I thought I’d share a handful of money saving tricks that often fail to make most “Top 10 lists”.  These aren’t game-changing moves that will pull you from near-poverty into the realm of tremendous wealth, but each of them works like a charm.  To make things even better, they’re all incredibly quick and easy to implement.

Automatic Payments & Transfers. Most of us can handle our banking online and set up bill payment and balance transfers to happen automatically.  This isn’t going to decrease your cost of living in any real way (you’re still paying the bills in the same amounts), but it does insure that everything gets paid right on time, every time.  That has real value because it prevents you from overlooking a payment or making a late payment.  Thus, you avoid the fees associated with those delinquencies while protecting your credit ratings at the same time.

Additionally, if you set up automatic transfers into savings or investment accounts you’ll be better able to resist the temptation to spend that money.  It will be automatically “socked away” for you before you even have a chance to consider a shopping spree.  As we’ve discussed before, a large component of successful personal finance management involves our habits and psychology.  This is a great example of how you can hedge against your own bad habits a little bit with a small proactive measure.

Shop for the Best Checking Account. Not all checking accounts are created equal.  Most banks have a variety of different options from which to choose and you might not be using the best choice for your habits.  Interest rates, ATM fees, bank fees and other details might vary substantially between account types.  The next time you stop by your bank, talk with someone there about your situation and make an account-type switch if it can save you some money.

There’s nothing wrong about seeing what other banks are offering, either.  Your bank might not have the best package for you.  It doesn’t cost money to move your accounts to another bank.  If another institution is rolling out the red carpet while your bank isn’t even handing out calendars, it might be time to make a move.  Relatively small differences in account perks can add up to a substantial difference over time.

Minimize Your Checking Account Balance. Our goal is to increase our financial well-being, but that doesn’t mean we need to overstuff our checking accounts.  You need to keep enough money in the account to cover your expenditures, but there’s no good reason to allow your balance to get much larger than that.  With very few exceptions, checking accounts don’t offer a good rate of return on your deposits.  Your money will work harder for you if you move it out of checking and into a higher interest-bearing account.  You don’t even need to move the money into a long-term investment to make this work.  Even a short-term switch into a higher interest checking account can make a difference and it only takes a few mouse clicks to make it happen.

When you look at this money saving trick, it’s incredibly obvious.  For whatever reason, though, most people don’t take advantage of it.  They’ll carry far more in their checking accounts than what they actually need to have in them, even though something as simple as a transfer into a lowly little savings account would be making them more money (even if the money is only parked there temporarily before being returned to checking, if that need should ever arise).

When it comes to personal finance, it makes sense to take advantage of all available and efficient money saving tricks.  These three tried and true methods are perfect examples of the “little things” that can eventually add up to making a huge difference.