Money Infant

There are several good online banking sites that make it easy for you to save towards a goal. Emergency funds, vacation savings, Christmas funds…all of these can be accomplished using an online savings account and the power of automatic transfers. Most of these accounts feature decent (for these times) interest rates as well as the ease of linking with other accounts to make saving a breeze.

A couple weeks ago I found out about another online savings account with a twist. The site is called ImpulseSave and so far I really like what I see. In addition to the normal automatic savings transfers ImpulseSave also features a community building aspect whereby you can become ‘friends’ with others on the site as well as commenting on their savings and goals and ‘Liking’ others savings. Talk about peer motivation!

Aside from being just plain fun online, ImpulseSave also makes it fun and rewarding just to save. It let’s you set up goals (vacation, debt payoffs, wedding, etc) and assign an amount to the goal. And then it will even tell you how long it will take you to save for that goal given a certain weekly contribution. Think it’s going to take too long to reach your goal? Simply save more each week!

Like I said, you can schedule weekly amounts to be taken from your checking account and moved to your ImpulseSave account (kinda boring), but you can also save on impulse. And this is where ImpulseSave is different, fun and more engaging than other online savings accounts! It’s also where you can really ramp up your savings toward your goals.

Say you are out at the mall and you successful avoid the temptation to buy a new piece of clothing, a latte or some new decorations. Chances are by the time you get home you will have forgotten all about your wonderful willpower and will have lost a golden opportunity to save. With ImpulseSave you can actually send a text message to their number (an iPhone app is also in the works) and tell them “Save $20 because I didn’t buy X at the mall”. ImpulseSave will transfer $20 to your savings goal based on that simple text message. How cool and simple is that? I think it takes snowflaking to a whole new level.

Just imagine how fast your savings will add up with the combination of automatic weekly savings and Impulse saves. I’m willing to bet that most of you could easily save $100 a month or more, just by avoiding temptations and saving the money you would have spent on those impulse buys.

Your savings are held by a traditional bank so you do get interest on the savings, currently the interest rate is .40% APY. Not great I know, but keep in mind this is kind of like a digital piggy bank. You could always transfer the money to a higher yield account after reaching a certain balance, or even use it to add to your investments.

The only downside I can currently see is that ImpulseSave is only open to US citizens and residents. Sorry, but there are plans to expand internationally so all is not lost.

You really do need to give this a try. Once you do I think you will be hooked just as I and many of the other ImpulseSave users are. I didn’t mention it earlier, but ImpulseSave is currently in BETA and accounts are being given out by invitation only. So c’mon and Save with me! Everyone who requests an invite in the next 24 hours will be automatically approved!