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I recently graduated from college and started my first real job. I have no student loan debt and my credit score is in the 760s. I'm not making a lot (obviously) but I'm pretty responsible with money.
I have a checking account and a savings account with my bank right now, but I want to open another savings account so that I have one for emergencies and one for fun things (new car, travel, etc.).
Should I just open another savings account with my bank? If not, where else should I be looking?
Question 2: Right now I have a Discover card, but I want another one that will give me flight miles/points. Is it a bad idea for me to have two credit cards? I was thinking of just using one for gas and the other for my everyday expenses like groceries. I want to get as high of a credit score as possible.
I never saw the purpose of having two savings accounts. I used to have a separate "Uncle Sam" account (I'm self-employed) so I wouldn't get excited by how much money I had in my savings account that wasn't mine. I pretty much know what my taxes are now, just rolled it back all into one savings account. Even easier in your case. Emergency savings is $XX,XXX. Don't touch if it it's below that. If you're growing it, just figure add some round number ($100, 250, 500, whatever) per month to the don't touch it amount.
More credit cards is better up to a point. Having one is just a bad idea. Crap happens, you want at a minimum two in case you lose it, Target happens, whatever. The best bang for the buck card is the SPG, Startwood Preferred Guest. 2/3% (3% for gold, which you won't hit unless you travel a lot). Works best for the hotels but you can transfer points 1:1 to almost all airlines. Next best is Barclays Arrival. Both have massive sign up bonuses ($400-600). Probably the next best is Amex Blue Cash Preferred... maybe. It's 6% on groceries, 3% on gas. To of my huge spending categories. Problem is I shop at WinCo which doesn't take credit cards and I already have the SPG card which is 3% on everything. Plus they're both AmEx which isn't taken everywhere. My other card is a Cap One Visa card. It's actually the student card since they didn't like my self-employed status. Whatever, same 1.5% back but it's got really low limits ($3000).
I agree. Keep one savings account and just know what you want your emergency savings to be. Keep a spreadsheet if you need to. Or buy Quicken to track your finances. You can create a savings goal and when you add to it, it will "take" it out of the savings account and move it to the goal. Just on paper of course. In your actual account it's still all together.
The credit card we use to get miles is United Explorer. But that works well for us because hubby travels on business and we only fly United. You might be better looking at a more generic card that let's you use points earned on with any carrier.
Get the second savings account IF that is what works for you. It doesn't hurt anything to have another account.
Which one? I would just open another with the bank your at, for convenience of moving money between accounts. That said, if your trying to maximize earnings you can always shop for an account, savings, money market, etc, offering a better rate. (Although, honestly, all the rates stink right now!).
For credit cars, I go online and find whichever earns the most points per dollar, without getting into fees. Use it for most things, pay it off each month and rack up the points.
Okay, another question! I have a regular savings account (1% APY) but I want a money market savings account (3% APY)... however... I noticed that Wells Fargo has 5% APY as a bonus instead of 3% IF you have a checking account with them.
Should I move my $ to Wells Fargo?
What are some of the pros and cons between bank of America and Wells Fargo?
I'm young and don't own a house or anything, no loans either. So it doesn't seem like it would be a big deal?
Wells will eat you up with fees. Go get an account with a Credit Union. They pay reasonable interest rates, free accounts.
Online it says that you won't have to pay fees for checking accounts as long as you have at least $750 direct deposit/month and for their money market savings account, you just need to have at least $3500 to waive the fees.
Is there anything else I should be aware of though?
I'm a big believer in diversity. Having savings/checking/mm accounts at several institutions serves as a backup in case there are issues at your primary FI. I'm not an all eggs in one basket sort of person. Get a good ACH hub account (look at Alliant CU in Chicago, they do next day free ACH transfers). That way you can easily move money around to whoever is offering the best rate.
If you don't mind keeping track of bonus categories, Chase Freedom offers 5% on useful spending like restaurants, grocery stores and gas. It makes a good companion to the Discover It/More as their categories do not always overlap. Fidelity Amex offers 2% on everything and the Sallie Mae Master card gives you 5% on gas groceries and books. Most of these have various caps, but it doesn't sound like you are spending that much.
Online it says that you won't have to pay fees for checking accounts as long as you have at least $750 direct deposit/month and for their money market savings account, you just need to have at least $3500 to waive the fees.
Is there anything else I should be aware of though?
What does a credit union do exactly?
Make sure of what the 5% bonus threshold is. Most likely in order to get that amount you need large balances.
We've banked with Wells for years and have never incurred any fees because of how our accounts are set up. Our son on the other hand, who is still in college, moved from Wells to the credit union that works along side the university because Wells was going to start charging him fees and the credit union does not.
Where on earth are you seeing a WF deposit account paying 5% APY? I just looked and most of them are paying ~.03%.
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