Help - Search - Members - Calendar
Full Version: Bank of America - Keep the Change
bargainshare.com > Home and Finance Deals > Finance and Travel
HarleyD
What do ya'll think about this?

http://www.bankofamerica.com/promos/jump/k...2072g350000c329

Every time you buy something with a Bank of America Visa® debit card1, we'll round up your purchase to the nearest dollar amount and transfer the difference from your checking to your savings account2 free of charge. Because every bag of groceries, every coffee and every tank of gas adds up to more savings for you.

So you get to keep the change and grow your savings. What could be easier?

We'll even match your savings.
For the first three months, we'll match your Keep the Change™ savings at 100%. That means for every Keep the Change transfer, we'll contribute the same amount to your Bank of America savings account. And when the three months are over, to make it even easier to save, we'll continue matching 5% a year, every year3.

QUOTE
Keep the Change Terms

1Keep the Change is available only on Visa® debit cards linked to a Bank of America checking account.

2When you enroll in our Keep the Change savings service, we round up the amount of any Visa® debit card purchase made by you or a joint owner of your checking account to the next whole dollar amount, and transfer the amount in excess of the purchase price to your savings account.

We aggregate the round up from purchases that post to your checking account each business day and make a single transfer (the "Keep the Change" transfer) at the end of the business day. If on a business day you do not have sufficient available funds in your checking account, or if any transaction has overdrawn your checking account, we do not round up purchases posted on that business day and we cancel the Keep the Change transfer for that day.

If your Visa debit card purchase is subsequently cancelled or reversed, the corresponding Keep the Change transfer will remain in the savings account. We may cancel the Keep the Change service at any time. 

3Keep the Change Matching Promotion

We match 100% of the amount of your Keep the Change transfers during the first three months after you enroll, and we will match 5% thereafter.

The matching funds will be credited to your savings account annually, within 8 weeks after the month in which the anniversary of your enrollment in the Keep the Change savings service occurs. To receive the matching funds, your checking and savings accounts must be open and in good standing and you must still be enrolled in the Keep the Change savings service at the time the matching funds are credited. Purchases with co-branded or rewards Visa debit cards are not eligible for matching.

Earn a promotional match up to $250 per anniversary period for each checking account with the Keep the Change savings service. You will not receive the matching funds for: a) credits or other adjustments related to POS purchases, such as those for purchases that are cancelled or returned; cool.gif purchases of cash-like items, such as money orders, traveler’s checks, foreign currency, cashier’s checks, gaming chips, and other similar instruments and things of value; c) Account funding transactions including transfers to open or fund deposit, escrow, or brokerage accounts and purchases of stored value cards. We may terminate the matching promotion at any time without notice.

Savings accounts eligible to receive matching funds include Regular Savings, which requires a minimum opening balance of $100 and pays a variable Annual Percentage Yield that was 0.50% as of 9/23/05. This rate may change before the account is opened. Fees could reduce earnings.

The promotional matching funds will be reported to the IRS on Form 1099.

Keep the Change is not available in Washington or Idaho.

Keep the Change™ patent pending.
garsh
Sounds ripe for abuse. twisted.gif
  • Create a paypal account and register this card.
  • "Purchase" some items on ebay being offered for $0.01 with free shipping.
  • Profit!
It sounds like you might be limited to a single purchase each day though. Can someone decipher this? I'm trying to figure out if they add up all the purchases before figuring out the KTC, or if they simply add together all the separate KTC amounts and do a single transfer:
QUOTE
We aggregate the round up from purchases that post to your checking account each business day and make a single transfer (the "Keep the Change" transfer) at the end of the business day.
NARC
Sounds like they take the sum of the day's purchases, then round up after that.

Still, make one $0.01 purchase a day and you can get close to $90 after the end of three months.
mykoleary
QUOTE(BOFA)
Keep the Change is not available in Washington or Idaho.

bang.gif bang.gif bang.gif bang.gif bang.gif
HarleyD
I got the email last night that I was enrolled.
This morning I noticed this in my account:
KEEP THE CHANGE TRANSFER TO ACCT xxxx FOR 11/09/05 $1.84

I had 3 transactions post yesterday:
$10.87 $21.18 $55.11

Round up the cents: .13 + .82 + .89 = 1.84

So it is per transaction. banana.gif
Nack
Pictures B$ members buying their gas "pay at the pump" 10-cents at a time. biggrin.gif --->

UPDATE: I read the fine print. $250/year cap. Still a free $250 during the first 3 months for those who do it right. wink.gif
garsh
QUOTE(Nack @ 11-10-05, 1:30pm)
Pictures B$ members buying their gas "pay at the pump" 10-cents at a time.  biggrin.gif --->

WHAT?????

And miss out on the additional 9 cents per transaction? tongue.gif
BeckyAndKristinsMa
QUOTE(garsh @ 11-8-05, 7:42am)
Sounds ripe for abuse.  twisted.gif
  • Create a paypal account and register this card.

  • "Purchase" some items on ebay being offered for $0.01 with free shipping.

  • Profit!
*


Any reason why I couldn't add my BofA debit card to my current PayPal acct, and remove it after three months?

And where are the .01 items on ebay??
JCS
QUOTE(BeckyAndKristinsMa @ 11-10-05, 1:17pm)
And where are the .01 items on ebay??
*



Look up gmail accounts.
georgi55
I don't get it, if it works like this how are you gonna take advantage?
All they are doing is over charging you on your checking account and putting the overcharge in savings.
What is the use of this after the doubling is over?
garsh
QUOTE(georgi55 @ 11-11-05, 8:03am)
I don't get it, if it works like this how are you gonna take advantage?
All they are doing is over charging you on your checking account and putting the overcharge in savings.

Because of this part:
QUOTE
For the first three months, we'll match your Keep the Change™ savings at 100%. That means for every Keep the Change transfer, we'll contribute the same amount to your Bank of America savings account. And when the three months are over, to make it even easier to save, we'll continue matching 5% a year, every year
georgi55
Ah, missed the 5% part tongue.gif
mephisto
QUOTE(georgi55 @ 11-11-05, 6:32am)
Ah, missed the 5% part tongue.gif
*

Not 5% but 100% match for the first three months!
garsh
Boy, people are having trouble reading today.

QUOTE(mephisto @ 11-11-05, 12:57pm)
Not 5% but 100% match for the first three months!

Please note that he said:
QUOTE(georgi55 @ 11-11-05, 8:03am)
What is the use of this after the doubling is over?
georgi55
QUOTE(garsh @ 11-11-05, 1:01pm)
Boy, people are having trouble reading today.
*


What's everyone's excuse? I had few home made appletinis last night bounce4.gif
kas
On the other hand, I attempted to cash a check from a customer at the Local BOA last spring. The cost was $4 for the transaction, which caused me to immediately leave the bank. Except for a credit union that serves the UAW membership at the nearby Ford Assembly Palnt, I never pay to cash a check from others. Usually it do a thumb imprint and give my driver license to the teller.
georgi55
QUOTE(kas @ 11-15-05, 7:01pm)
On the other hand, I attempted to cash a check from a customer at the Local BOA last spring.  The cost was $4 for the transaction, which caused me to immediately leave the bank.  Except for a credit union that serves the UAW membership at the nearby Ford Assembly Palnt, I never pay to cash a check from others.  Usually it do a thumb imprint and give my driver license to the teller.
*

Why not cash it at bank where you have account? It should be free
VivYip
Has anyone who participated in this program received their 1099 from BoA yet? And did the Keep the Change stuff show up onthe 1099? Just curious. Thank you for reading this post
HarleyD
I had forgotten about the match.
11/09/2006 ANNUAL KEEP THE CHANGE MATCH $93.53
Warshed
All I got to say is, if you use this, make sure to watch all of BofA's hidden charges cause BofA is the shadiest bank there is. They rob you blind. I would then immediately close the account after the 3 month period.
zarraza
QUOTE(Warshed @ 11-10-06, 10:37am) *
All I got to say is, if you use this, make sure to watch all of BofA's hidden charges cause BofA is the shadiest bank there is. They rob you blind. I would then immediately close the account after the 3 month period.

shady? or are you just not paying attention to their fee schedules - the only hidden charges would come from not maintaining the minimum balance sans direct deposit - unless i am missing something? dry.gif

so it looks like i can purchase 250ish 1 cent purchases and be done with it? i guess i better put some more money in my checking account so they will have sufficient funds to transfer - and then get me a debit card!!!! mango.gif
Warshed
Heh, crazy crazy.
sarinne
bofa has always been very nice to me. one of the managers even waived my checking fees (no minimum balance for me) for life.
Warshed
Paypal transaction don't work, so don't even try it. Its is against the TOS of Keep the Change. They consider paypal a financial institution (like a bank) and you can't earn matching funds if you merely make purchases through paypal. The best method that some can use is paying some utility bill in tons of small increments. I tried this with Verizon, but to no avail. The other idea that some have done is just fill up their gas tank repeatedly with 1 penny increments. Of course they do this for a couple hours to get the full benefit.
carloscai
QUOTE(sarinne @ 11-11-06, 12:45am) *
bofa has always been very nice to me. one of the managers even waived my checking fees (no minimum balance for me) for life.


Which bank is bofa? BOA is certainly not that good to me. sad.gif
Warshed
Though I just said Paypal transactions don't work. It seems I was wrong. They do work. I just purchased a 1 cent transaction using paypal and I got the keep the change transfer of 99 cents. SO USE ebay with 1 cent transactions.

I just found out they only allow you to do this like once per day. I tried to do two 1 cent transactions in a row and the second one was denied.
Warshed
I have been going to Exxon/Mobil and doing 10 three cent transactions per day, but I only did it for like 5 days in a row before I got blacklisted using the automated machine outside. It wanted me to go inside and of course the cashier would never run a 3 cent transaction for gas repeatedly.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.