If you’ve never thought of a bank as a place to make money, this may all sound too good to be true, but your bank can actually help increase your balance. You just need to understand how to use financial instruments to make money from your bank account.
You probably heard the old joke. When asked why he robbed banks, the criminal said: “Because that’s where all the money is!”
While there is a lot of money there, becoming a bank robber is probably not the smartest way to go. But collecting interest doesn’t do you much good either. The average interest rate on a bank savings account is only 0.17% APY, and even the best banks only offer around 1%.
If you are wondering how to make money from your bank account, there are some interesting and lucrative ways to make money from your bank account you need to take advantage of.
Do banks offer bonuses?
Nowadays, many banks offer a cash bonus for opening a new account with them. This way, if you’re looking for a new bank account in the market, you can tuck a few extra dollars in your pocket.
By offering a bank account bonus, financial institutions sweeten the process of opening an account with them. However, if you are looking for a new account, understanding exactly what you are getting into is important.
1. Invest in bank stocks
One way to make money with a bank is to own one or at least part of them. It’s as simple as buying bank stocks.
Check out Wells Fargo (WFC), one of Warren Buffett’s favorites. Five years ago, you could have bought the stock for less than $25 per share, but right now it’s over $55.
Not only would you have more than doubled your money, but you would have collected dividends – the stock is currently paying around 2.6%.
2. Get a job at a bank
The median annual wage for bank employees is only about $27,000, but the median wage for the top 10% of workers in this position is closer to $36,000. That’s not bad for a job that typically only requires a high school diploma.
There are also opportunities for advancement. As a cashier, you can work your way up to higher paying positions including cashier, manager, and loan officer.
3. Collect sign up bonuses
Chase recently offered $250 to new checking account customers, but these promotions are coming and going fast so they may not be available at the time of reading.
To find up-to-date offers like this, use Google Maps to find banks in your area (try “banks” and your city name). Then look for each bank name and sign up bonus to see what you find.
Read the fine print carefully to make sure you meet all of the qualifications.
4. Go on a coin roll hunt
The concept is simple enough: buy dime, quarter and half dollar buns at the bank and look for coins from before 1965. They are 90% silver, so they are worth a lot more than face value. We did this as kids and found silver coins on a regular basis.
Coin roll hunting is still popular today. In addition to the silver ones, you can sometimes find coins that are old enough to offer value to collectors. However, it will make it harder to find the old coins, so you may not be making much for your time.
5. Try Penny Hoarding
Pennies minted prior to 1983 were mostly made of copper, while now they are mostly made of zinc. At nearly $3 a pound for copper, these older pennies are worth about two cents each.
Penny hoarders hide them by the tens of thousands, waiting for the day when they can legally melt them down for their copper value.
You can buy pennies from your bank in $25 boxes (2,500 coins). My last tests before 1983 gave 7% to 15% pennies. You can sell them on eBay for around $135 per $100 face value. However, to make this worth your time, you will likely need to invest in a penny sorting machine that will separate out the older copper cents.
6. Loans for a company
One of the most traditional ways to make money with a bank is to take out borrowing to build a profitable business.
You might want to look for a bank that manages SBA loans. The Small Business Administration guarantees a portion of these loans so the banks are ready to take the risk.
7. Borrow to turn a house over
You found a great Fixer upper to make a profit on, but you don’t have the money to buy the house. Getting a loan to flip a house has been difficult, but recently the FHA lifted its rule against flipping houses for foreclosure sales so some banks are ready to take out loans for these projects.
Another way to raise the money needed to invest in a fixer-upper is to borrow against your own house if you have enough equity.
8. Buy a bank foreclosure
Banks are not only where all the money is, but also where all the houses are – at least the deeds. Many banks have a ton of foreclosures to sell, and you could fix and sell some of them for a good profit.
And you may not need as much money as you think to buy one of these bank foreclosures. It all depends on where you live.
9. Get a credit card
How can you make money by getting a credit card from your bank? Well, there are these sign up bonuses. Then there are points that you get for using the cards that can be converted into cash.
The interest rates on bank savings accounts are terrible, averaging 0.17% per year. When opening a new bank account, however, a higher “teaser rate” can often be achieved.
For example, Everbank pays 1.4% to a money market account and a checking account. That is eight times the national average.
After six months, your account will reset to its regular rate (which is still pretty good), but you can do what I did and transfer your money to another bank in due course.
11. Have your change converted into cash by a local credit union
In almost every household in America there is this huge jar of change that no one gets to roll. This is because most of the larger banks stop counting and throwing change for you, leaving you unable to roll coins.
While you can find coin counters in almost every grocery store these days, these take up some of the money unless you turn your coins into a gift card.
Rather than bothering about all of that, most local credit unions have coin counting machines that are free for members. This means you can keep every penny of your money and do whatever you want with it, including adding it to your account.
12. Take advantage of the sign up bonuses
Banks often offer attractive sign-up bonuses for opening an account with them. To qualify for these bonuses, you will likely need to open an account, maintain a certain balance for a certain period of time, and sometimes participate in qualifying transactions such as B. when setting up a direct deposit.
If you think of sign-up bonuses as not-so-useful promotions, it’s time to update your expectations. Modern sign-up bonuses can offer staggering amounts of money that will go a long way toward improving your finances.
These types of bonuses come and go so it is important that you do your homework where banks offer the best sign-up promotions with requirements that best suit your needs.
13. Negotiate out of paying fees
We tend to view bank charges as immutable facts, but they are guidelines rather than actual rules. So that means there is a bit of leeway to talk your way out of paying a fee that you disagree with.
If you think the fee is a mistake, the first thing you should do is investigate the matter and bring the mistake to your bank’s attention.
Even if the bank is correct that you have overdrawn your account (or are using an ATM off the network), you may still be able to waive the fee, especially if this is your first time facing a fee at your bank.
Conclusion
Opening a new bank account or moving to a new financial institution can be a complicated process. However, knowing how to make money from your bank account while doing standard banking can make the business a little sweeter.
It is always important to make sure that you sign up for an account that you can meet the requirements for.
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