Multiple Savings Accounts

Bucks has an interesting piece up on banks (well, FNBO Direct and Ally Bank) moving in the direction of sites like Smartypig.com and making multiple savings accounts an easy (and prominent) option on their websites.

The meat of the change put forward by FNBO Direct is pretty simple actually, instead of requiring new, complete applications to be filled out:

FNBO Direct fills out most of the applications for them. The new feature is aimed at making it easier for customers to open multiple savings accounts, each of which customers can name for a specific savings goal and all of which customers can track online with the same user name and password. “These enhancements will make it easier to have multiple accounts for multiple goals” like a vacation, an emergency, a wedding and a house, said an FNBO Direct spokesman.

Reminds me of prepopulating tax forms and financial aid applications, ideas that have been around for years, with varied degrees of success. While it might not seem like much, these kind of small innovations can pave the way for greater insights into consumer preference and behavior, and can potentially serve to add net savings. In addition, if there’s a sense of competition growing between banks like Ally, FNBO Direct and online pro-savings sites like SmartyPig, so much the better for consumers. I think there’s a lot to be said at the basic, personal level for multiple savings accounts because it reinforces the notion that as savers, people have multiple needs that must be addressed. That’s one of the reasons we favor the Saver’s Bonus over other proposals, as a polity we need to incentive savings for multiple purposes, and current policy is so heavily geared toward retirement savings that people are left with no recourse in tough times but to take loans against those accounts, or deplete them.

The other note from the Bucks post that’s worth highlighting is this suggestion from the blogger Ramit Sethi, set up an account labeled “stupid mistakes,” because you’re going to make them. Amen to that.

Happy Fourth of July!