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You might be able to pay a bill directly from your savings account — but should you if you’re allowed? Read on to find out.
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Savings accounts are often pretty basic, as bank accounts go. Add money to one, and if you’ve got a high-yield savings account, you could see some pretty decent growth over time. And if your account is with an FDIC-insured bank (as it should be!), your money will be protected and waiting for you when you need it.
If you’re paying for an expense using money from your savings account (say, booking flights and hotels for that sweet vacation you’ve been saving up for), you might wonder if you can just cut out the middleman and pay using your savings account directly. While it may technically be possible, it’s not a good idea. Here’s why.
How would making a payment using a savings account work?
When you make a payment from your checking account, you generally use one of a few different methods. You can write a paper check (how retro!), do a bank transfer using your routing and account numbers, pay with a debit card, or use a payments app that’s linked to your account.
You may be able to access some of these payment methods using your savings account. If you’re making a bank transfer payment, you may be able to plug in your savings account number and the bank’s routing number, and enable the payment to be taken directly from the account. Similarly, you can link a savings account to a payments app and withdraw directly from it that way. And if you have a savings account that offers a debit card (not common!), you could make purchases with it.
So why not make payments out of your savings like this? Well, your savings account isn’t really designed to be a payments account. As such, many banks still enforce limits of six convenient withdrawals per month (this harkens back to Regulation D rules). Go over that number and you could incur a fee or even have your savings account changed to a checking account. And when you provide your savings account number and your bank’s routing number to an outside party, you could be putting your money at risk. It’s a much better move to use a different payment method.
Use these payment methods instead of your savings account
Your checking account was designed to make it easy to pay bills! As mentioned above, you can write a check or whip out a debit card. In the case of utility bills or mortgage/rent payments, you can set up bank transfers using your checking account.
A credit card is another fabulous way to make payments. Your line of credit isn’t linked to your bank account balance, so if something goes wrong and you lose your credit card or it gets stolen, you’re not liable for fraudulent charges. It’s an extremely safe payment method. Plus, a rewards credit card gives you the opportunity to earn cash back or points on purchases you were going to make anyway. Your savings account doesn’t give you that.
And if you’re paying for something like a travel booking, you could be using a travel credit card and earning even more. When I book travel using money I’ve saved, I make the booking using my travel credit card, and then transfer the money from savings to a linked checking account so I can pay off the credit card using that money — rather than paying for it directly out of my savings.
Your savings account is special
Your savings account is a home for your emergency fund and also for money you’re saving for an expense in the next few years. If you have money you’ll be spending sooner rather than later (say, for this month’s bills), it’s best kept in your checking account so you have easy access to it. And if it’s for a longer-term goal (such as retirement), consider investing it with a brokerage, because doing so over a long time window gives you the opportunity to grow your money substantially.
In a pinch, sure, you might be able to pay bills with your savings account. But as you can see, there are better ways to tackle those bills, and your savings account has its own special purposes.
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