Boy, that title sure does sound like a salesperson trying to sell a scam. I don't know about you, but when I hear programs that puts "save" and "spend" together, I sense trouble. The programs utilizing spending as a means to save available to you are:
- Bank of America Keep the Change;
- Wells Fargo Way2Save; and
- A non-bank offerings from Saved+
They all have one thing in common, automatic saving. The Way2Save and Saved+ offer something similar, in every transaction you'll have money saved to your saving account. For Way2Save, it's a flat $1 put into your savings account per transaction. Saved+ gives more control to the consumer to set the percentage they want to save per transaction. So, if I set it to 10%, when I pay my bills of $100, it'll automatically save $10.
BoA's Keep the Change, on the other hand, applies the classic "save your change in a jar" to debit card transactions.
There may be things that you may need to pay attention to, like fees for having the savings account, taxes for the matching incentives given, and so on. If you use Saved+, you'd have to pay attention to your budget closely, because it will add up. I'm not saying that these programs won't work for you, I'm saying these programs won't work for me. My way is the old school way of using jars/envelopes and saving before spending.
It is, however, possible to save by spending if spending becomes "spending". Meaning, you spend on your future self by purchasing securities, precious metals, and transferring payments to yourself as savings.
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