“Check yourself before you Wreck yourself” …how many of us remember that 90’s verbiage? It was usually in relation to “checking” or correcting your words and actions before someone else did it for you in a not-so-kind way! However I prefer to use that saying when it comes to BANKING…Why so?
Well we’re ten years into the millennium and shockingly people still don’t take advantage of the convenience of checking accounts. People are still running to their local check cashing agency and supermarkets to BUY money orders to pay bills. Better yet people visit their local convenient stores (e.g. dollar store, phone stores) and pay a fee of one to two dollars to have them send a payment to their utility companies. And some even travel far distances with cash just to pay their bills at the company face to face.
- What a waste of money and time! You can save your money and time simply by opening a checking account! How you ask?
- A checking account will allow you to put your money in a safe and most of the time FDIC insured institution.
- With the money you have you can write checks from your account and keep a register of how much you paid and to whom it was paid.
- Your monthly bank statement will reflect what checks were paid and provide you with the actual “return check” or an image of your original check paid.
- You can make bill payments over the phone using a debit card or by providing a check by phone.
- For the computer savvy most financial institutions offer online banking to pay bills and so much more.
Financial institutions usually offer free checking accounts with or without minimum balance requirements, especially for students and senior citizens. And best of all some checking accounts even offer interest and there is nothing like money being added to your money!!!
So go ahead and visit your local Bank and inquire of how you can start a relationship with them…you better CHECK YOUR SELF!!!
~Tiana Livingston, Financial Consultant