When to move your money to a different bank

Dear Dave,

My wife and I are debt-free except for our home, and we're currently putting money aside for our fully loaded emergency fund of three to six months of expenses. Currently, we have our emergency fund account in the same bank as our checking and savings accounts. Do you think we should move it to a different bank?

Steve

Dear Steve,

I wouldn't worry too much about that if I were you. The only exception to that might be if you had loans that you owed to that same bank. Then, I would probably move my emergency fund out of there just in case something went wrong with the loans.

Some commercial loan documents now give the bank the right to take money out of your account to pay the loan — without your permission. If you had a car loan, for instance, with that particular bank, I wouldn't keep a bunch of money in that bank. They normally don't do that unless you're way behind on the bill — and then it gets pretty adversarial.

Sometimes there can be things like a simple clerical error, and there's no chance of that happening if the money's in another bank. But in your situation, I don't see any harm in you being there.

-Dave

Dave Ramsey is America's trusted voice on money and business. He has authored five New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover,EntreLeadership and Smart Money Smart Kids. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 6 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.