SmartyPig Review Plus Two $50 SmartyPig Gift Cards Giveaway
Mar 25, 2008 
Sun
How do you like the idea of letting other people, family members and friends, help you reach your saving goal?
If that, letting others help you reach your saving goal, is what you are looking for, then SmartyPig could the answer.
How it works
The concept of SmartyPig is quite simple: You set a saving goal, make monthly saving, inform family members/friends and let them contribute to your account, reach your goal and redeem your savings.
What’s unique about SmartyPig is that you are not the only contributor to your saving goal. By letting friends and family participate, you could reach your goal faster.
What it takes
Of course, it’s free to join SmartyPig and open an account. Once you open an account, you need to set up a goal, which can be anything between $250 and $100,000, and start to make mandatory saving of at least $25 every month towards your goal. There’s no fee for making monthly contribution to your SmartyPig account from your checking or savings account. However, it’s going to cost your friends and family $4.95 every time they help you save, according to the fee schedule.
Is this a deal breaker? Maybe not necessarily, but I really don’t like anybody being charged a fee for helping me save. That could very much make friends and family member who are willing to contribute but only a small amount, such as $25 or $50, think twice whether it’s worthy it.
What to do with your savings
Well, it seems you will have to spend the money once you reach your goal (that’s what you are saving for, right?) because SmartyPig will not give back your savings in cash. Instead, if you want to redeem funds in your SmartPig account, you will receive a SmartyPig MasterCard debit card or a retail gift card, or request a check which will cost you $25.
What else
The savings account at SmartyPig is offered through West Bank, a community bank based in Iowa that was founded in 1893. West Bank is a member of FDIC and savings at SmartyPig is FDIC insured. The savings rate at SmartyPig is currently at 4.30% APY, which is quite high comparing to other online savings accounts.
To apply for an account, you will need to provide SSN, driver’s license number, and DoB, just as opening a bank account.
Interested?
No, I am not. Though I think the idea of letting others help me reach my saving goal is a good idea, I don’t really feel comfortable to ask
“Hey, I’m going to have a $4,000 vacation next summer. Can you help?”
And that’s quite different from asking my parents to contribute to my kids’ 529 plans.
However, if you like the idea and want give SmartyPig a try, I have two $50 SmartyPig gift cards, courtesy of SmartyPig, that I want to giveaway to help you reach your saving goal. To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment at this post. Winners will be announced on April 1st.
I just stumbled across SmartyPig tonight while researching interest rates. I’ve just gotten engaged, so money planning is definitely a priority for me. SmartyPig seems pretty interesting, and I’d definitely like to enter for a chance at thay $50 card to get started with it. Thanks!
I just created an account with SmartyPig and I definitely think it’s a concept that will soar in the U.S. Not that I have a difficult time saving money but it’s hard to beat a 4.30% APY!
I checked your blog to see if you thought this was a legitimate bank. My husband and I have always wanted to be able to save toward different goals and in the past have had to keep a log of what we were saving for. This will be a lot easier.