Take Advantage of Bank of America's Keep the Change Program

Bank of America offers a program for many customers with debit cards, called Keep the Change. In the program, each purchase is rounded up to the nearest dollar and the "change" is moved to an interest-bearing savings account. In addition, Bank of America will match your change for the first 3 months 100%, and then 5% after the promotional period. By following these steps diligently and patiently, you can get Bank of America to give you $250!

Steps

 * 1)  Locate a store with a self-checkout machine. Wal-Mart is a prime target. Try to go to the store during off-peak hours.
 * 2)  Buy your items one at a time to generate the most amount of change. The ideal item costs less than any dollar amount (the lower the better) and 40 cents (e.g. $0.25, $1.12, $2.05). Here are some ideas:
 * 3) *Fruits and vegetables are great because you can often break them up and buy one at a time, they're not expensive, and they're good for you. For example, if bananas are sold at 50 cents/lb, you can probably get individual bananas for 20 cents each.
 * 4) *Candy and small bottled beverages aren't good choices because even though they usually cost just over a dollar (which will generate a lot of change) you're wasting money by buying a lot of them when you can get a box or case of them for much cheaper per item. There's no point in spending extra money to make extra money. Plus, this stuff generally isn't very good for you!
 * 5) *Dollar store items can be good for this if there is a sales tax in your state. Usually the sales tax will add less than 10 cents over the dollar, generating around 90 cents of change per item. You can find useful items at a dollar store (though not the highest quality): laundry detergent, aluminum foil, cooking implements, gift wrap, etc. Buying things you'll actually end up using is a smart way to make money off this program. These stores, however, don't usually have self-checkout, so you'll be testing the patience of the cashier if you do this a lot!
 * 6)  Alternatively, you can go to the gas station and stop the pump at $0.01, or donate $0.01 online.
 * 7)  Try to generate $250 worth of change in the first three months. Bank of America imposes a $250 matching limit.
 * 8) *With 90 days in three months, you'll need to generate, on average, $2.77 in change per day, if you go shopping every day.
 * 9) *If you go shopping once a week, in 12 weeks you'll need to generate, on average, $20.83 of change a week.

Tips

 * Don't be afraid to explain to the cashier why you are doing this if asked. There's nothing illegal about this concept. So long as you don't hold up a line, you also won't inconvenience other shoppers either.
 * Once you get your money, you may want to invest it. See How to Invest Small Amounts of Money Wisely.
 * You can generally transfer money back from your savings account fee-free up to a maximum number of times per billing cycle, generally three times. Check with your bank first. Such transfers will not affect your matching, as you will be matched for the total amount in change generated, not the balance in your savings account.
 * Avoid doing this to small mom-and-pop stores. Stores have to pay a fee for every debit or credit card transaction, and the owner will not appreciate it.
 * You can also create more change when you pay the bill at a restaurant. Make the tip out so that the total of the bill ends in $.01.  This will generate $.99 in change.
 * You can use the restaurant trick whenever filling up gas. Fill up gas such that the dollar amount ends in $.01

Warnings

 * Please be aware, that in the long run you may be hurting yourself, along with every other customer of the store you try these techniques at by raising prices in the long run. In addition to a percentage rate that is charged per transaction, there are also transaction fees. This transaction fee is charged on each and every purchase processed through a merchant account provider which allows the store to accept credit cards, and typically ranges from from $0.25 to $0.50 per transaction . If the store makes a profit of $0.02 on a $0.25 piece of candy, they could be losing about $0.50 overall which will eventually lead to higher prices throughout the store.
 * Try to keep a large enough balance in your checking account when doing this, as the Keep the Change transfers could overdraw your account. For instance, a shopping trip that would normally cost $33 could end up costing you $60 if you maximize the change (30 items that cost $1.10 each).
 * Be patient. You will not receive your change until the end of your first year with the checking account, but it is a nice windfall when you get it.
 * Some accounts eligible for this program have maintenance fees and/or a minimum balance.
 * Any money given to you by Bank of America will be reported to the IRS on Form 1099, which means the IRS may categorize it as taxable income.
 * Consider that there are far better ways to save money. For example, the trick of paying yourself first by putting up a sum of cash before you pays bills, is a better way to build up savings. Realize that the 'Keep the Change' program works loosely on this principle but in a way that encourages you to spend more which is counter productive.

Related Tips and Steps

 * How to Make Easy Money
 * How to Make Money Fast
 * How to Save Money
 * How to Invest Small Amounts of Money Wisely