After opening my Capital One Interest Checking account yesterday, I realized that I now have 3 4 checking accounts. Add that to the 4 savings, 3 brokerage, 6 credit, and 2 Paypal accounts I have, and I’d say that I’m an official account whore. What can I say – one of each just ain’t enough. 
5 of these accounts are located at ING Direct – the king of “sub-accounts”. Not sure why they everyone calls them sub-accounts though. Each account gets its own number and everything. The part that’s awesome is that ING keeps EVERY account you open attached to the same log in. Makes checking balances and transferring money much easier. ING makes online banking so easy that sometimes it kicks my OCD into overdrive and I think about creating dozens of savings account for every possible scenario. Then I pop a Zoloft and step away from the keyboard.
But like I said yesterday, ING Direct isn’t the best international travel companion. So I turned to Capital One for their very cool “no fee on foreign transactions & we reimburse you for ATM fees”* checking account. *Not what they actually call it. The rest of my accounts are spread across a half dozen other banks and companies:
Brokerage: One (or two?) E*Trade account(s) where I hold my company stock and the remains of a Roth IRA I haven’t transferred yet. My other Roth IRA is at Vanguard, currently dropping in value like crazy. Finally, one Treasury Direct account where I hold a few savings bonds.
Credit: Rocking the Chase Amazon, Chase British Airways, Citi AAdvantage, Discover More, AMEX Blue, & Old Navy Visa cards.
PayPal: One for personal stuff like eBay and buying stuff online. Another for my “small business” AKA this website. Every few months, an advertiser will offer me some easy cash and I have them send it here.
According to my math, that makes a total of 19 accounts. How many accounts do you have? What do you use your separate accounts for?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
That seems like a crazy number of accounts, but when I add it up, looks like I’m up there, too.
Cash
- 1 chequing account (local credit union)
- 3 CAD savings account (1 at credit union, 2 at ING Direct)
- 1 USD savings account (ING Direct)
Credit Cards: Just 2
- BMO Air Miles Mastercard
- Citizen’s Bank Amnesty International Visa
I only use the Visa if I run into somewhere that doesn’t do Mastercard…which means I last used it 3 years ago.
Investment:
- 2 Taxable trading accounts (Questrade and TD Waterhouse).
- 4 RRSPs (as I understand it, this is equivalent to both a traditional IRA and a 401k in the US). (1 with TD Mutual Funds, 1 through work to get the match (1% of my income), 1 at Questrade for maximum flexibility and 1 at ING to take advantage of their fund offerings)
- 1 TFSA (equivalent to a Roth IRA). This one’s at Questrade.
Debt:
- 3 government-backed student loand (1 provincial, 1 federal, and one from when they used to be issued through banks)
- 1 mortgage
- 1 family debt
- 2 student lines of credit (1 from TD Bank in repayment mode, one from my credit union that’s just a limit I haven’t drawn yet.)
So that’s 21. And then it starts depending what qualifies as an account. 4 brokerage accounts actually have a USD account associated with a different number, but I don’t hold anything in those at the moment. I own shares in 3 co-ops (my bank, power company, and outdoor sport equipment retailer). My mortgage has an associated property tax escrow account which accumulates my annual property tax in bi-weekly installments, but doesn’t get credited towards the mortgage or reduce my interest payments.
I’m also in the middle of a consolidation, so there’s 2 accounts (TD Waterhouse brokerage account and TD Mutual Funds RRSP) that I’m in the process of closing. Hopefully within the next 3 years I’ll be able to get rid of my last 2 remaining ties to TD.
One thing I’ve leared is that it’s a lot easier to open accounts than to close them, and excessive complication in your financial life is detrimental to staying on top of everything.
I thought the same thing – 19 sounds like so many but I think most people have a similar # or even higher.