Keeping tabs on your savings account is always a good idea. There are all sorts of things that can happen to unattended accounts, if you are not careful:
1. interest rates can drop unexpectedly especially if you signed up for ‘teaser’ rates. Just assuming that the high interest rate will continue after the teaser rate window is closed is likely a mistake. Often banks will knock the rate right down as soon as the teaser rates are ended… then you’ll find that that 3% extra rate for the first three months ends up costing you more over the next six months or nine months.
2. unattended accounts can get ‘lost’… you lose the books, the cards, the passwords, perhaps even the branch moves, … now try getting that money back after five years! You’ll be lucky if you can’t prove that the particular account is yours. It’s happened to me on several occasions when I lost a passbook, or forgot that I had an account (perhaps because it was opened for a former employer)…
3. accounts that you lose track of can end up costing you money, if someone else finds the access information and illegally or fraudulently withdraws from your account. If you don’t monitor that account carefully, the fraud could occur and not be noticed for months or even years!
So, don’t let that savings account be unattended. If you don’t need it, close it. If you can’t close it, put the books in a lock-box, a safety deposit box or somewhere you know you’ll never lose them.