SmartyPig – Online Savings Account

I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about SmartyPig, a new online savings account that makes banking less boring. Their interface is colorful, intuitive, and fun.

A Fun Twist on Savings Accounts
You open an account with a minimum deposit of $25. Deposits are funded through ACH bank-to-bank transfers. Your money gets stored at West Bank, an FDIC insured bank. The best part is that you earn 4.30% APY interest (as of 3/22/08).

SmartyPig has some social-networking that differentiate them from traditional high interest savings accounts

• You can set up a savings goal. Ie, if you need $1000 for rent or $1500 for a plasma TV
• You can make your goals public so that your friends and family can see what you are saving $$ for.
• People can give you $$ to help you reach your goal. Ie, if grandma sees that Junior is saving up $100 for a new tricycle, grandma can use SmartyPig to give Junior some cash. You can also add-on SmartyPig’s Facebook and Myspace applications to share your savings goals with the world. Who knows who might be inclined to help you out with some money?
• If you decide to cash out your money in the form of a gift card (ie, Home Depot, Best Buy, etc) you can get up to 5% extra.

If you have an account with SmartyPig, you can contribute to other SmartyPig customer’s savings goals for free. Alternatively, you can contribute via credit card for a 2.9% processing fee. (If you use a 5% cash back credit card like the Citi CashReturns card, then you can actually make a few bucks.)

Although SmartPig just launched this month, I am very excited to see how it evolves. The management team seems very tech-savvy, and they are not afraid to embrace new trends and try different things to shape the way we do banking online.