The biggest 'saver' in our family is... drum roll... Terence. He finds creative ways to earn money (i.e. helping with chores) and has been saving his earned money, tooth fairy money and birthday money for a couple of years in his piggy bank. Recently, while at the bank, we learned that the minimum age to open a bank account is 6 years old. So, we explained the concept of a savings account and the idea of earning interest to Terence and he quickly scooped up his bills and coins and begged us to take him to the bank.
As of Friday, Terence has an official savings account which holds his very first deposit of 17,775 HUF. Based on Yahoo's currency calculator this equals US$111. Not bad! He is so thrilled. He even got to pick out the design for his first ATM card (he chose dolphins) which they will be posting to him in about 2 weeks. He'll be able to withdraw a maximum of 2,000HUF / day only. If he needs to withdraw more in one day then he and I need to go into the bank together to take the money out of his account.
The other exciting thing is that he will earn 1 point per month for every month that he deposits a minimum of 1,000HUF. After 3 months of doing this he will be eligible for several toys / presents from the bank. There are 3 levels of prizes: 3 points, 6 points and 9 points. Terence has spent many hours examining this menu and planning which things he will aim to get.
This first picture is him carrying his wad of money. He had about 8,000HUF in coins!! The cashier wasn't so thrilled about having to count these.
As of Friday, Terence has an official savings account which holds his very first deposit of 17,775 HUF. Based on Yahoo's currency calculator this equals US$111. Not bad! He is so thrilled. He even got to pick out the design for his first ATM card (he chose dolphins) which they will be posting to him in about 2 weeks. He'll be able to withdraw a maximum of 2,000HUF / day only. If he needs to withdraw more in one day then he and I need to go into the bank together to take the money out of his account.
The other exciting thing is that he will earn 1 point per month for every month that he deposits a minimum of 1,000HUF. After 3 months of doing this he will be eligible for several toys / presents from the bank. There are 3 levels of prizes: 3 points, 6 points and 9 points. Terence has spent many hours examining this menu and planning which things he will aim to get.
This first picture is him carrying his wad of money. He had about 8,000HUF in coins!! The cashier wasn't so thrilled about having to count these.
Here he is signing his signature. He can only write 'Terence' in script / cursive so this is all he put. The bank teller was very nice and whispered to me that his signature wasn't necessary but he was asking for it as he could see it made Terence feel a bit more important.
