looking for advice on various savings

[anawhatsme]

i have a few different "pots" i want to start.
one for christmas, emergencies, household needs, car maintenance.
i'm wondering if i would be able to have 4 or more different savings accounts with any given bank?
or would i need to open 4 or more bank accounts at different banks?

any advice?

[Frugalbigmama]

Yes, ING and PC Financial make it easy to open up a few accounts. I have many with both banks. I would suggest one of these banks since they are free.

[blueeyetea]

The way I see it, the more accounts, the more fees you may subject yourself to.

Anything that's for long term, I keep in one savings account. I keep track of what's what with a simple spreadsheet. For example:

Bank balance emergency car repairs Christmas
$1000 = $500 + $200 + $300

Why complicate your life by having several accounts?

[lorken]

The way I see it, the more accounts, the more fees you may subject yourself to.
Anything that's for long term, I keep in one savings account. I keep track of what's what with a simple spreadsheet.
<snip>
Why complicate your life by having several accounts?

What blueeyetea said. Don't pay more fees than you have to. Also, if you split your $ between multiple accounts, you are cheating yourself out of higher interest rates because each account's balance will always be low.

Use two accounts: One for everyday things and one for long term things. Each time you put money into the long term account, make a note of what it's for and keep a running total using a spreadsheet or a column notebook. This will help you to track exactly what future use each dollar is allocated towards. And if you wish to transfer dollars from one purpose to another (eg. you "oversaved" for new tires and want to transfer the leftover $ to the insurance pot), you can also note it on your tracking sheet.

Using this method, you can eventually build up to more and more savings by creating new "pots" in the long term account. I got to the point where, each time I got a raise, I would earmark half of it to retirement savings and now, 20 years later, I have a healthy nest egg that I never really missed while I was building it.

I know it seems easier to have a separate account for each purpose, but you will pay for that "easiness" through multiple bank fees and you will never develop your own money management skills and discipline. The better you are able to discipline yourself with your own money, the wealthier you will eventually become. It's a slow process, but if followed over a lifetime it does work!

[alicia]

If you're sticking with your current bank, then you might be subject to more fees. While I agree that you can track the money yourself external from the account, sometimes it's nice to just login and see "I have $300 in the Christmas account".

With Tangerine, they allow you to set goals on their savings accounts (I'm currently at 4 savings). So it can display your progress, which is a nice feature. And it's no fee banking (so is PCFinancial).

That said, if you're going for the best interest rate on it, many of the big banks are somewhere around 1%. If you open a TFSA (assuming you haven't used all your contribution room), People's Trust (online bank) gives 3% interest without having to invest.

[Frugalbigmama]

Hmm. So because I have multiple accounts I have poor money management skills and am not disciplined?
Lol. I would disagree.

[Shwa Girl]

Yes, ING and PC Financial make it easy to open up a few accounts. I have many with both banks. I would suggest one of these banks since they are free.

agree
these types of free fee banks are a good choice
and now Tangerine bank (formerly ING) has 3% interest on savings; PC financial has 3.1% on savings

[beckie.c]

I also have multiple e-savings accounts with RBC and Tangerine, no fees. I'm a very visual person and it motivates me to be able to work towards short term goals by seeing them separated. I have 2-3 accounts that are for short-term goals that change on a regular basis (i.e. saving for siding on our garage), I don't worry too much about the interest on these as they don't last for more than a few months usually. Each goal is broken down into a timeline and $$ per paycheck.

Then I have a contingency fund for irregular expenses like a vehicle repair or vet bill, insurance deductible, appliance breakdown, etc. Our Emergency Fund is actually our TFSA which is held in a fairly low risk mutual fund account and is treated like a bill. Lastly, I have a US savings account for buying US currency at the best exchange so that when we go on trips I'm not stuck switching currency at a crappy exchange rate.

[Retiree]

We gave up our multiple accounts years ago, when they started to charge for each account. Today, though, there are many options for no service fee accounts. As seniors we no longer pay service fees but haven't set up more accounts because we find we can manage with the 2 we have....one for budgeted items and one for discretionary spending.

[Andit]

It's funny how different folks can be. I've always had just the one account & it works for me (maybe it's the way I was raised, my folks had little experience with banking prior to coming to Canada, since it was, ahem, not exactly encouraged in a Communist country ).

I know a few years back I was working with a non-profit whose finances were in a Credit Union and they allowed us to have sub-accounts with the main account (each sub-account was set up to automatically get a % of whatever $ was deposited). Not sure if that still applies (this was 7ish years ago) or if we had a special deal because of the non-profit status. Might be worth checking into.

Good luck with finding a bank that meets your needs.

[ticul]

You have some good info. Hope you will find what works best for you as we all have different ways of saving $$$..............................