What To Do With Some Extra Cash

Do you have a pile of cash sitting around, earning 0.001% interest at your local bank?

Is this money you may need to use in the near future, possibly your emergency fund? Or money earmarked for a purchase relatively?

I want to give a tip of the hat to Kevin at Financial Panther, who highlighted a bonus with Discover Savings Bank.

The bonus is currently $150 if you deposit $15,000; or $450 if you deposit $35,000. I checked my e-mail offers; these bonuses are higher than the offers that Discover has been sending me (so go through the link at Financial Panther). Kevin has some tips for maxing out your bonus if you don’t necessarily have the full amount sitting around, ready to be deposited.

Other highlights: Discover Savings currently pays more than 2% interest on savings accounts, a good deal higher than what I have been getting with my brick and mortar bank. And, that bonus dropped within 4 business days of depositing the minimum funds.

Two bracelets made of gold coins
A little extra coinage is always nice

Caveats: You can apparently only get a bonus offer once in a lifetime with Discover Savings (“for first-time savings customers only”). So if you have received one in the past, you probably can’t get this. This offer is currently good through November 8, so there is a time limit too. If you’ve missed it, I would wait to open an account, as apparently the bank puts out offers several times a year.

Even though I had been hoping to consolidate accounts this year, and opening a new one obviously isn’t helping to reduce complexity in my finances, I am happy to have a new account that actually offers a little return on my money. Plus a bonus, of course.

Is this an offer that interests you? Have you found any better promotions for savings accounts?