I was looking for a higher interest rate savings account that would automatically deduct from my checking and Smarty Pig is the answer. As mentioned above, there are restrictions on how to get your money out, but hopefully that won't be a problem when i take my money out next year.

There is a long and arduous process to sign up, including picking your security picture ?!?! from a list and they also do an identity check similar to if you've ever tried to get your credit report. However, it took me less than 30 minutes to sign up and less than 2 minutes to set up my first savings goal.

You can't pick the amount for the required monthly deduction from your checking account. You enter your initial deposit, your future total goal and the date by which you'd like to achieve that goal. Smarty Pig then calculates the required monthly deduction. So, you would have to tweak those three inputs if you're looking for a specific deduction amount, like I was.

I wouldn't use the public savings goal feature, because I don't need or want to ask my friends and family for money, but I think it's a neat option to have for students or even newlyweds.