What is the best savings account for me?
With many options in front of you, choosing which kind of account to open may be overwhelming. It is important to make your financial products and services work best for you and really cater to what you need as an individual. Perhaps taking a deep dive into what these products offer and how it can benefit you at this point in your life can help narrow down what kind of account you need. Let’s dig further into what are some of the popular savings products and how it can work best for you:
Debit Savings
You can start building your savings by opening a debit account. Most of these usually come with a debit card, interest, and digital banking. Some people may be wary that their money is not within arm’s reach but digitalization has made it possible to closely monitor your money online. With the growing need for going cashless your debit card lets you transact over the counter and online — just like a credit card! Debit savings account is usually the main product that people get when they want to manage their money efficiently aside from safekeeping of course. This is usually used to keep a portion of their money for liquidity, saving for a milestone or even designated outlet for earnings from investments. The list for the need for this product is endless. The drawback however is that debit savings accounts usually have low annual interest rates. Though this is still a must-have because of the security that it provides.
Passbook Savings
Although this is quite similar to a debit savings account with it’s range for interest and maintaining deposit amount, having a passbook instead of a debit card might be preferable for people who are more conservative when it comes to managing their finances. Being a passbook holder means that you have to be in a branch to make your transactions may it be withdrawing your money or depositing. To some people this may be easier to manage as well in terms of safety of their money where account information is not used online to make transactions or having a digital account is not really preferable to them. In addition, it is easier to manage in the case of lost passbooks as this can be easily replaced in the branch and you wont need to have to freeze your accounts or merchants to delete your information. Being that you can only withdraw from a branch, it encourages your money being kept for a longer period which means you can get more from interest earned.
Checking
For individuals who usually deal with high-ticket transactions and payments, you may want to look into having your own checking account. Providing check payments can ease the burden of carrying large amounts of cash. Beyond that, check payments can limit the risks for fraud of the wrong person claiming your payment and issuance of checks are limitless versus transferring money online. While this offers you an easy way to settle payments and be paid, you are also assured of the safety of your money while it earns interest. Some checking accounts offer more flexible options for clients where you can have passbooks and/or debit cards as well.
MyFirst Savings
It’s never too early to start saving. Encourage loved ones to build their savings and better understand the value of money with a savings account. This is an in trust for account usually managed by a parent/guardian. This helps kids start easing into the habit of saving without the pressure of maintaining a high balance in the account. Moreover, this is a good tool to boost your kid’s readiness with managing his/her own money. Like any other savings account, this comes with a passbook or ATM card and is interest earning. This is the perfect ground-work for building financially smart individuals.
Pensioner Savings
Unlike your debit and current savings accounts, there are accounts that are specifically made for gaining access to your pension from SSS. With this setup, linking your account for receiving your monthly pension is simple and you still share privileges similar to other savings accounts like getting interest for the money you save and keeping your money safe. In addition to that, you can also track the inflow of pension coming in your account without having to visit a branch or going to an ATM. Balance inquiries, transactions and transfers can easily be done online through web or mobile app so you can easily keep track of your hard-earned money.
Choosing the right kind of account can put you up in a better spot for preparing financially. So take your time to assess what you want to achieve in life, what your financial standing is, and what financial goals you want to achieve to guide you in making your decision.
