Struggling to stick to your savings goals? You’re not alone.
According to multiple studies conducted over the past decade, about 50 percent of American households consistently fall short of their monthly and annual savings goals, leaving them more vulnerable to financial disruptions and potentially jeopardizing their future plans. When using a standard savings account, you need to continuously monitor your spending habits and ensure you’re tucking money away whenever you’re paid. However, if you had an automatic savings tool, you could spend with the security of knowing you’re constantly contributing to your long-term goals.
That’s why we built AutoSave, an account add-on that helps you make consistent savings gains without lifting a finger.
What Is AutoSave?
Equity Bank’s AutoSave tool helps you make steady progress toward your financial goals. By rounding up everyday debit card purchases to the nearest dollar and moving the difference into your preferred savings or money market account, AutoSave helps your savings snowball without any additional effort.
For example, if you spend $4.25 on coffee, $0.75 would be automatically moved to savings. This system turns each purchase into a positive, helping you build wealth without even thinking about it.
Why Use AutoSave?
What’s the difference between a standard savings strategy and AutoSave-enabled accounts?
A standard savings strategy:
- Requires you to deposit money manually or receive scheduled transfers
- Is useful for goal-specific saving and earning interest
- Requires attention and effort
While AutoSave-enabled accounts:
- Collect money passively
- Are useful for beginners and those who struggle to stick with their savings plans
- Are a “set-and-forget” style banking option
In short, the benefits of an auto-savings feature come down to control and convenience. A traditional account is designed for structured saving, while the AutoSave tool provides a hands-off boost to your existing habits. An auto-save feature ideally functions as a compliment to more robust traditional savings strategies, allowing your round-up savings to snowball in the background while you focus on more important things.
Can AutoSave Be Set as a Percentage of Deposits?
Currently, no. A possible frustration with AutoSave is that it doesn’t allow you to set contributions as a percentage of deposits or paycheck amounts. Instead, it works only on the round-up savings model. If you’re looking to save 10 percent of each paycheck automatically, you’ll need to use scheduled transfers and set those limits manually.
This is an important difference between regular saving habits vs. AutoSave. Standard savings accounts allow flexible deposit instructions (fixed amounts or percentages), while enabling AutoSave is an addition strictly tied to spending transactions.
Can AutoSave Assign Money to Different Goals or Sub-accounts?
No. The savings account linked to AutoSave is a single destination, and must be an Equity Bank Simply Savings account or an Equity Bank Money Market account. You cannot currently assign funds to multiple sub-accounts or set goal-specific savings targets. This is one of the limitations of AutoSave.
Think of AutoSave as the funnel that collects spare change, while you remain in control of your spending and savings targets. It transforms your traditional checking and savings combo into an automatic savings account, potentially helping you reach your goals more quickly.
Activate AutoSave Today
An AutoSave-enabled account helps make real, measurable progress toward your financial goals with passive, automatic contributions to your savings. Activate your new account with the AutoSave feature today or link an existing account online in just a few clicks.