William Penn Life, 2003 (38. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2003-05-01 / 5. szám
Moneywi$e type of account, you deposit a certain amount of money which you cannot withdraw for a fixed period of time. The benefit of this type of account is that you are paid a higher interest rate on the money in the account. Choosing an Account Checking accounts are designed with different consumers in mind. What is right for one person may not fit another's needs. Before selecting an account, you should become familiar with the services the financial institution offers. Conducting a survey to compare one institution with another will help you become familiar with different types of accounts. Here are some questions to ask: CM How much money do you need to open an account? CM What is the minimum balance required and how is the balance calculated? CM How much does it cost to write checks or make a deposit? CM Is there a maximum number of checks you can write each month? CM Does the account provide an automatic teller machine card (ATM)? CM Does the account provide a debit card? CM Is the bank conveniently located for you? CM How much does an overdrawn check cost? CM Does the bank return the checks at the end of the month? CM Ho you receive interest on the balance of money in the account? Money Links For more great information on how to manage your money, check out the website of "Adding It Up,” an interactive site for middle school and high school students developed by Cornell Cooperative Education. You can find it at: 3 www.addsup.org CM How much do the check forms cost (personalized checks)? See if you can think of some other questions you would want to ask if you were shopping for an account. Make a chart listing all the questions you believe are most important along one side and the financial institutions you want to survey on the top. You and your friends could then survey the institutions. The Basics of Checking A checking account is an account which is designed for quick and easy access to money, not for long term savings. When you put money into a checking account you can withdraw it at any time to make purchases. People use their checking accounts to pay for all kinds of things, like CDs, books, clothes or food. There are a number of ways to get money out of your checking account. One of these ways is by writing a check. When you sign up for a checking account, your bank will send you a checkbook. This book contains both checks and recordkeeping charts. You can use the checkbook to pay for things. A check is basically a note which gives someone permission to take a certain amount of money out of your checking account. For example, let's say you go into a store to purchase a new stereo. The stereo costs $150, and you know that you have $200 in your checking account. You can pay for the stereo with a check without ever going to a bank to withdraw cash. When you fill out a check you specify the amount of money you want to be withdrawn from your account. In this case, you would fill in $150 dollars on the check. You also need to specify who the check is payable to. For this example, you would probably fill in the name of the store. In other instances, you might fill in the name of a person or other organization. This means that only the person or organization which you designate on the check will be allowed to use the check. When you give a check to someone, they expect that you have the amount of money in the bank that you wrote on the check. If you write a check for more money than you have in the bank, the person who you paid the check to will be unable to get their money from you. This is called a bounced check. If you bounce a check, you will be charged a fee by the bank and possibly by the store who you gave the check to. Once you give a check to someone, the money is not immediately withdrawn from your account. The person might carry the check around with them for a long time before they decide to cash it. If you wrote a check for $150 yesterday, that $150 might still be in your account, but if you spend it, the person who you wrote the check to will be unable to cash it. For these reasons, it is extremely important you keep track of all of your deposits and withdrawals in the back of your checkbook. By keeping careful track of how much money you have and how much you have spent, you can avoid bouncing checks, [jjjj] Willi» Peu Life, May 2003 5
