Multiple checking accounts

vanillabean · ‎04-25-2015

Why do you have them and how do you keep them active? I have had a bank account for the longest time and have in recent years opened three credit union accounts (one local as well as PSECU and DCU for the monthly scores). I distribute groups of cards among the checking accounts for monthly payments, as some require say three transactions to be fee-free.

The Long, Twisted History of Your Credit Score

Anonymous · ‎04-25-2015

I have two for budgeting purposes. My main account is essentially used just to pay bills out of since most of my everyday expenses go on a CC. The second account I direct $900 into out of each paycheck as my fixed monthly expenses are typically around $1800. I then move money out of the second account into the first when a bill is paid. I do this so I don't think of the bill money as funds I can spend on discretionary items. Bonus is twice a year you get three paychecks in a month so you get extra money to save or spend.

Hope that makes sense.

Gunnar419 · ‎04-25-2015

I have two checking accounts. One supports my local small town bank and also gives me quick walk in access to my money. The other is online and pays much higher interest.

It is definitely hard sometimes to maintain the minimum balance in the local account to avoid paying monthly service fees but the online account has no minimum balance so I don't need to worry about it much.

I pay bills from both to keep them active.

Anonymous · ‎04-26-2015

I did mostly what dcamp does for a number of years: I had a 'bills' account and a 'spending' account. I didn't trust myself with a debit card for the bills account. I didn't even carry the ATM card. I sent the amount necessary for our bills there and just the rest to the spending account (splittling direct deposits appropriately). I did that while I was building up CC debt at stupid interest rates. I finally got my act together at one point. I found YNAB, stopped using CCs for about a year and could ONLY use the money in the spending account and flip-flopped the way I split the direct deposits. I only sent what we could spend to spending and put everything else into bills, which I directed to paying down debt (I'd previously paid (something towards) the CCs from the spending account.

Fast forward 5 or 6 years and we use PIF CCs for everything possible. We have no CCs charging interest (a large chunk of a kitchen reno on a few 0% cards) and just one checking.

We've applied for a HELOC to consolidate a few things and with it will likely come a checking account at a new bank (all banking now at a local CU) and I've been thinking about how I'll use this account. If I'll JUST send enough to cover what I want to pay towards HELOC there, or if I'll use it as a way to do something else. I'm certain that I'll do something to complicate things unneccesarily. lol.

vanillabean · ‎04-27-2015

@Anonymous wrote:

Bonus is twice a year you get three paychecks in a month so you get extra money to save or spend.

That is a nice bonus. Sometimes I think the biweekly paycheck flow is the reason I distribute the statement dates of my credit cards across the month, so there’s always one card's due date to fall right after a paycheck. It’s about maximizing the cards for rewards vs keeping the highest minimum balance in the checking account, and you do need extra cushion to maintain a minimum balance for multiple checking accounts, which is one way the semiannual bonus could come in handy.

The Long, Twisted History of Your Credit Score

Anonymous · ‎04-27-2015

Currently, three checking accounts, utilized for/as follows:

Discover Bank = cash rewards for checks and billpay (um, score!)

Schwab Bank = atm reimbursement for cash (which I seldom use, so this account continues to grow)

Grow Financial = for tax purposes (don't want uncle sam dipping in my real stash, lol)

Thank goodness you didn't ask about savings... I'd need to add a page...LMAO!

MarineVietVet · ‎04-27-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Currently, three checking accounts, utilized for/as follows:

Discover Bank = cash rewards for checks and billpay (um, score!)
Schwab Bank = atm reimbursement for cash (which I seldom use, so this account continues to grow)
Grow Financial = for tax purposes (don't want uncle sam dipping in my real stash, lol)

Thank goodness you didn't ask about savings... I'd need to add a page...LMAO!

And you post that on a public forum?

Anonymous · ‎04-27-2015

How does this account shield you from taxes out of curiousity? Is it Grow Financial CU?

DaveInAZ · ‎04-27-2015

@MarineVietVet wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Currently, three checking accounts, utilized for/as follows:

Discover Bank = cash rewards for checks and billpay (um, score!)
Schwab Bank = atm reimbursement for cash (which I seldom use, so this account continues to grow)
Grow Financial = for tax purposes (don't want uncle sam dipping in my real stash, lol)

Thank goodness you didn't ask about savings... I'd need to add a page...LMAO!
And you post that on a public forum?

I'm thinking they forgot to use the /scarcasm tag? A Federal CU is not going to hide your 'stash' from the feds, you need to go offshore for that. I don't think it's worth a trip to the Cayman Islands to stash my $100 in savings, altho I hear the fishing is nice .....

Anonymous · ‎04-27-2015

As there is no legal way to keep anything from him.

Perhaps I should have clarified.... The account is solely to house (and earn a little interest on) the taxes due in the impending season. For some reason, I can never just break even..lol.

Since it's often third-party vendors, such as H&R Block or TurboTax that is processing the payment via ACH, I choose to keep things separate. Simply a preference.. not an evil plot *promise*

Didn't mean to alarm anyone!

Curious now though, what is a sarcasm tag?

@DaveInAZ wrote:
@MarineVietVet wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Currently, three checking accounts, utilized for/as follows:

Discover Bank = cash rewards for checks and billpay (um, score!)
Schwab Bank = atm reimbursement for cash (which I seldom use, so this account continues to grow)
Grow Financial = for tax purposes (don't want uncle sam dipping in my real stash, lol)

Thank goodness you didn't ask about savings... I'd need to add a page...LMAO!
And you post that on a public forum?
I'm thinking they forgot to use the /scarcasm tag? A Federal CU is not going to hide your 'stash' from the feds, you need to go offshore for that. I don't think it's worth a trip to the Cayman Islands to stash my $100 in savings, altho I hear the fishing is nice .....