Best High Yield Interest Savings Accounts

So I was looking around for CD rates, and Ally Bank has a good one that would work for people who do not have a lot of money to put it. They have a CD that has no minimum, and if you sign up for a 1 year term CD, you would get 1.85%. Now, considering there is no minimum to open this Certificate of Deposit, this is a good deal. I know that a lot of other banks have a minimum of anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 to get a CD with a rate that is actually lower than that. Make sure that you will not be needing any money that you are putting into the CD, because if you call back your CD, you will get a reduced amount of earnings from the interest. So it is best that you just keep the money in there until it matures.

Just for a quick comparison for the Ally High Yield CD, here is what Bank of America is offering you for a 1 year CD:
* 12 month term with 1.01% APY4
* $5,000 minimum opening balance

Now, Ally has no minimum. BofA has a 5 grand minimum. The interest rate alone makes it a no brainer over who you would go with. There were other places that I looked at. HSBC offers CDs, but they had a 1.5% CD rate for one year, and I believe the minimum to open one was 2,000 but I could be wrong.

The associated press had reported that 7 more banks had failed, bringing the total number of bank failures for this year to 140. When you see something like this, it really makes you wonder whether your money is truly safe. Now, unless you have more than the amount of money the FDIC is insuring, you have no serious concerns since the FDIC takes over the banks and reimburses everyone for the insured amount. The one thing you might have to worry about is how long your money might be inaccessible. If you are really worried that you might have an account with a bank that could fail, you could just open an account with a bank that the government has been supporting. Obviously, the government is not going to let BofA or Chase fail, so those are two options. Another way is to simply have two different bank accounts.

It is important for you to keep your savings in a high interest savings account. This is especially important if you are the kind of person who likes to keep thousands of dollars in cash sitting around the house. Why, do you ask? Because inflation eats away at your money. As time goes on, our dollar is devalued. You remember your parents saying a piece of candy used to cost a nickle? The reason that same piece of candy that use to cost a nickle is now a dollar is because of inflation. So next year, that $10,000 that is sitting in your safe at home is not going to have the same purchase power that it has now. One way to help defend yourself against inflation is to keep that money in a high interest account. There are better ways to defend yourself from inflation, but that is one way that a lot of people are comfortable with doing. Other ways would be investing in a business, real estate, etc., but I know that a lot of people are not too familiar and probably want a low risk method. Savings bonds are also a great idea since they could earn more interest than a savings account, but they are not as liquid.

In today’s economy, you need to make sure you are getting the best bang for your buck. Don’t let any money making opportunity slip by, especially if it is as easy as putting your money to work in a savings account. There is no reason to have your money sitting in an account earning you no money. It should always be in a high interest bank account so you are getting some kind of money from it.

That is a crazy number to swallow. The reason is because I am imagining how much those people spend on services like cash checking, pay day loans, etc. The main thing I am focusing on is the expenses those people pay to have their checks cashed. Some places will charge you $7 to have your checks cashed, and wal mart will charge you $3 to have your checks cashed. That will add up over the year. If you get paid bi-weekly and cash your checks at Wal Mart, you will pay $78. If you go to other check cashing places that charge $7, that is $182 that you blow on check cashing fees! You can get a free savings account that earns interest, and you pay nothing to have your checks cashed. I never really thought about how many people do or do not have bank accounts, but after reading the news article that says 25% of households do not have an account, I am stunned.

I am wondering what is stopping these people from opening a savings or checking account. Are they not finding free accounts to bank with, or do they simply not care for a bank account? If they are paying fees for alternative banking services like check cashing, they are really doing financial harm to themselves. Fees can eat up money and you won’t even realize it until you think about it.

To me, it seems that Bank of America offers low interest savings accounts. Compared to other banks like HSBC, Ally, and a few other banks, BofA’s deal on a savings account does not look enticing at all. If anyone can show me otherwise, I would like to see it. It could be that I am overlooking something on their website, but I do not see much of an offering from them with their interest rate on savings accounts.

Here is what I found on Bank of America’s website:

Now, to me that looks like crap. I can find a handful of banks out there that will be offering a lot more interest than what you see above. That lack of interest that they offer on their accounts could be one reason why you do not really see them pushing their saving account products to anyone. If you are looking to open a savings account that will earn you some decent interest, the last place you should be looking is Bank of America.