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I?? one of those people that really spend hours and hours trying to squeeze every penny out of my money. Every two weeks, I would move the majority of my pay check into my brokerage, and saving accounts. There are many days of the month where my checking account would be left with less than $100 dollars. I do this so often that sometimes I forget that I have to use it to pay for my credit card, and at the last minute will have to move money around. This sounds reasonable but let me tell you that at times I worry I might not have enough time for the funds to transfer back to my checking account so I can do an electronic bill pay.

Often, I feel like it might not be worth the effort to do this but I have not stopped doing this yet. As of right now, I have a checking balance of $384 and will have my paycheck coming in tomorrow which will cover my rent that I will have to pay by tomorrow (see what I mean when I say the dates are sometimes tight?).

After starting to look into these dates of transfers more closely, I noticed that it takes 1-2 business days (sometimes even 3) if I deposit my expense check into my checking account using my ATM machine. I went and ask my bank, and they told me that they need time to verify the amount and make sure there is nothing wrong before I can access the funds. Although I’m not too happy with their response, it does not sound like there is much I can do. One trick the teller did tell me though was that because my company uses the same bank (Wells Fargo), if I were to go to the branch and deposit my check asking the teller to deposit it as cash, I can access the funds right away. I often have several thousands of dollars going in and out of my checking account. Couple that with having to pay my credit card with all these expenses and trying to squeeze every day of interest by putting money into my savings account before I have to pay the credit card bill, I have almost found a day time job for myself.

So, this tip is great for me since I can access the funds right away and not have to worry about checking my bank account twice a day to see when it will be available before I can move it over to interest accruing accounts.

This just dawned on me while I was writing this, but my brokerage account actually has bill pay abilities. Theoretically, I just transfer everything to my brokerage account (where the cash does get interest), and just pay everything through the brokerage account. This will be something I will look into.

Furthermore, many online banks are starting to offer checking accounts that let you earn interest. I remember at least seeing Etrade and ING Direct having an online checking account. You lose the ability to go to a teller, and also writing physical checks, but if you don?? need to see a live person (online is easier anyway) and write a check (the only time I use checks is for my rent), then there is no reason why you want to put money in your checking account and let your bank profit with your money!