Monday, February 21, 2011

Keeping Up With Multiple Bank Accounts

I'm kind of crazy about "free" money. Really. Whenever I get those flyers in the mail to receive bonus cash for opening an account, I get super pumped. If you remember, I even wrote a post about Chase's offers. Needless to say, when I saw a "bonus $100" for opening an account at select branches of Union Bank earlier this month, it was hard to resist. Of course, I was careful about reading the small prints to see whether I'm actually qualified and capable of not being penalized. So this past Saturday, I braved the rain and made the 20 minute drive a couple of cities over to open an account.

Up until last September, besides a 12 month CD with Citi, I banked exclusively with Bank of America. Now that I'm accumulating these accounts, I think it's time start getting more organized. I don't think it's reasonable for me to just rely on memory anymore.

Since my situation's not complicated enough and I've been pretty diligent about checking, I'm only going to set up calendar alerts for now. I've marked when each account reaches time period that it's required to stay open. My calendar also shows billing cycle and statement due date for each. For the accounts that need a certain number of debit card transactions per month, I keep a tally.

If all of the information becomes hard to manage, I might consider using an excel spreadsheet or online personal finance managing websites. Making a spreadsheet is simple; you may even be able to download them online. But if that's too time consuming still, websites like Mint.com consolidates accounts and allows you to keep organized as well as budget using one single interface. I've never used it before, but I’ve heard/read many good things. There are also similar websites like Quicken and Wesabe.com, so pick and choose whichever one you feel most comfortable with.

How do you organize your accounts? Have you used Mint.com? If so, what do you think of it?

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