As for your second questions, your monthly contributions stop once you reach your goal. At this point you will continue to earn interest on your funds and can make one time contributions using the Add Money feature, but your monthly contributions will no longer automatically draft. Thanks again for your post and feel free to contact me directly at support(at)smartypig(dot)com.

Thanks, Tiffany

I do have a few quibbles, though. First, it’d be nice to choose how much money to put into the account each month, rather than having to finagle the savings goal total or end date to get an amount near what you’d like to contribute. Second, it’d also be nice to simply end contributions to a savings goal and keep the money in place (earning aforementioned high interest rate). Unless I’ve missed something, there’s no way to do either of these things, which limits the ease of using SmartyPig as, well, a virtual piggie bank.

Thank you for your post. SmartyPig’s APY as of 1/2/09 has been changed to 3.25%. While the interest rate is subject to change at any time, SmartyPig will strive to always remain competitive. Our APY is set by West Bank, our banking partner. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any further questions at support(at)smartypig(dot)com.

Thanks, Tiffany

I am a resident alien and would be in US for next 5-6 years. I am authorised to work in US. Can I open a account with Smartypig?

If I say I’m George Washington and give the correct SSN, address,date of birth etc, then seeing his credit record does nothing to establish that I (me sitting at the keyboard) AM George Washington. It just proves I know his personal details. I can’t think of a scenario whereby you can truly verify who I am without me being there in person: any question answered electronically could be answered correctly by someone who’d stolen my identity.

My guess is that the scenario you’re trying to avoid is if someone steals my chequebook and tries to open another account somewhere in order to transfer all my money out, then cash it out. I don’t see how accessing my credit profile would help prevent that, unless you called me (on an old phone number, not a new one, of course!) to see if I can quickly and verbally verify obscure aspects of my credit report.

It’s all academic, I know, but I was able to open a CD at Zionsbank without any problems. I like keeping my credit profile frozen and will only work with businesses that don’t see that as a problem.

Thank you for being here to answer these questions, though, it’s very nice to see this happening.

Thanks to everyone for you questions and comments. As the head of compliance, I would love to address any other questions you may have. You can reach me directly at tbrewer (at) smartypig (dot) com. You can also check out what The Consumerist had to say about us earlier this week at http://consumerist.com/tag/smartypig/.

I realize this is not just SmartyPig’s policy, but any other bank would do this too: I just don’t understand why.

@Cathy and @Mikhaila Clements, SmartyPig is completely free. The 2.9% fee is only for non-users giving gifts via credit card and is the same rate as PayPal for credit card transactions. There is no charge to open, contribute or close a SmartyPig account, as they are free to users.

@Brian Smith, SmartyPig takes security very seriously. If you would like to open a SmartyPig goal, you can always temporarily lift the freeze on your credit file and apply at that time. If you have any questions about how to do this, please feel free to contact me at support (at) smartypig.com.

Thanks!

I have frozen my credit profile because of an accidental leak of some personal data about a year ago. I have two credit cards and don’t need any others, so to be on the safe side I put a lock on my credit profile and thought no more of it.

When I went to open an account with smartypig (and other banks too, to confirm what I was seeing) they all told me I couldn’t open a savings account with them because my credit profile was locked! What the hey? What does my credit profile have to do with a savings account? Where does “credit” enter into the equation? Surely a savings account is a straight-up transaction…I open an account and send them a cheque for X amount. They put X dollars in my smartypig account and we’re done, right? Why do they want my credit profile?

I feel like I’m being punished simply for being safe and cautious with my credit profile. It would cost me $30 to temporarily lift the freeze in order to let them check (and that’s too much), but as I said before, why do they need to see it?

+Fast, easy to use, and set up
+GREAT customer service. I wanted to deposit a large amount and it wouldn’t let me do it online, so I called and got to talk to someone and they called me back with an answer too. Pretty cool.
+Good interest rate.
+Bonus bump with the partner retailers.

+/- Not easy to withdraw money.
+/- The laughs I get when I tell people I use it. hehe I like the name and I think it is so cute.

-Takes sooooo long to get the $ there. It feels like a week. And the $ is taken out of your account before it posts to SP so the middle days your $ isn’t earning interest.

Overall really good and I’d recommend it. To me, it seems like it really is for two things. 1. Long term savings and 2. Saving for goals. (As opposed to saving $ for the heck of it and using it as overdraft protection…or spare disposable income to spend.)

I’d write more but I think I made my point.

Sounds like a great idea, except for the part about the fees.

Maybe credit unions will start something similar in the future.

My family have been with http://www.tropicalfcu.org forever because they have convenient online banking and practically no fees - even overdrafts!

@Funny about Money, SmartyPig has been designed to help people save for specific
purposes. With that in mind, when you want to redeem your funds, you must
close a goal. You can, however, have multiple goals open. Once you reach
your goal, your monthly contribution stops but you continue to be able to
add funds and earn interest until you decide to close your goal. If you
close your goal prior to the end of the quarter, interest is paid up to the
time you close your goal.

@tt, Am sorry that you did not hear back about your password. The number for customer support is 888-567-6278; feel free
to ask for me directly.

@Jason Scott, ACH contributions typically take three days to clear into your SmartyPig goal and credit card contributions post as
soon as the next day.

Thanks again for the opportunity to post this reply. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me anytime at support (at) smartypig.com.

Anyone is of course free to do as they will for their wedding. I would not put a registry on the invitation because I want people to come to my wedding to celebrate my happiness not feel obligated to buy anything for me. If there is an alternate point of view that works for someone else there’s nothing wrong with that in the least.

However, it is traditionally accepted that including any reference to gifts-including cash gifts, charitable gifts, or a gift registry-on or in an invitation is incorrect. Times change and perhaps this is a Jurassic custom, but there is a reason people have thought that way for a very very long time. Miss Manners is a great resource for questions like this btw, and you can read many portions of her books on google books.

Sincerest regrets for derailing the thread.

Another thing - if you’re going to a wedding - people expect you to bring a gift. It’s not tacky, it’s society. People say it’s rude to say anything about a registry, but it’s also rude to go eat a four course meal, get a wedding gift for attending, and be entertained for several hours and not bring a gift. It’s a fact of life that you bring a gift to a wedding. People may not think that’s “right,” but it’s kind of the way it is. Now, the great thing about Smarty Pig is if guests are on a budget and can only afford to give, say $10, then it’s a lot nicer to just donate and say “I donated to your Smarty Pig” rather than give them something cheap that they might now use.

There are also lots of couples who put, along with the invitation, something like “in lieu of gifts, please donate to so-and-so charity.” No one ever thinks that’s tacky. What’s so different about giving SP info?

That’s why it’s tacky. It’s tacky too present yourself as entitled to gifts from anyone. The gracious thing to do if you’re going to register (and I think SmartyPig is a fine idea for a registry! Just not on/in invitations) is to let your families and the wedding party know where you are registered and the word will get out without either bride or groom having to say “oh and hey, since I know you’re going to drop a bunch of cash on me… do it here”

It might be old fashioned, in fact it definitely is, but it’s far more tasteful than behaving like a child on her birthday.

On Topic: SmartyPig sounds interesting but complicated. I’d rather do sub-accounts on ING also, even if people can’t donate to it, I like to keep my money where I can understand what’s going on.

As a guest of many weddings, I *appreciate* having registry info right in the invitation. Then I don’t have to run around the (virtual) world looking for the right store. Even though I know my mom would think its tacky, I’m all for the SP deal as a registry. Or for a high-school graduation - that would be great!

A registry is supposed to HELP your guests out. Why keep it a secret?

I DO however, feel that putting things like “instead of gifts the couple would like cash” is EXTREMELY tacky. At least a registry gives you suggestions of what they might like to help offset multiple toasters and the like. Even if it is saving up for a house - this is your personal financial situation you are throwing out there and it says a lot about you.

I also think it’s really rude to sign up for a registry and have everything on it be more than $50. Really? $50 for a towel? $70 for one knife? I know that there should be a handful of more expensive things, but there is going to be one sad bride and groom out there coming home to 2 bath towels, 2 hand towels and 1 wash cloth that FOUR of their friends had to chip in to buy!! (True story! Those 5 things came out to $115!!)
Heck - why not charge a cover at the door?

Of course, this is seems like a standard fight between traditionalists and others. A sort of accepted compromise seems to be creating a website for the wedding, and including THAT with the invitations. Then on the website, along with other information, you can include information about gifts and registries.

I can’t believe there are people who think that adding gift information (of any kind) to a wedding invitation is reasonable. Or any kind of invitation, frankly; we registered for our recent baby shower, but that information certainly wasn’t included with the invitation. My friends who’ve had baby showers: ditto. And yet everyone managed to figure out the registries.

http://www.weddingchannel.com/ui/buildArticle.action?assetUID=2809

http://www.frugalbride.com/dosanddonts.html

http://ww22.1800flowers.com/template.do?id=template8&page=4016

http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-questions/wedding-invitation-questions/qa/should-we-include-registry-on-invitations.aspx

http://www.einvite.com/info/wedding-etiquette/wording-invitation/?Cobrand=eInvite&Site=eInvite&vk=1777211146