TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Feb 11, 2011 18:01:11 GMT -5
I put any excess in to my EF Savings fund. I can transfer it online if need be and it is there instantly.
I keep a spreadsheet of all my accounts and use my debit card for most expenses. That is why I insist on receipts for every purchase I make.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2011 18:46:05 GMT -5
I don't keep a cushion at all. Pretty much all of my $$$ except groceries and $100 spending is allocated at the beginning of the month. I pretty much get paid the same 12 months of the year. I earn a little extra here and there by giving standardized tests, but that's a separate check. The Saturday Schools are so regular that they seem like a part of my regular check (which is where they show up).
I take my allocations very seriously, though. I have several online savings subaccounts so I am saving for several little things that the rest of you would never save for. I put $25 a month, for example, in an account named for my dog. It's her "health insurance," but it's reserved in case I ever have to make a major decision costing a lot of $$$. We don't use it for ordinary stuff.
Whatever system works is good. I have been divorced about 12 years. We overdrew every once in awhile while married . . . the danger of two people writing checks out of the same account without a large cushion. I have never overdrawn since. I check my account every couple of days to make certain I haven't missed anything.
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Post by lisaa on Feb 11, 2011 19:47:39 GMT -5
Oh, come on. Don't keep us in suspense. Do tell.
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schildi
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3718 and no text
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Post by schildi on Feb 11, 2011 20:28:13 GMT -5
Oh, come on. Don't keep us in suspense. Do tell. There is no secret here at all. It is one of those checking accounts where you make like 12 debit card transactions per month, they will pay 3% and reimburse any ATM fees. Try this link, there may be an offer in your area as well: www.checkingfinder.com/
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formerexpat
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Post by formerexpat on Feb 11, 2011 20:44:56 GMT -5
$50 - $100 in my checking.
I don't have unexpected expenses hit my checking account.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2011 20:59:56 GMT -5
Luckely, I'm able to keep a full paycheck in my account!
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lurkyloo
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“Time means nothing now,” said Toad. “It is just the thing that happens between snacks.”
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Post by lurkyloo on Feb 11, 2011 21:20:45 GMT -5
Way too much! I have just over 20K in my checking; DH has something like 140K in his (in our defense, we do have an upcoming 28K expense, we hope--and his credit union gives better rates for balances in excess of 50K. On the other hand, mine is after I just threw 6K at the mortgage principal...um, I'm planning a Roth contribution soon?) ...yeah, ok, I need to talk to him about setting up a taxable investments account.
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DVM gone riding
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Post by DVM gone riding on Feb 11, 2011 21:21:32 GMT -5
I try to plan so by the time all bills are paid-about the 20th of most months-there is a 300-800 cushion. I transfer back and forth to savings to try and maintain this. I only get paid once a month though. I think if I got paid twice a month I would do it a little different
On CHASE: I was told it had to be a DAILY min of 1500 not an AVERAGE bal of 1500 sbcalimom was that not what you were told?? Either way I am to angry at them to keep the account and despite the huge hasale of untangling on-line accts I am doing it now and don't intend to stop.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2011 22:08:53 GMT -5
Please keep a generous cushion in your checking account. At today's rates of return, one can leave as much as an extra thousand dollars while sacrificing no more than $10.00 annually. Meanwhile, a single refused transaction can cost close to $100.00 today and savage one's reputation as well. I am speaking as a former teller. Bounced check charges kill.I have been banking for 40+ years now, and i have never bounced a check... no need for me to keep a "generous cushion"! I know of no reason why a transaction of mine would be refused, either...
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Post by tiptap on Feb 11, 2011 22:15:37 GMT -5
..between $4k-$6k. anything over that it gets transfered to MM account.
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TheOtherMe
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Post by TheOtherMe on Feb 11, 2011 22:21:46 GMT -5
In general, the only check I write is for my mortgage. I pay everything else online. I use the PIN with my debit cards and opted out of having any transaction approved that would put me in to an overdraft position. There will be no surprises. I know what is out there.
Only way there will be a surprise will be if somebody gets my debit card somehow.
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formerexpat
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Post by formerexpat on Feb 11, 2011 22:23:23 GMT -5
Banks don't charge people who make occasional mistakes. They do charge the habitual offenders though.
I've made a couple of those dumb mistakes and have never been charged an NSF fee.
Then again, the term bounced check is so last century. [/size]
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Feb 12, 2011 0:46:24 GMT -5
Banks don't make money off of me due to bounced check charges. The one and only time it happened, it was so painful that that lesson was sufficient to never do it again.
Right now, my account has a cushion of about $1500 in it. I get paid once/month, at the beginning and all bills get paid when my paycheck hits the account. The $1500 makes it so all of my regularly occuring bills can be paid by my bank at the time my check hits.
However, this past month I had an anomoly. I am off work for the next couple months to recover from surgery. I dropped 2 rent checks off at my management office before I left, rent for Feb. and rent for Mar. Unfortunately BOTH rent checks got deposited. The apartment management was kind enough to call my cell phone and tell me this, 12 hours out of surgery. Fortunately, I was able to transfer money over to make sure that there'd be no issues with this goof up.
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shandi76
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Post by shandi76 on Feb 12, 2011 8:39:35 GMT -5
I used to keep one month's pay as a cushion, but it has been building up and I currently have about £4,500 ($7,200 at the current exchange rate) which is a little over 2 months take home.
I have a couple of big household expenses coming up soon and savings accounts pay so little unless you don't make any withdrawals for a year, so I haven't had any motivation to move it.
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xia
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Post by xia on Feb 12, 2011 8:48:21 GMT -5
about $500
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Post by hawkeyes2001 on Feb 12, 2011 11:27:12 GMT -5
I try not to let the balance dip below $900-1,000.
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motherto2
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Post by motherto2 on Feb 16, 2011 14:04:26 GMT -5
Let me just say, I'm proud of all of you for knowing how much your cushion is! I have absolutely no idea how much mine is, but I do have at least $1k. When it's a few days from payday (every 2 weeks for me) I enter my pay in the register (I'm old school and like to be able to carry it with me instead of on an electronic spreadsheet). I then deduct everything in the register that will be paid that payday. That way I know that everything is accounted for (no surprises for the usual monthly bills). Then I have an amount that is left to do something with. Currently working on paying down my mortgage with the extra each paycheck. So although my register says $0, I usually have around 3-4K in it according to the online banking system, but doesn't take into account that even though the money is earmarked, it hasn't physically left the account yet. I used to be able to let the account settle down when I'd go on vacation or somewhere where I wasn't writing checks but now that I do everything online, it never really settles down. Oh well, I still won't bounce anything, and that is the most important thing. And don't hate on me - I don't ever balance it.
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The J
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Post by The J on Feb 16, 2011 14:23:35 GMT -5
Varies, but usually around $1k.
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mak
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Post by mak on Feb 16, 2011 16:47:13 GMT -5
$2800-3400 or so. This way I can pay bills as they come in and not have to worry if it is the day before or the day after payday.
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atlast30
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Post by atlast30 on Feb 16, 2011 19:50:01 GMT -5
$500
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greenstone
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Post by greenstone on Feb 17, 2011 20:31:25 GMT -5
My checking cushion is $300. I used to let all extra monies build up until I occasionally swept it to long-term savings but have slowly been stepping down the cushion to it's present level. My checking is linked to a savings account so I can transfer $ instantaneously. I keep all the bill paying money in savings till I send the payment then transfer it to checking. Savings pays a small interest rate and checking none, so in today's climate it doesn't really pay to keep the money in savings for part of the month but I figure it's a good habit to keep.
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formerexpat
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Post by formerexpat on Feb 17, 2011 21:00:11 GMT -5
Well, I can say definitively that Wachovia, Bank of America and a small local Philadelphia bank that you have no relationship with will reimburse the NSF fee. I have used all at one time or another as pass through accounts to deposit checks I get or write physical checks from on the rare occasion I need to do so and have made dumb mistakes in the past for each.
Each of these accounts normally have about $1 to $3 in them. I closed the Wachovia account a couple years ago when they were beginning to charge a monthly account fee.
I too was a former teller. I regularly reversed NSF fees for non-habitual offenders. I'm not sure which software you used , but I'm sure you too could do a simple query on an account to see the 24 month NSF's for an account. This was usually the query I'd run on an account when assessing whether or not to reverse a NSF fee. In fact, I'd print the history out and include it on the NSF reversal for support. [/size]
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daisylu
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Post by daisylu on Feb 18, 2011 7:25:27 GMT -5
I only keep about $500 extra in checking, but we also have a savings account at the same CU with 6 months expenses in it. So it only takes a few clicks of a mouse, or a finger on the cell, for an instant transfer.
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steph08
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Post by steph08 on Feb 18, 2011 8:42:54 GMT -5
Am I the only person who doesn't keep a large cushion? My cushion is $30 because years ago, someone did not cash a check and I never added the money back in. Other than that, I balance my checkbook to the penny and use credit cards for purchases, which I pay off every month, so I can get the rewards points. *shrug*
My checking account doesn't earn any interest so I don't feel like keeping any extra money in there.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2011 11:23:17 GMT -5
I've always kept mine pretty lean; they pay zero interest, so why keep any more than necessary? I just opened an account at BankDirect, though, that pays half a percent interest plus American Airlines miles. You get 100 miles per month for every $1,000 average balance. I'm moving all my money funds from Schwab into this account. That will be around $20K.
I can't remember the last time I've paid an NSF fee to my bank. It just isn't that hard for me to keep track of what I have in the account. I think it would be much harder to do that when you have 2 people with debit/ATM cards on the same account.
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RoadToRiches
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Post by RoadToRiches on Feb 18, 2011 13:06:08 GMT -5
Gessh.. some big numbers flowing around Me, I only keep about 150 per pay, so 300 a month. I have everything budgeted and have small ING account for my emergency fund. I am in a middle of debt snowball, so I have every expense budgeted for and accounted for. Pretty much always, I transfer whatever is extra to ING account.
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Taxman10
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Post by Taxman10 on Feb 18, 2011 15:31:18 GMT -5
I have an unaccounted for $400 in my account, so that's my cushion. I must have made a drunk deposit or something, because I don't know where it came from and it's been a long time. a drunk deposit! that must be nice -- usually i'm missing a couple hundred bucks after a night of drinking....and I have ATM reciepts for "suzie's gentlemen's club" at least I was a gentleman
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2011 17:30:22 GMT -5
Extra money? What's that?? Seriously, I don't keep any extra money in my checking account. The checking account that I use the most is one where I can spend every penny and be ok. So I usually do.
My other checking account is strictly for paying my household bills, so that's the only money that's ever in there, no cushion.
ETA: there's no way I could have hundreds or thousands of dollars sitting in my checking account and not spend it. I'm just not that disciplined unfortunately. Any 'extra' money immediately gets moved to a savings account; I mostly pretend my savings accounts don't exist.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2011 22:12:22 GMT -5
tough, I don't understand what you mean about it only costing about $10 to keep an extra thousand in my checking account. If I have an extra $1k in my checking account, I won't have it long, because I'll spend it. I'm better off immediately moving 'extra money' to my savings account(s) so it will be out of sight, out of mind.......... and won't get spent. Did I mention I have a discipline problem?
If I really need it, I have to either physically go withdraw it from savings or transfer it from my other savings account online and wait a couple of days for the transfer to be completed.
Maybe I misunderstood what you meant?
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Peace77
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Post by Peace77 on Feb 18, 2011 22:59:14 GMT -5
It's not only you that can make an error. The bank can make an error on your account too. Just recently heard about an error was a deposit was put into the wrong account. Fortunately, the owner of the wrong account noticed and pointed it out to the bank.
My checking account pays 6% interest up to $500 so I keep at least $500 in it at all times. If that isn't enough, it will automatically withdraw from savings if needed.
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