Do People Not Have Self Control With Their Money?

I find it the most ridiculous banking feature ever. Someone in this world has had to have found purpose for it… or at least thought someone would use it. Why else would it be created?

 

What I’m talking about is an automatic savings program that most, if not all banks have. Whether you’re with Scotiabank who call it ‘Bank the Rest’ or ING Direct who chose to be less witty by calling it the ‘Automatic Savings Program’, it’s the same useless feature. I can’t believe ING Direct actually spent advertising money trying to promote this feature. Whatever the name, it’s STUPID.

Pretty much, every time you use your debit card to pay for goods and services from your chequing account, it will withdraw a certain amount (such as 10% of what you just spent or a flat rate like $5) to your savings account. Umm, what? How useless, right? You know what the ad for ING Direct says? If I recall correctly, it goes something like, ‘Every time you use your debit card, you’ll automatically be saving. Save $100 a month and you’ll already be at $2,400 in two years!’

What the heck? You’re not saving anything. It’s all in your account still. You can transfer funds back and forth between chequing to savings and vice versa. With a large population now using smartphones with a data plan, many can do it on the go.

Does anyone else see how useless and stupid this feature is? Who uses it?! If you don’t have control over your money, you think this little thing is going to help you? You’re just gonna transfer your money back. And they act as if you’re making money by using this program. You’re not… it’s just a transfer!

‘It’s a free service, so it wouldn’t hurt using it,’ I heard once from a TD Canada Trust representative.

This world makes no sense to me sometimes.