RunningBum
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2007
- Messages
- 13,250
I have a credit union account in another city, 200 miles away, associated with one of my ex-employers. A number of years ago I moved over to PenFed for my primary bank account, and have a savings acct at Wells Fargo just in case I need local service, or a 2nd ATM option. I had an HSA (no fees and good fixed interest rate) with the CU but just moved that out to give more investment options. I had kept the CU checking account funded and used it for checkwriting because I happened to have a lot of checks and was starting to run low with my PenFed checks.
Recently there was a discussion in another thread about simplifying accounts, and I decided there was no reason to keep the CU account anymore. It's just one more place I have to keep money to cover checks. I've transferred most of my money out, and just have one more check to clear, then I can PM the bank and they can close it and mail me a check for whatever is left.
But should I? All I have to do is keep $250 in the account to avoid an inactivity fee, and there are no other fees. They provide a $1500 death benefit, which I rediscovered as I was going through my lock box today. That's what made me start to reconsider, that I could keep the policy just for tying up $250. It's possible they'd have some other benefit I'd use, though most of what they offer is local. It's possible I'd move my HSA back once I start withdrawing from it and the balance gets to low to make investing worthwhile. Or maybe I'd have issues with PenFed and want to leave them, and it'd be pretty simple to start using the CU again.
Looking for any opinions on pros and cons of leaving the account open that I haven't thought of. I keep a record of the account in my lock box and estate instructions so it wouldn't be forgotten, and $250 is no big deal if it is. I could forget about it in my month-to-month dealings. I'd keep a line in my "Net Worth" spreadsheet which would be a reminder that it's still there. I similarly have a few cents in my TDAmeritrade account that I haven't done anything with in years, but I just logged in and see it's still there if I ever decide to use it again.
Recently there was a discussion in another thread about simplifying accounts, and I decided there was no reason to keep the CU account anymore. It's just one more place I have to keep money to cover checks. I've transferred most of my money out, and just have one more check to clear, then I can PM the bank and they can close it and mail me a check for whatever is left.
But should I? All I have to do is keep $250 in the account to avoid an inactivity fee, and there are no other fees. They provide a $1500 death benefit, which I rediscovered as I was going through my lock box today. That's what made me start to reconsider, that I could keep the policy just for tying up $250. It's possible they'd have some other benefit I'd use, though most of what they offer is local. It's possible I'd move my HSA back once I start withdrawing from it and the balance gets to low to make investing worthwhile. Or maybe I'd have issues with PenFed and want to leave them, and it'd be pretty simple to start using the CU again.
Looking for any opinions on pros and cons of leaving the account open that I haven't thought of. I keep a record of the account in my lock box and estate instructions so it wouldn't be forgotten, and $250 is no big deal if it is. I could forget about it in my month-to-month dealings. I'd keep a line in my "Net Worth" spreadsheet which would be a reminder that it's still there. I similarly have a few cents in my TDAmeritrade account that I haven't done anything with in years, but I just logged in and see it's still there if I ever decide to use it again.