In the car with Matt yesterday we heard a great Bank of America commercial on the radio. It didn’t grab our attention because it was funny, shocking, or trendy in any way. It was simply straight talk, and it was probably the most effective financial services ad I’ve ever heard.

They’re starting a program called “Keep the Change” (I believe; I couldn’t find anything about it on their website or through Google search, Google blogsearch, etc.).

From what we gathered from the commercial, enrolling in the program allows any purchase made with a BofA debit card to have the purchase amount rounded up to the next dollar. The leftover “change” is then automatically deposited into a savings account.

For example, if I spend $2.35 at a convenience store using my debit card (“my” doesn’t really apply; I’m not a BofA customer), $3.00 is debited from my checking account, $2.35 is paid to the store, and $.65 goes into my savings account.

What a perfect way to advocate financial health!

I hope I hear of some credit unions doing something along these lines soon. It sounds like a really innovative way to allow someone to build up a savings account without even noticing!