High-Yield Savings Accounts and Why You Need One

Before coming to school, I moved all of my money from a local bank account to a Bank of America accounts. LMU's got a Bank of America ATM on campus. I wasn't about to pay $2.00 every time I needed to give a friend some cash.

Unfortunately for me, Bank of America has a pathetic interest rate on their savings account. We're talking about a half a percent. As some might say, "That's hella lame, yo."

(This is beginning to sound like a bad commercial.) Then a friend pointed me towards ING Direct, a branch-less bank. Because the company doesn't have to pay for building that you walk into, it offers astounding interest rates: 4.5%. If I've got $1000 in my account for a year, that's a cool $45 in my pocket. I'll take it.

I've been meaning to write an article about these web banks (which are FDIC insured) when someone else--probably more qualified than me--wrote a post over at Get Rich Slowly with each bank and their respective rates. The article, titled "Which Online High-Yield Savings Account is Best?", made the front page of digg.

So if you've got money just sitting around in a low-yield account. Get off your ass and move it into something with a higher return rate. It's money in the bank. (Zing.)

The picture in this article is from the flickr user emdot. Check her out.

Comments

[HGI]

Here are some opinions but have a more recent review and interest rates. http://feedingwealth.com/Home/Default.aspx?tabid=72&forumid=3&threadid=4&scope=posts