Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Adventures in Banking, Part Deux

After my little banking debacle the other day, you’d think I’d have learned my lesson. Alas, no.

Instead, I applied a little creative problem solving.

Problem: I want to move a little money into a CD. Because I’m a big risk-taker, that’s why. (Yes, that's sarcasm). Basically, it’s quasi-emergency cash and I’d rather earn the extra 1.5% on it in a CD than let it fester (and not grow) in my bare-bones "savings" account.

Issue #1: the "open account" website won’t let you choose a single CD to open. You must either choose more than 1 CD, or a CD + another account. I think this is a bug, but then, I’ve already explained it to customer service once and they haven’t changed anything.

Issue #2: I can accomplish what I want to do, if I go to the bank. During bankers hours. Which are not convenient.

Solution: In the list of account types on the website, there is a "holiday savings". Minimum opening balance: $5. If I select this holiday savings plus the CD, then I can open my CD. And a $5 savings account. No real loss there, just a slight shifting of money. And one of these days, I can actually go to the bank and close the extraneous account. Problem solved.

Why don’t I just go to the bank to open the CD without bothering with the $5 account? Impatience. I’ll be making that trip at some point either way, but now I’ve bought myself an extra couple of weeks of CD-growing-at-basic-interest-rate time. I’m sure those pennies will be worthwhile in the end :)

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