Review of Bank of America's Keep the Change Program

Last February I wrote about enrolling in Bank of America's Keep the Change program. In those posts I summarized the way the program worked so I won't repeat all of the details here. The important points are these:

• When you use your Bank of America debit card to make a purchase, the amount of the purchase is rounded up the the nearest dollar and the difference is transferred into your Bank of America savings account.
  
• Bank of America matches the transferred amount at 100% for the first 90 days you're enrolled and at 5% thereafter up to a maximum of $250/year.
  
• The Bank of America match is deposited in your savings account once a year.
  

On my last statement I received my first match of $82.14. My thoughts on the program now that a year has passed? My first thought is that a year is a long time to wait for $82. It is, however, free money and I received it for doing what I would have done anyway. That is to say that I didn't change my purchasing habits at all in an effort to maximize my match.

The bookkeeping for the small transfers was not a big issue. I probably use my debit card 10-20 days a month so I had that number of transfers on each statement.

I'd be curious to hear what others' experiences with the program have been. If you'd like to give it a try but are not a Bank of America customer, email me at thefamceo@yahoo.com and I'll send you a referral by return email. You can earn $25 for opening a checking account and an additional $10 for opening a savings account ($25 if it's opened with $1000 or more). That starts to make the Keep the Change program look a little more lucrative!