Have some fun with my money

[Wrigley2172]

Howdy all, wanted to get some advice on how to make the most of my money at the moment in terms of savings and my credit cards:

I have $820 in my Chase college checking account at the moment and I am looking to open a savings account. My first thought is go with Chase because I can easily transfer money back an forth as well as set up auto deposit to avoid matainence fees. However I would also like to earn some interest if possible. I am unsure if Chase is the best for that in my current situation however I don't know for sure. I also have around $400 including the annual fee to pay off from my AMEX BCP but the card is brand new so I have 0% on purchases until June of 2020. My paychecks for 2 weeks will be around $200 give or take $20 or so direct deposit into my checking.

So MyFico'rs what would your course of action be in my situation? How much should I pay AMEX? How much should I put into a savings? ECT.  Any and all help is very much appreciated and my DP's are as follows

$820 in checking

Disco card 0/4000

AMEX ~400/2000 with 0% purchases until 06/20. All spend going here to meet 1k sub

[Anonymous]

As long as you're making above minimum payments to Amex, I would worry about paying it off right away (just try to keep util under 30%).
As for savings, online savings accts will get you the best interest. I really like Ally for online savings. They don't have the highest rate out there at 2.20 APY, but they're pretty easy to deal with. DCU is another good one, paying 5% APY on the first $1000. They just aren't competitive after that first $1000. I'm sure others will chime in on this as well.

[Anonymous]

I feel like having savings somewhere that you can easily transfer $ back and forth negates the point of having savings. I prefer a separate bank and to only park amounts there that I know I won't need (but are accessible in case of extreme emergencies.)

I saved the most money I've ever saved in my life by setting 25% of my direct deposit to a savings account at a separate bank that had no ATM card or online banking.  Mind you that was before online banking was really a thing, but you could still create that separation in today's times by using a different institution.

As far as interest goes, given what you'll be starting out with, I'd look into some of the online banks/credit unions that offer a high % on the first $1000 or whatever. DCU for instance will pay you 6.17% on balances up to $1000.

When you hit that $1000, you could almost just quit using that account and let it sit and find a similar deal elsewhere and repeat the cycle.

[Wrigley2172]

Thanks to both of you for the responses. I didnt realise i could seperate my direct deposit to another account so the back an forth was mostly for depositing into the savings not taking out of. I will definitly look into the online accounts. Working part time in college is a drag haha so much easier to spend money than save

[Anonymous]

"Have some fun with my money"

Very misleading title. Thought you were giving me $20 in quarters for the arcade.

Just be careful with that 0% APR intro. If you keep making purchases on it and only making small payments, you may find yourself with a sizeable balance at the end of the 0%.
With only about ~$800/month income, it is very easy to allow that balance to get out of hand. I'd recommend treating that BCP more like a debit card and pay the entire balance off every week to stay on top of it.

Since you have $400 on it now, I'd budget out paying $25/paycheck towards that. Would take you 8 months at that rate, which should be a comfortable amount.

[Anonymous]

Idk about how much to pay debt and when but savings I like Marcus, I think I am going to open one and close wf and keep most dough in marcus and churn wf as many years as I can.  Why?  Because they would do the same to me haha.

[Wrigley2172]

Thanks rebuilt i will certainly be careful not to let it get out of hand. My minimum payment is actually 35 dollars haha so im already ahead in your thinking😝
I was planning on paying atleast $100 a statement if not just saying screw the 0% and paying the statements as if it were a normal card and not brand new