I find that when it comes to bank accounts (savings accounts especially), I’m completely biased. I love Bank of America and ING Direct with a fiery passion, and no one can come between us. My savings system has been in place for years, and when someone starts to talk to me about other savings accounts, I scorn them for mentioning another company. I love ING Direct for it’s sub-account ability, for the fact that I gain interest on checking, and for how user friendly their entire system is. Bank of America is my brick and mortar place. I can deposit checks with no envelopes, there is always an ATM near me, and I like their branding. All is well in my banking world and I stand my ground if someone argues with me on it.

So then, you can imagine my surprise and embarrassment when I was informed of the Wachovia Way2Save account. I realized that it’s actually pretty darn good – and not from my favorite banks. I left Wachovia many years ago after a bout of Overdraft fees and awful customer service, and I’ve openly slandered them to people who have asked my opinion on their banking options. But now I’ve found out that they might have finally gotten something right!

The Way2Save account is not for the huge saver. It’s for the little people trying to sock away some money slowly and without taking too much out of their day to day budget. It’s new, it’s nifty, and here’s how it works:

If you use your Wachovia Check Card, $1 is automatically transferred over to your Savings account. The same deal occurs when you pay an online bill. You can also set up a monthly deposit up to $100 to go in to the account. This may not seem like a way to save a whole bunch of money, but here is the kicker. This account has a 5% interest rate. That is, in short, quite ridiculous in these times. It’s hard to get a savings account anywhere over 3% unless you are putting away thousands of dollars. To add a cherry on top of this, Wachovia is also giving a 5% bonus for the first year of savings and to add sprinkles, this account also gives you Overdraft protection on your regular Wachovia account. This means that instead of incurring a $35 fee and bouncing something if you go overdrawn, you get charged a $10 fee and the needed funds are automatically pulled from your savings account.

Now, I’m not saying that you should go and open a Wachovia account today just to go and get this account. I still think that ING Direct is much better organized, user friendly, and stable… but if you already bank with Wachovia I would go ahead and pick up one of these nifty little accounts for the Overdraft protection alone. It’s a great way to sock a few dollars a month away with minimum impact and maximum return.

I’m greatly hoping that other banks look at this account idea and decide to offer similar products because it is terribly attractive. True, you can’t put away tons and tons of money, but it’s definitely a great way to get new savers started with small savings for high returns.