This offer is one that I will start bugging mom and dad about right away. Affinity Bank has a special account called the "Kids Only Savings Account" - and this account offers 10% (that's not a typo!)APY interest rate on all balances up to and including $500. That means that if I put the maximum $500 into the account now, it will earn me $900 in interest by the time I'm ready to go to college. Finding a guaranteed interest rate of 10% is a dream come true!
The on catch is that one of my parents has to open up an account there, but they do offer a free checking account with a minimum $100 balance. The checking account doesn't earn any interest, so in reality the earnings on the $500 + $100 needed for my parent's account would be 8.33% and not 10%. Still, 8.33% is not something that I will turn my back on (well, at least when I get better at rolling over on my own).
For others that are interested:
The Kids Only account is restricted to children under 16 years (but if you sign up before 16 years of age, you can keep the account until you7re 18 years old). The minimum deposit on the account to begin the account is $1.00. Balances that exceed $500 will be paid the bank's regular savings rates which is 0.50%. Children that open an account also receive a free Piggy Bank (and I would love to have a new piggy bank!!!).
My uncle will be passing along the message to my parents to open the account asap and as soon as that is done, I will take some of the money I have and place it into that account.
3 comments:
That's great news. If the parent's account doesn't need to remain open, then I will be earning 10% on the savings! I will definitely need to start bugging my parents to get on the ball with this (^_^)
And thank you for the nice compliment. If I can help others in any way while I save for myself, it's an added bonus!
OK, I managed to remember this post for the last couple of months and am finally getting around to opening an account, but dumb question: Does the $500 max for the 10% interest mean that I have to always keep the balance (including interest) under $500, or can I just put $500 in and let it ride for 17 years (like your post implies). "$500 maximum" makes it sound like I'd constantly need to be withdrawing, but then again, I know little about these sorts of things.
It means that 10% will only be paid on the first $500 and then a much lower rate after that. For example, if you had $600 in the account, $500 would earn 10% and $100 would earn the much lower rate. My plan is to keep $500 in the account and then once a year take out the interest ($50) and place it in another bank where it can earn more month (always keeping $500 in the account).
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