A savings account is an important part of your personal finances. However, the best savings accounts don’t only let you put your money in a safe place but also give you a chance to earn interest.
Choosing the best savings accounts with the best interest can help you see a growth in your savings and eliminate unnecessary fees to maximize the amount you can use for your expenses.
Take a look at this short list of the best savings accounts with the best interest where you can park your money and earn more as a result.
Barclays
Barclays tops the list, being one of the world’s oldest banks. Its roots started in London before the US became a nation. Barclays’s history can be traced as far back as 1690.
Barclay’s size grew to feature some country-specific divisions, such as the online banking division in the US based in Wilmington, Delaware. Considering that the main focus of this division is online banking, it gives you the confidence that this account can give you a good experience.
As of May 14, 2020, Barclays’ online savings account offers a high interest rate of 1.30% annual percentage yield (APY) with no requirements for minimum balance, no maintenance fees every month, and no transfer fees.
Barclays doesn’t have branch locations in the US, and you cannot access your cash through an ATM with this account. To withdraw your money, you can use an electronic transfer to your linked account with access to an ATM.
You can also request a check to be sent to you. If you don’t need the funds right away, it wouldn’t be a problem. But if you need money immediately, Barclays isn’t your best choice.
FitnessBank
FitnessBank offers one of the best savings accounts with the best interest rate where you can earn as much as 1.75% APY provided that your fitness tracker can record 12,500 steps every day on the average.
You need to download their FitnessBank tracker that uses the step tracking from Google Play, Garmin, Apple Health, or Fitbit.
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This 1.75% APY is a great rate for any savings account, but you have to stay active for you to get it. The rate will be lower if you don’t maintain the average steps of 12,500 a day. You have to open the app of FitnessBank every month to log the steps you take.
However, the other aspects of the account are low maintenance. To open it, you will need $100, and you have to maintain at least this much as your daily balance so that you don’t have to pay the monthly $10 fee.
PenFed Credit Union
There are several benefits associated with working with credit unions because of their non-profit structure that allows them to offer comprehensive banking services with little to no fees.
But many credit unions fall behind their traditional bank counterparts when it comes to their online offerings. However, this is not the case with PenFed Credit Union. It is a financial institution that offers all the handy mobile and online features you can expect to get from big-name national banks.
This is specifically the case for the Premium Online Savings account with a high interest rate of 1.25% APY as of May 14, 2020. This interest rate is going to be paid on your balance for a maximum of $250,000.
There are also no maintenance fees every month. You can have recurring transfers between your accounts in PenFed with no need to pay transfer fees, and you can open an account for as low as $5.
The Premium Online Savings of PenFed is an online-only account, which means that you cannot go to an ATM to make a cash withdrawal or visit a branch of PenFed Credit Union. You can do it only with online transfers from and to a checking or regular savings account.
Capital One 360 Performance Savings
Capital One 360 Performance Savings account claims that it has five times higher rates than average. However, it is as much as 16 times higher than usual.
As of May 14, 2020, they offer 1.50% APY on all the balance levels in the account, which is higher compared to the average APY of 0.07% offered by other banks.
No minimums are required to open the online savings account to let you start right away. You also don’t have to worry about monthly fees.
If you need to withdraw cash, this can be done via phone or online transfer, or you can visit a banking location of Capital One. However, this account doesn’t allow you to use an ATM.
Capital One has more than 500 branch locations. This is the eighth biggest bank in the US.
With such big-name banks, you usually sacrifice customer service and high interest rates, but Capital One has changed this trend. Capital One has been named the second highest rated mobile application that helps in the management of this online savings account.
Simple
Simple lives up to its name through offering all of the important features you will need for managing your money every day.
Simple is not only a savings account but also lets you earn as much as 1.40% APY on the cash you have in your high yield account. There is also no minimum balance needed to earn this rate.
Actually, Simple is not a bank but has FDIC insured all accounts through the BBVA partnership.
The integrated tools for money management are what really make Simple stand out. The account is meant to help manage your spending to achieve specific goals.
Once you are done creating your financial goals and spending categories, you set aside a certain amount every month to every category. This approach is called zero-sum budgeting, and it ensures that each dollar in your budget has a job to do and that saving is treated as a necessary expense.
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NBKC Bank
The savings account of NBKC Bank works differently since this is not really your usual savings account. It is more of a personal money market savings account that works differently on the part of the bank, but it is basically the same thing for you.
There is the additional advantage of doubling as a checking account as needed. It also comes with the same FDIC insurance amount and the same rules as those in regular savings accounts.
Even though there is a required opening balance of $5, NBKC doesn’t require a minimum balance after this.
You will not get charged for other transactions such as e-statements, automatic bill pay, stop payments, overdrafts, and others. They also offer the first box of 120 checks for free.
You will only need to pay $5 when sending a domestic wire anywhere in the United States and fee of $45 to send or receive international wires.
The true beauty of a personal money market savings account with NBKC Bank is that it also offers free access to more than 32,000 Moneypass ATMs that you can find all over the US and Puerto Rico.
You won’t be charged with NBKC fees when using an out-of-network ATM, but if the owner of the ATM charges a certain fee, the bank will refund you as much as $12 a month.
Provided that you don’t excessively use ATMs in a month, you can use all of the ATMs you want without worrying about paying annoying fees.
Synchrony Bank High Yield Savings
A Synchrony Bank High Yield savings account lets you withdraw money quickly and easily. There are no monthly fees and no minimum balance requirement, and it offers a strong APY of as much as 1.30%.
However, what makes it one of the best savings accounts with the best interest rate is that it offers convenient options for withdrawal.
Synchrony Bank offers its savings account holders with an optional ATM card. You could access your cash by wire transfer, ATM, or through electronic transfer from or to accounts you have in other banks.
Even though there is a limit of six free transfers or withdrawals for every statement cycle, Synchrony Bank lets you conduct unlimited ATM transactions.
No ATM fee is charged by the bank, but there might be one depending on the ATM provider. For charges like these, Synchrony Bank will refund ATM fees in the United States up to $5 for each statement cycle.
However, you have to take note of the amount you withdraw from ATMs since the fees can still add up even with a refund of $5.
Discover Bank
You have probably heard of Discover through its commercials for credit cards. However, it also has a solid online banking division.
Discover’s Online Savings Account is among the best you can find with a 1.25% APY as of May 14, 2020.
What is even better is that Discover Bank won’t charge you those fees that are common in other banks. Actually, the only fee it charges is the wire transfer fee of $30 if you ever need to transfer money right away to another person’s account.
Otherwise, you could just do the usual ACH or automated clearing house transfer in order to move money to another account in just a few business days for you to easily avoid the fee for wire transfer.
Discover Bank also offers one of the highest ratings in the world for customer satisfaction of online banking.Based on these rankings, the bank was able to get a high score for its excellent online support and the easy process of opening an account.
You can also make use of their handy mobile application that provides logins through touch or facial recognition to ensure a smooth and secure experience.
Varo Savings Account
Varo Money, Inc. is an online bank based in San Francisco that was established in 2015. This is a type of all-mobile national bank. If you want to save and are perfectly fine with banking online or over the phone, Varo Savings Account is a good option.
All holders of Varo savings accounts can take advantage of the high 1.61% APY together with an option for a checking account. Both of these accounts don’t require minimum balances just to open, and none of them charge maintenance fees every month.
What makes Varo stand out is their uniquely tiered APY program that will push you to have more savings. Although you can make the most out of the 1.61% APY whatever your account balance might be, you could earn as much as 2.80% APY once you meet specific monthly requirements.
An account holder should make at least five purchases with the use of their Varo Visa Debit Card, must have direct deposits of a total of $1,000 or higher every month, and maintain a savings account balance under $10,000 all within the same month.
If you need extra help in saving, this online bank also offers two programs where money can get automatically transferred from your bank account in Varo to your savings account: Save Your Change and Save Your Pay.
These are just some of the best savings accounts with the best interest rates to consider if you wish to make the most out of your savings.
Use this list to help you decide which specific bank or savings account is the perfect place for parking your money and enjoy all the perks that it has to offer.