Increase your earnings as high as 5.50% with one of the best high yield savings accounts
7 mins read

Increase your earnings as high as 5.50% with one of the best high yield savings accounts

Important takeaways

  • If you have cash in the bank but not in a high-yield savings account, you’re missing out. Today’s best savings accounts pay 5.00% and up.
  • The highest savings bank interest rate available in the entire country is from Pibankat 5.50% APY. That’s just a tad below the 20-year peak rate of 5.55% we saw in the spring.
  • Second is 5.25%, from Newtek Bank. Plus a dozen more offers pay at least 5.00%.
  • Although savings account rates can drop at any time, they do always smart to make sure you are earning a competitive return, rather than having money in an account that earns next to nothing.

The full article continues below these offers from our partners.

Earn 5.00% to 5.50% with one of the nation’s best savings accounts

Prices on high yield savings accounts surged this spring to its highest level in over 20 years and peaked at 5.55% in April. That’s thanks to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive rate hike campaign in 2022-2023 — aimed at bringing down decades-high inflation. Even though the Fed has since cut rates, you can still earn very close to the top savings rate—5.50% APY—today’s leading nationwide savings bank interest rate.

The fantastic yield is available at Pibank, which allows you to open its 5.50% Pibank savings account with any deposit deposit (even no initial funds). It also has no minimum current balance requirement and does not charge any monthly maintenance fees. Although Pibank is new to the United States, it is owned by brick-and-mortar Intercredit Bank, which has been FDIC-insured since 1984.

Pibank is just one of many great options that allow you to earn a historically high return on your money right now. The accounts below offer the highest annual percentage returns (APY) among all nationally available savings accounts. Joining one of these top 14 accounts will put you in an elite tier of savings rates.

We update our best savings account prices daily

You can always find additional information on all the best high yield savings accounts by checking our daily summary of the best APYs. We research rates from more than 100 federally insured institutions every business day to keep our rankings current.

Peak interest rates for high-yield savings accounts – 25 October 2024

Institution APY Mandatory opening deposit Minimum balance
Pibank 5.50% Any amount Any amount
Newtek Bank 5.25% Any amount Any amount
Total Bank 5.11% $25,000 $2,500
Bank5 Connect 5.10% $25,000 $25,000
EverBank 5.05% Any amount Any amount
Vio Bank 5.05% 100 USD Any amount
Valley Direct 5.05% $5,000 Any amount
BrioDirect 5.05% $5,000 25 USD
Forbright Bank 5.00% Any amount Any amount
My Banking Direct 5.00% 500 USD Any amount
Fitness Bank 5.00% 100 USD 100 USD
CFG Bank 5.00% 1000 USD 1000 USD
Poppy Bank 5.00% Any amount 1000 USD
Ivy Bank 5.00% $2,500 $2,500
To qualify for our rankings, a bank or credit union must be federally insured by the FDIC or NCUA.

If you’re worried that it will be inconvenient to have some of your savings in another bank, don’t worry. Online banking makes transfers between banks extremely easy. And while the transfer process can take one to three days, it’s easy to handle this by not moving all of your savings to the new account. Instead, keep a small reserve at your primary bank so you can make instant transfers to check if needed.

Will interest rates on high-yield savings accounts fall?

Savings accounts have variable interest rates, that is, the bank or credit union can change your interest rate at any time – and without warning. One of the main drivers of how institutions charge interest on savings accounts is Federal Reserve the reference rate, the federal funds rate. Although banks and the Fed do not move exactly in step with their interest rates, they generally move in the same direction.

Unfortunately for savers, the Fed has begun what is expected to be a series of interest rate cuts, starting with a significant cut of 0.50 percentage points on September 18. Further cuts are expected in 2024 and 2025 – and possibly even 2026. Any Fed rate cut that occurs will put downward pressure on savings bank rates.

But it’s good to have some perspective. Even if, say, the best savings account interest coming down from today’s 5.50% to perhaps 4.50% by the end of the year – or even 3.50% by the end of 2025 – these are still historically high yields. You can easily see this in the graph below, which shows that back in 2022, before the Fed’s rate hike campaign, the APY at highest paying nationwide savings account was a paltry 0.70%.

Consider locking in a future return with a CD

  • If you can commit to not touching a portion of your savings for months or years, it’s a smart time to open one of the country’s best certificate of deposit (CD)because they also pay historically high prices.
  • You can lock in a rate as high as 5.50% with best 6-month CDor up to 5.05% with top 1-year CD. The longest CD term paying at least 5.00% is currently 14 months, which would guarantee an interest rate of 5.05% until almost December 2025.
  • Over a 2- to 5-year term, top CD rates range from 4.00% to 4.50%, guaranteeing your APY to at least 2026 and up to 2029.
  • Any CD you open guarantees its return until the CD matures, no matter how many rate cuts the Fed makes.

Daily rankings of the best CDs and savings accounts

Note that the “peak rates” mentioned here are the highest nationally available rates that Investopedia has identified in its daily rate survey of hundreds of banks and credit unions. This is much different than the national average, which includes all banks that offer a CD with that term, including many large banks that pay a small interest rate. Thus, the national averages are always quite low, while the highest prices you can find by shopping around are often 5, 10 or even 15 times higher.

How we find the best savings and CD prices

Every business day, Investopedia tracks rate data from more than 200 banks and credit unions that offer CDs and savings accounts to customers across the country and determines daily rankings of the best-paying accounts. To qualify for our lists, the institution must be federally insured (FDIC for banks, NCUA for credit unions), and the account’s minimum initial deposit cannot exceed $25,000. Nor can it specify one maximum deposit amount that is less than USD 5,000.

Banks must be available in at least 40 states to qualify as nationally available. And while some credit unions require you to donate to a specific charity or association to become a member if you don’t meet other eligibility criteria (eg if you don’t live in a certain area or work in a certain type of job), we exclude credit unions whose donation requirement is $40 or more. For more information on how we choose the best prices, read our entire methodology.