CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Carolina Postal Credit Union is on a mission to show members that bankers' new “spend and save” debit card accounts can't measure up to good old fashioned payroll deduction saving.

To spread the savings word, CPCU is using direct mail, e-mail, banners, Web banners, and a new one-stop blog for savings hints and advice at www.BrighterthanaBank.blogspot.com .

According to CPCU Vice President of Marketing/Business Development Deb McLean, bankers' spend and save accounts “only add up to pennies a day, and consumers don't get any substantial savings built up from it.”

For example, based on several members' accounts that CPCU compared, at the end of one year's time, on average, members would have saved only $180.77 with Bank of America's Keep the Change account and $452 with Wachovia's Way2Save account. McLean says members depositing just $25 a week in a CPCU savings account would end up with $1226.68 at the end of the year, representing more than double the banks' year-end total.