxes, making it easier for me to see where I stand with the segregated funds, plus I'll get a nice little bonus for doing so.
A nice bank money market deal for 2014
January 1st, 2014 at 02:49 pm
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