Saving in itself is generally its own reward. It’s motivating to see your savings increase and reaching intermediate and final goals towards purchasing what you were saving for. Once you’ve made that purchase and see your savings disappear it can be easy to loose that motivation and start the cycle again. Savings accounts and a savings account bonus are something that can maintain your motivation and keep your saving cycle moving purchase after purchase.

Having your money accumulate in a savings account gives you access to what is usually a higher interest rate than your usual everyday banking accounts. Savings account interest rates are never incredibly high and unless you are investing a sizable amount of money the interest you earn will usually be less than the contributions you are regularly making. However interest you are earning is money earned for doing nothing, so you are being rewarded just by having your money in a secure location. This is easy to forget if you are working with a low interest rate but remember to keep track of your interest payments to remind you of the money you are earning for saving for what you want.

Opening a savings account that offers a savings account bonus is a great idea for anyone who needs a head start to their saving. The amount of this bonus is determined by the bank or provider and will vary depending on the current financial situation and more often by promotions and deals they are offering to secure new business. This can be a way to lure you to opening a savings account with them so be wary. A lot of people see that they will receive a $200 bonus and sign up immediately knowing they have a goal of $500 to save – they are nearly halfway there! BUT they don’t read the fine print and other essentials of the savings agreement and realize that perhaps they can’t withdraw money until they reach a goal of $5000. These bonus’ can be an excellent way of being rewarded for your saving, just do your research first.

The biggest key to being rewarded for saving is exactly that, saving. You need to ensure that you are putting away regular amounts of your income for any sort of savings plan. High interest rates and a savings account bonus are things that a bank or provider will do to reward you for your custom; the rest is up to you.

Something banks and similar providers will do to attract business is offer special deals and interest rates to people looking at opening accounts. One common ‘special deal’ is that of a savings account bonus. This is usually a sign on payment that is made one time in order to secure your business. Depending on your situation they can help a great deal towards your savings goal, or they can deter you from hunting down the best long term interest rate. Knowing a little bit more should help you make the decision.

The bonus payments vary in value quite substantially. A sign on bonus out there today could range from $25 to $250 – or possibly even upwards from there. The reason they vary so much is they have different restrictions attached.

At face value you would expect a sign on bonus to be credited to your account once, well, the account is created. This is actually not too common. It does happen but more than likely you’ll be expected to deposit and maintain a certain balance for a set period of time before they will then credit you with the bonus payment.

Sometimes the savings account bonus may have household restrictions. This means only one person living at your address will qualify for this payment – best to check this beforehand if you are hoping to sign the family up too. It’s also likely that it will only apply to one savings account per person – meaning you can’t sign up for several savings accounts to receive the bonus several times.

A lot of times you’ll be required to kick start your savings account with a specific deposit amount in order to be eligible for the bonus. The amount is usually much higher than the bonus being offered.  Check about the rules surrounding earning interest on your total balance – including the bonus payment.

It’s quite likely you won’t earn interest on the one off payment from the bank.  To qualify for some bonus payments you need to make regular deposits into your savings account – for example one payment per month for six months, perhaps with a specified minimum value – and you’ll be eligible.

So before you decide on a savings account bonus over perhaps a competitive interest rate ensure you are able to fulfill all the necessary criteria to be eligible for the payment first.

If you happen to be a small business owner looking for savings account bonuses, check out this great link to business finance software.