SmartyPig’s savings account offering is a departure from what you would traditionally think of an online savings account as. While most accounts are very similar to what you would get from your local bank, with the notable exception of a slightly higher interest rate, SmartyPig’s savings account provides a dose of psychology and a strong encouragement to save to its customers.

Instead of simply providing a place to put money, SmartyPig encourages its depositors to develop savings goals for major purchases and then helps them develop automatic savings plans to meet those savings goals. The SmartyPig Savings Account provides the same great interest rates that online savings accounts offer, but it offers a bit of psychological encouragement to save that other online banks simply don’t.

When you first create a SmartyPig savings account, you will be immediately asked what your savings goals. You’ll pick out a dollar amount for a specific purchase or goal and then SmartyPig will help you determine when you can meet that goal and show you how much you’ll have to save each month to meet that goal by the date you desire.

SmartyPig will then setup a savings plan to automatically put money aside from your checking account each month. Using an automatic savings plan like the SmartyPig account is a great way to force yourself to be disciplined if you find yourself having trouble building up savings. Since the money is taken out each month automatically, you don’t have to force yourself to save.

SmartyPig’s savings account does an excellent job of encouraging its users to save by helping them establish meaningful savings goals and setting up automatic savings plans, but it also helps consumers save money when they are ready to make a major purchase. Let’s say that you saved up $1,000 for a big-screen television. If you were to take the $1,000 in your account and redeem it for an Overstock.com gift card to use to buy your television, your $1,000 would turn into $1,070 with the 7% discount that Overstock.com provides to SmartyPig users. SmartyPig also provides consumers the option of withdrawing their funds via electronic transfer or via a prepaid debit card.

SmartyPig’s savings account provides welcome innovation to the world of online savings while offering a great interest rate. While there’s room for improvement, SmartyPig has done an excellent job of rethinking the online savings account.