However, I must agree with Jason on July 10th that when you life becomes more complicated because you are doing more “things” then your finances and the vessels you use to hold your money becomes a little more complicated as well. Those you may find yourself some several bank accounts.

In my case: We have a joint account (credit union – for the household) and two personal accounts (fun money-allowance for each of us), we have several savings accounts that are “earmarked” for special stuff like . . . downpayment on the house, emergency fund, vacation fund, etc. I also own a small home business and have a separate account for that and a separate savings account as well. Yeah, we have 4 savings accounts and 4 checking accounts. It can get a little complicated but we make sure that these are fee-less accounts so it’s not charging us extra for anything.

But you can see how a complicated life and complicate the theory of “one checking account”

Also, may I add (since my goal is to eventually have millions) when you begin to have accounts in the 6 digits, for safety sake you will have to have more than one account FDIC insures up to $100,000 per account. The Credit Union’s insurance only insures up to $250,000-300,000 (I’m not sure but it’s around this amount).

I used to have one saving, but as I started taking advantage of promotional offers, I got > 1: opened HSBC Direct to get promotional rate, opened FNBO Direct; recently Citibank to get free $100. Probably shouldn’t be chasing it, but I like free money.

One advantage of multiple accounts checking or savings that are accessible via a debit card is if you travel. You need access to cash when you travel for places that don’t take credit cards, but you don’t want a debit card to an account that has a lot of money to be lost or stolen. Having another account that only has only just enough to pay for the trip’s expenses and no credit line helps.

Multiple checking accounts – to each their own, unless you do the online business thing in which case you should have > 1.

Rolling CDs in a rising interest rate environment. Maybe. If interest rates rise when you expect them to. My ladder has been stagnant for 1.5 years. *shrug*

What about GMAC bank?

Also, as for having multiple accounts less than the FDIC insurance limit, that is basically what the rich people do. I can’t think of the name of the specific vehicle at the moment, but basically, the company/organization will accept deposits and then divide the funds into accounts with multiple FDIC insured banks to stay under the insurance limit. There are several of these funds/groups/companies in existence; I just remember reading about one in particular once.

Be aware that the limit increased recently too. (Within the last 1.5 years, but I can’t remember what the new limit is.) Gotta love legislation.

That is all.

It’s also nice because I can siphon away money for things and NOTO TOUCH IT, like property taxes, or vacations.

We came up with this system early in our marriage after dealing with “who gets the checkbook today” discussions. It also gives our own debit cards (our primary method of spending) so we do not have to worry about spending the same money twice!

To folks who think they may not qualify for credit unions: Please check the membership reuirements. Credit unions are really on the upswing in my corner of the world. There are credit unions for people who granduated from certain universities, and credit unions attached to some major industries.. and these industry-related credit unions are often available if you work at the company, live in the same town as the company or worship in the same town as the company.

~fm

I just got involved with Zions Direct. They do auctions for rates every week. Their 1 year CDs are yielding over 5.5% now and the minimum is $1000. Evern 6 month ones are 5.489%. So, if you have a 6 month emergency fund you could get 6 of them continuously rolling over.