Credit Loan > Checking and Savings Accounts > The Best Savings Accounts May Not Be Where You’re Looking

Explore All the Options to Find the Best Savings Accounts

These days it can be difficult to contemplate putting our money in a savings account due to worry that the interest rate will be too low to outstrip inflation and do us any good.  That doesn’t have to be the case.  If you look around, you can find a range of accounts and will find the best savings accounts to meet your needs.  Of course, the main thing we look for in any savings account is the interest rate. 

However, just as there is a range of accounts, there are an equal variety of rates.  What you get out of your account will truly depend on what you put into it.  For example, you have substantial funds to put away – say for example, the three to eight month emergency fund financial experts say we need to have.  You can easily find a high interest savings account that may well pay in the range of a CD, as long as you maintain their requisite minimum balance. 

Another aspect to investigate is whether an online institution may better fit your needs than a brick and mortar one.  These banks, by virtue of having lower overhead and therefore few expenses are often in a position to pay a better rate than their counterparts.  When you are looking into this, you need to make sure the bank is FDIC backed.  So that your investment will be secured by the federal government regardless of what may happen to the institution itself.

Finally, the best savings account for you may not have as much to do with the interest rate, as it seems.  Regardless of the APY and compound interest you earn, the fact is, money that is in a savings account is far less likely to be spent.  Psychologically, we consider this money to be unavailable.  While we know it's there for use in emergencies, that new DVD or six is probably not worth the trouble of transferring money that we’re trying to save. 

Whereas, if it’s in our pocket or as close as an ATM, we wind up with more things we don’t need and less for the future.  So, even if the interest rate is lower than you like, it will be building and compounding the more you don’t spend.  It may someday even turn into a high interest account.  Saving is good.