Saving with SmartyPig.Com

SmartyPig.com offers free a service that is extremely relevant in today's climate of economic uncertainty -- simple and automated savings. SmartyPig is part online bank and part social network, operating from a secure, attractive, and user-friendly website. To use the service, you create savings goals and automatically fund them with monthly deposits from your checking or savings account. When you meet your goal, you can redeem for a debit card, gift card, or a bank transfer back to your linked account.

You may be thinking that if you want to save, it's easy enough to just put away money in your savings account. That may be true, but I doubt that your savings account offers the incentives that SmartyPig does. There are a number of reasons why SmartyPig is as good or better than a savings account.

1. A competitive APY

As I am writing this review, the SmartyPig annual percentage yield is 3.90%. I have a number of savings accounts and this is the highest rate of all of them.

2. Retailer Incentives

Once you meet your goal, you can choose to "boost" your savings by redeeming through a number of retailers including amazon.com. This can stretch your savings by up to 6%.

3. The social factor

You can have friends and family contribute to your goals through your profile. This could be a great tool for teaching children how to save with their own SmartyPig account.

4. It's fun and personalized

SmartyPig periodically sends emails showing your progress. It's a simple gesture but it is encouraging. I enjoy seeing my goals and how far I have come in reaching them.

SmartyPig.com is more than just another savings account to me. It has made saving regularly a habit and it is helping me to break the habit of impulse buying on credit cards. Also, I am less tempted to pull my money out of my SmartyPig account than my savings account. Overall, I recommend this service to everyone. The founders of SmartyPig have taken a great idea and implemented it well.