Savings accounts help you grow and protect your money thanks to the fact that they earn interest and have FDIC coverage.

When you shop for accounts, you want to find one that has a high annual percentage yield, or APY. 

The higher the APY the better, for it means the more money you will make over time.

After a period of rate cuts performed to respond to financial conditions, banks finally started raising the interest rates on their accounts in 2022.

With the right savings account you can bolster your emergency fund faster.

The best accounts offer interest rates in the 2%s. Interestingly enough, brick-and-mortar banks generally offer rates close to the national average of 0.24%.

One important thing to keep in mind is the importance of compound interest on your savings.

If you put $10,000 in a savings account that yields 2% APY, after one your you will have $10,200.

Wait for another year, and you will have $10,404. Another year, and that is $10,612.08.

Notice this calculation does not take into account new deposits, which you can make.

So before we talk about specific accounts, here is something you need to think about when choosing a place to keep your money.

We cannot emphasize that enough. Fees will eat away your earnings if you let them run amok. The best savings accounts you will find typically do not charge monthly fees.

What you want to see in your account history are green, ever-growing numbers. NEVER red ones, even if they are as tiny as mere cents. 

Always that you can, prefer online accounts. They are the best for a number of reasons, the most obvious one being: they are online.

Another great advantage is that they offer the highest rates.

And last but not least, especially for this section of this article, they are the ones where you are more likely to find low to no fees.

Without the usual expenses of maintaining a branch network, online banks can manage to offer better returns than those of traditional brick-and-mortar banks.

Below we have set aside a few of what we consider the best savings account for you to choose from. Have fun!

Ally Bank offers a savings account that yields a 3% APY. This account does not charge any maintenance fees and it also has no minimum balance requirements.

3% is well above average interest. Besides the savings one, the bank also offers a checking account and a money market account, with access to over 43,000 ATMs nationwide at no fee.

The American Express National Bank savings account is yet another example of an above-average APY.

This account yields a 3% APY, and you will not have to worry about paying monthly or annual fees.

The account also has no minimum opening deposits or minimum balance requirements. The bank even allows you to make up to nine withdrawals or transfers from your account every month.

Barclays is another excellent option to help you boost your savings. Their account also yields an annual 3%, and it also comes with a tool for setting savings goals.

The account has no minimum balance requirements, and it also charges no monthly or annual fees from customers.

This is possibly one of the highest-yielding savings accounts you will find in the market. Their HYSA offers an extremely solid 3.5% APY.

The only caveat is that you must make a minimum $100 deposit to open the account. Other than that, there are no monthly or maintenance fees that you have to pay for the account.

The account also does not allow for direct cash withdrawals. Instead, if you want to have access to the money you must first transfer it into a linked account.

Ok, forget what we said about the previous savings account. This is probably the one with the highest interest yield out there. With a 3.75% APY, this account’s yield is hard to beat.

On top of the high APY, the account charges no monthly maintenance fees. However, it does require a minimum initial deposit of $500. It is a small price to pay for such a high APY.

This is yet another solid option for high APY hunters. The CIT Bank Savings Connect account pays a nice 3.6% APY and only requires $100 as a minimum initial deposit.

The account does not have a monthly maintenance fee, as all the others we have shown so far. That is the point, right? Why pay if you can have it for free, sort of.

The Citi Accelerate Savings account requires you to maintain an average monthly balance of at least $500. This allows you to waive the account’s $4.50 monthly fee. 

The account yields a nice 3.25% APY and there is no minimum initial deposit when you open the account. Not bad, right?

With no monthly fees, the First Foundation Bank Online Savings Account yields 3.6% APY.

The minimum balance requirement for this account is virtually irrelevant ($0.01). However, it has the highest minimum initial deposit of all the accounts we have discussed.

To open this account, you must make an initial deposit of $1,000. But hey, 3.6% APY might just be worth it, don’t you think?

Whatever you do, when picking a savings account, think about the long term. High APY is worth nothing if you have to pay fees.

Make sure you meet the minimum balance requirements, if there are any, and make the most out of your savings.

And if you’d like to be a real expert in savings, you should own multiple accounts. Do you know why?

We’ve made a full article here on this blog to tell you why you should have more than one savings account.