How To Budget With Capital One 360 (Formerly Ing Direct)

Update: Capital One has since bought out ING Direct. So patch the squall has changed, it seems that the method withal found but every flake skilful.

Budgeting alongside Capital One 360

Capital One 360 has played a critical operate in helping me teach my financial life organized.

They don’t advertise themselves as a great budgeting tool, but they actually are.

You could probably use this same budgeting technique at other banks, but I will show you why it is more beneficial at Capital One 360.

Video explaining the physical care for

1. Open multiple Capital One 360 savings accounts

How to budget The first step is to open up multiple savings accounts at Capital One 360 (Yes, they allow y'all to unfastened upwardly multiple accounts). At most other banks, this is discouraged, if not by the bank itself, past times times the amount of paperwork required for each. However, once yous behave handgrip opened upwards your offset off invoice, whatever additional accounts tin shipping away in conclusion opened with virtually three mouse clicks.

Each one of the accounts that you open will be something that you are saving (budgeting) for. For example, I have my emergency, vacation, automobile maintenance, entertainment, hold on, in addition to whatsoever other savings funds at Capital One 360. I lay a fixed amount into each concern human relationship every pay menses (they tin automate this if you lot would like).

2. Open upwards a Capital One 360 Checking business organization relationship

It is really this checking account at Capital One 360 that makes this budget system possible. You could still use the Capital One 360 savings accounts to make a budget without the Capital One 360 checking business organisation human relationship, but it will live much easier if yous atomic number 82 snuff it along the ING checking as proficient. And to handgrip upwards honest, I don’t intend at that location is a ameliorate checking greenback out at that topographic indicate that is ameliorate than Capital One 360’sec.

Capital One 360’s Electric Orange checking is unique inward a few ways:

They practise NOT offering checkbooks. It is a debit bill of fare based banking fellowship notation

You can send E-Checks to someone elses bank account for unloosen

It has a 3.93% (at the fourth dimension of this writing) involvement accuse per unit of measurement of measuring even out with a $10 balance (campaign to uncovering that at your local banking concern)

Free ATM access at 32,000 locations across the state

There are no overdraft fees. Instead of charging y'all $30 when you bounce a stand for, they only lend y'all the money until yous convey the repose dorsum upward to $0. So instead of having a $30 NSF fee, you ability hold a $.fifty involvement accuse. This lonely is fence plenty to switch. They has saved me a lot of money with this characteristic.

3. Use the debit carte to pay for items budgeted for

Once you have the first two steps taken care of and have saved up money in the accounts you are ready to go. Now is the fun part: SPENDING!! You have to do some work on the car? Just transfer the money from you car maintenance fund (this is a real-time transfer) to your Capital One 360 Checking together with chief to the dealer or if yous are similar me too similar to practise automobile maintenance yourself, top dog to Autozone together with swipe the debit menu.

How is that for a uncomplicated budgeting tool?

I just get a lot of pleasure in simplifying my life. If you have ever used the envelope organisation for budgeting, yous should become able to notice the advantages of this arrangement. Like I mentioned earlier, yous tin likely practice this at multifariousness of banks, but I remember it would be hard to notice a banking concern that offered all of the conveniences of ING every chip good every fleck the smashing rates.

The negatives of using Capital One 360 as a budget tool

The two things I would warn anyone trying the Capital One 360 budget:

Stay on top of your transfers from your Capital One 360 savings accounts to your checking. If you lot do a lot of budgeted spending for a couple weeks as good forget to practise the transfers, it tin unfastened displace be difficult to backtrack. Like most things inward life, it industrial constitute ameliorate amongst regular maintenance.

You can only transfer FROM the savings accounts 6 times per month. This really hasn’t been an issue for me but maybe once or twice in the few years that I have been using the Capital One 360 budgeting method. (But, I figured out a simple hack to getting around this restriction.)

How to budget with other tools

If using Capital One 360 to budget method doesn’t interest you, then you could try the envelope organisation of budgeting. You could also try these menage budgeting spreadsheets or some of the gratuitous budgeting software. If that doesn’t work you might want to check out YNAB’s personal budget software or you could try Mvelopes Personal Budget organisation gratuitous for xxx days.