- High-yield savings accounts can help you earn up to 20 times more interest on money you need in the short term, while still keeping it safe and accessible.
- Dozens of banks offer high-yield savings accounts, but we compared three of the most popular: Ally’s online savings account, Goldman Sachs’ Marcus account, and Wealthfront’s cash account.
- With no monthly service fees, competitive interest rates, and low or no minimum deposit to open, you really can’t go wrong with any of these high-yield savings accounts.
- It’s important to remember that interest rates fluctuate. It’s fine to choose the account with the highest rate today, but be sure it meets your other needs as well.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
The Federal Reserve has cut interest rates twice since late July. As expected, many banks and financial institutions have dropped their rates in response, but it’s still a great time to save money.
Whether you’re building up an emergency fund or saving for a down payment on a house (or both), it’s probably time to open up a high-yield savings account.
There’s no downside to having a high-yield savings account — it grows the money you’re stashing away for a rainy day or a big purchase, while keeping it accessible and safe. But because so many banks offer them, it may seem difficult to choose the one that’s right for you. Here’s the good news: You really can’t go wrong.
High-yield savings accounts are attractive for their competitive rates. Even when the Fed’s benchmark rate fluctuates, these accounts tend to earn up to 20 times more than a traditional savings account, and 200 times more than your typical checking account.
Dozens of banks have high-yield savings accounts and it may come down to where you prefer to bank — an online-only bank, an investment bank, or a robo-advisor, for example — as well as what you’re looking for, whether it’s minimal fees, the highest possible interest rate, the ability to transfer money whenever you want, a connected checking account, 24/7 customer service, or easy access to your account.
To help out, we compared three of the most popular high-yield savings accounts on offer today: Ally’s online savings account, a favorite among financial planners and super savers; Marcus, investment bank Goldman Sachs’ online savings account; and robo-advisor Wealthfront’s cash account.
Below you’ll find each of these high-yield savings accounts compared on a variety of metrics.
Shayanne Gal/Business Insider
You may notice the interest rates vary among these accounts, with Wealthfront’s offering the highest rate as of November 4, 2019. As mentioned before, interest rates on savings accounts fluctuate depending on inflation and the government’s interest-rate benchmark.
For weeks leading up to the Federal Reserve’s July 29 meeting, experts predicted an interest rate cut, leading banks like Ally and Goldman Sachs to preemptively drop the rates on their high-yield accounts. Shortly after the Federal Reserve reduced the target rate by 0.25%, Wealthfront said it would lower the rate on its cash account from 2.57% to 2.32%. After a second interest rate cut was announced in August, each institution dropped its rate further, and rates continued to drop through the fall.
Choosing the account with the highest interest rate today is a fine decision, but know that the rate offered when you open the account isn’t locked in. In short, ensure the account is otherwise desirable — it has low fees, for example — before parking your savings there.
Across the board, high-yield savings accounts offer better rates than a traditional savings account — hence: high-yield — so you’ve already made progress toward automatically building wealth by keeping your money there, regardless of how the rate shifts over time.
The bottom line: Many of us make the mistake of being paralyzed by indecision when it comes to money. Not saving because we don’t know how much to save, not investing because we can’t figure out the best way to invest, or losing money to fees and inflation because we won’t choose a better bank account — I’ve been there and chances are you have, too. Don’t let that hinder you from building wealth.
As financial expert and bestselling author Ramit Sethi puts it, “The single most important factor to getting rich is getting started, not being the smartest person in the room.” Choose an account with little fees and high earning potential, Sethi says, and move on.
This post was updated on November 4, 2019, to reflect the listed accounts’ changing interest rates.
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