Rainy days are happy ones for Truliant Federal Credit Union members. In just 14 months, Truliant's "Rainy Day" saving accounts helped members save more than $1 million. The account was created to prove that pennies really do make a difference. At the end of each business day, members that have signed up for the account have everything to the right of the decimal in their checking account transferred to their Rainy Day savings account. "So far more than 5,200 members have signed up for the account," said Donnie Peaks, director of deposit services and Rainy Day account creator at the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based credit union. "The average transfer changes from day-to-day, but it tends to range between 47 cents and 54 cents each day." Peaks said it was important that this particular savings program be a simple, member- friendly way for members to save money systematically without it being a burden. Unlike other programs out there, he said the focus of the Rainy Days account is savings. "We saw what some other financial institutions were offering, and what we didn't want is to create a habit of spending to save," said Peaks. "The thinking behind it was if they started in January then by December members could have a few hundred saved up. What we've seen is that they check their Rainy Day account after a month, and they are surprised they've managed to save so much. We've also seen a few make additional deposits." He credited the high member participation to the ease of use. To spread the word the over $1.2 billion credit union simply alerted members via e-mail and statement inserts. Peaks said it took some four months to get from concept to launch, most of which was spent on developing and testing the technology to transfer the change from the checking account to the Rainy Day account. "Saving money isn't always easy and all members had to do to start saving was simply say yes sign me up for the Rainy Day account," said Peaks. "Hitting the $1 million in savings mark feels great because we've truly helped our members save a substantial amount of money. Best of all, they've saved without a lot of effort or hurdles and it didn't require the swipe of a debit card." –[email protected]