A debit card that can be bought at currency exchanges now pays a better savings interest rate than average interest-bearing checking accounts.

People who have a savings account through a NetSpend debit card can earn 3 percent on their deposits as of this month, according to Austin, Tex.-based NetSpend. That's more than double the average of 1.46 percent for interest-bearing checking accounts, according to Bankrate.com.

The All-Access National Savings Program is the result of a 2005 agreement between Financial Service Centers of America, which represents 6,000 currency exchanges across the United States, and NetSpend, which makes stored-value cards. The annual percentage rate yield on All-Access deposits had been 0.75 percent.

NetSpend allows customers to "load" their card with money, and then use it to retrieve cash at ATMs, or pay at grocery stores or wherever MasterCard is accepted. The customer pays for the card, plus a fee when he adds money to the card.

A customer can maintain two "buckets" on a NetSpend card, one for spending and one for saving.

"We see this as a way of attracting more banking customers because not only are we more convenient, but we have a better savings product," said Bob Wolfberg, president of Chicago-based PLS Financial, holding company for both PLS Check Cashers and PLS Payday Loan Stores.

One advantage of the program is that customers cannot overdraw their account and incur fees. They also do not need a minimum balance, Wolfberg said.

Participation in the NetSpend savings program has grown almost 15 percent per month in 2006, according to NetSpend.

 

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