We are switching from Serve to Capital One 360 online banking and wanted to let you know, in case you wanted to do the same.
When we started the 52 Week Saving Challenge a few years ago we decided that we wanted an online bank account that we could deposit the weekly funds into. When we wanted to use the funds that we had saved up we would use that online bank account’s debit card. For us, this worked like a charm. The money we save during the challenge we use for our holiday shopping (so it is like the old fashioned Christmas Club). Using a debit card to make purchases at stores and online keeps us on track with our spending and also allows us to make sure we are pulling the gift funds from the right account.
We’ve used Serve.com for years as the online bank account and were very happy with how easy it is to use. What we were not happy with is the $1 a month fee they started to charge.
A couple of months ago I was cleaning out my wallet and noticed I had a Capital One 360 debit card (NOT a credit card!!). I remembered signing up for the online bank account with what used to be ING Direct during a promotion where they matched an initial deposit. In fact we even told you guys about that matching offer so you may have an open account already! ING Direct was later later bought out or taken over and the name of the account changed to Capital One 360. When I found the card I decided to take a peek at the online account which still had my initial deposit there. Hooray for found money!
What I noticed immediately was that there was no monthly service fee. Even after years of not using the account at all, not making any deposits or withdrawals there was no fee. I called their customer service department so I could speak to someone to verify that even if I was to start to use the card there would be no fees. They assured me this is the case.
Since the online account at Capital One 360 works basically the same as the account at Serve.com that we were now paying $12 a year for the decision was obvious. We are going to be using Captal One 360 from now on and will be closing our Serve.com account.
We wanted to tell you about this discovery in case you wanted to do the same. You can sign up for a free Capital One 360 account here and link the account to one of your existing bank accounts. This makes it easy to log into Capital One 360 and make your weekly transfer (which is a deposit) for the 52 Week Saving Challenge. (The 52 Week Saving Challenge kicks off Friday 1/6/17 for us).
If you have any questions, please let us know. We would like to mention too that you can earn a $20 bonus from Capital One when you refer friends/family to sign up. (In full disclosure if you sign up using our link here, we’ll earn that $20).
