Bank Of America Tries To Patent Keeping The Change?
from the anyone-know-where-the-patent-is? dept
Steve Mueller writes "I've recently been hearing an ad on the radio in Silicon Valley for Bank of America's "Keep the Change" plan. Basically, when you use your debit card, they round the purchase up to the next dollar and deposit the "change" in your savings account. It sounds interesting, but what really got me was the "patent pending" notice at the end of the commercial. This seems like yet another stupid business method patent. The website doesn't mention the patent pending status. " This program got a lot of attention last month when it was announced. Anyone know of the patent in question?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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iTunes just got expensive
If I used this bank, suddenly all my iTunes purchases jump to $2 and even though I would get the money back (by withdrawing it from the savings account) it's just that much more of a hassle...
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Re: iTunes just got expensive
2) It seems like the money goes into YOUR savings account. Not sure how you think things get more expensive if you end up just shuffling the money around you own accounts.
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Re: iTunes just got expensive
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Re: iTunes just got expensive
As for why it's useful...
The theory is the same as before credit/debit cards were common place. People used to pay for things with with cash (you remember cash, don't you?) At the end of the day they'd have a pocket full of change, which they'd drop into a jar at home. A few months of saving your change quickly adds up to a hundred dollars or more.
This plan might not suit everyone, but, for me, it's an easy way to save a little extra on top of what I normally deposit into my savings account each month.
Another benefit: suddenly all (most) of your transactions are whole dollar amounts. It makes balancing your checkbook easier for those who do it by hand.
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So let me get this straight...
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Re: So let me get this straight...
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What is the point?????
Admittedly, I'm too lazy to read about the offer myself.
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Re: What is the point?????
Does THAT give you the warm fuzzies?
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No Subject Given
I'm sure that there is also a difference in what the BoA can actually do with your money depending on what account it is deposited in. IE if it's in savings they can invest certain % of it or something.
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Re: No Subject Given
Dumb program, nice try to grab a few more pennies.
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Hmm.. Maybe.
1) Financial institutions like money in savings because they pay low interest, and they can use that money for other lending. Add up millions of customers, and that can be a nice chunk.
2) The Bankruptcy legislation they had passed included several easter eggs for themselves, including raising the default interest rate to Usury levels of 30%+, the "universal default rule" which allows all accounts to raise your interest rate if you default on one, and other things to increase their profits.
With the Federal Reserve recently mandating that all Credit Card companies double the minimum payments, you will see a lot of unhappy people start to go bankrupt (which is much harder to do now, of course) and pay usury on lines of credit. At that time, they will want to point to these types of programs and say "Hey! Look! We care about consumers and their savings. Look at this nifty plan we came up with that, maximum, saves people less than a dollar a day. Aren't we grand?"
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Re: Hmm.. Maybe.
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Re: Hmm.. Maybe.
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I use it..
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Re: I use it..
.99
.5 (surcharge)
---
1.04
Round up 2.00
- .96 (amount rounded up, that get's redeposited into my account)
---
1.04
-.96 (BoA's match to my savings)
---
$.08 cost of a single music download transaction
13 songs for the price of 1 a whole album for the price of 1 single song
Given that a song lasts an average of 3.5 minutes
I could buy a full year of music for $200
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No Subject Given
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Re: No Subject Given
The intention of this program is to encourage customers to use the Debit side of their card which is more cost effective for the banks and merchants.
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Re: No Subject Given
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great idea
it won't cross your mind, and then several months (or years) down the road, you'll remember it and have a pretty good size savings account without any effort.
i do think they should implement some options for it, such as only rounding it off if its a certain amount. (so $x.01 purchases don't get marked up almost a whole dollar, etc...)
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Re: great idea
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what about debit card charges?
Doesn't sound as good as it did before. I think I'll stick with the automatic transfer of $25 into my savings account.
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Re: what about debit card charges?
i am not a BofA customer, but the only time i get charged for using my debit card is when i get money out of an ATM that isn't owned by my bank...
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Re: what about debit card charges?
I think it's a terrible waste of money to be honest. I can understand that they want their 'fees' for whatever reason... but... damn.. they need to stop gouging us for our hard earned money. we get enough of that with taxes and interest and things of that sort that we have to pay.
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Missing The Point
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Good idea; bad patent
Seriously, if the process exists in the real world, how the heck can someone patent the recreation of said process, practically verbatim, using bits and bytes?
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Good idea; bad patent (Except ofcourse, you are go
While were at it, let see the grocery stores patent the way box-boys load groceries into the bags -- and fast-food stores such as McDonalds and Burger King patent they or that food must be placed into their bags (burger always goes in first, with fries being the last thing placed into the bag)
Does this all sound silly or does it sound like what BofA is attempting to do...
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Re: Good idea; bad patent
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yep your checks will bounce
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Dumb butt patent
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