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Best High-Yield Savings Accounts for August 2022
As you might guess, high-yield savings accounts are savings accounts that provide the highest interest rate on your money, meaning you receive more back on your savings each month. The best high-yield savings accounts often come from online-only banks that are unlikely to offer in-person branches.
These savings accounts are good for maintaining emergency funds or reaching short-term goals. And they're much more stable than stocks or mutual funds.
Savings account interest rates are measured in annual percentage yield, or APY, which is the amount of money that you'll earn on your savings in one calendar year. All of the high-yield savings accounts on this list have APYs of at least 1.65%, which is 16 times higher than the national savings account average of 0.10%. In some cases, you may need to deposit a higher minimum amount in order to be eligible for the higher APY.
We'll keep this list updated regularly. Read on to determine which high-yield savings account is best for you.
Best high-yield savings accounts
Launched as an online-only bank by Texas Capital Bank in 1999, Bask Bank offers two savings products -- a mileage account that gives American Airlines AAdvantage miles for your savings, and an interest savings account that currently offers the highest APY on our list.
Bask Bank's 2.02% return on your savings is more than 20 times higher than the national average.
Even better, there are no monthly fees, no minimum balance requirements and no minimum initial deposit at Bask Bank, though it reserves the right to close your account if it sits unfunded for 60 days. Bask Bank allows six withdrawals from your account per month, but does not provide any check requests. Outgoing wire transfers cost $35.
With a $10,000 balance at Bask Bank, you'd currently earn $202 in interest in a year.
There's more than one bank offering over 2% on your savings -- My Banking Direct also provides a hefty 2.02% APY on its high-yield savings account, with no maintenance fees, no minimum balance requirements and interest provided on all balances above $1. My Banking Direct is a subsidiary of New York Community Bank.
My Banking Direct does not advertise information about wire transfer fees on its website, nor in the official account disclosures
With a $10,000 balance at My Banking Direct, you'd currently earn $202 in interest in a year.
Quontic Bank joins a pack of banks nearing the 2% APY mark in August, recently moving to a competitive 1.85% interest paid on all balances, regardless of amount. Quontic has no monthly maintenance fees or minimum balance requirements, though it requires $100 to open a high-yield savings account.
Quontic compounds interest daily and pays it out monthly. It charges $25 for a domestic wire transfer out and $35 for an international wire transfer. All ACH transfers and incoming wire deposits are free.
With a $10,000 balance at Quontic Bank, you'd currently earn $185 in interest in a year.
UFB Direct is a division of Axos Bank, an online bank that also offers its own base savings and checking accounts, but not for as high a yield currently. UFB Direct focuses on mortgages and high-yield savings and money market accounts, and its savings rate -- up to 1.81% APY -- ranks near the top of the accounts we reviewed for August.
That APY applies to all balances, and there's no minimum deposit or balance requirements. It even comes with a free ATM card -- there's a limit of six withdrawals a month, but that doesn't apply to ATM cards.
With a $10,000 balance at UFB Direct, you'd currently earn $181 in interest in a year.
BrioDirect led our list in mid-July, with a 1.80% APY for its high-yield savings account, but other banks have caught up and passed that rate. BrioDirect is an online-only sub-brand of Webster Bank, a Connecticut-based bank that recently merged with Sterling National Bank.
BrioDirect charges no monthly maintenance fees, nor does it require a minimum balance, but you'll only earn interest on your balance if it's $25 or more. BrioDirect allows six withdrawals per month, and charges a $10 fee if you withdraw more than that.
With a $10,000 savings balance at BrioDirect, you'd currently earn $180 in interest in a year.
Citizens Access is the digital banking arm of Citizens Bank, now Citizens Financial Group, a traditional bank with around 1,000 branches throughout the Northeastern US and mid-Atlantic coast. Citizens Access mostly provides home loans, student loan refinancing and a high-yield savings account.
Without physical branches or paper statements, Citizens Access passes savings to customers with a strong 1.75% APY, though it does require a rather hefty minimum $5,000 deposit. It's not clear if the fees for Citizens Access differ from its traditional bank parent group -- Citizen Bank lists fees of $20 for outgoing domestic wire transfers and $50 for an international wire transfer.
With a $10,000 balance in a savings account at Citizens Access, you'd currently earn $175 in interest in a year.
No monthly maintenance fees, no minimum deposit or balance requirements, and an APY of 1.68% put TAB Bank squarely on the list of best high-yield savings accounts. TAB Bank is an online-only bank established in 1998 that focuses on savings and money market accounts and CDs. It also has special bank accounts for truckers.
An outgoing wire transfer at TAB Bank costs $30, and a cashier's check costs $15.
With a $10,000 balance at TAB Bank, you'd currently earn $168 in interest in a year.
With savings rates shifting so quickly, it's hard for banks to keep up. Bread Savings' 2.15% APY was near the top of the list at the start of July, but now it sits much further down the table.
Formerly Comenity Direct, Bread Financial offers certificates of deposit and a high-yield savings account through its consumer arm Bread Savings. Along with its 2.15% APY on savings, Bread also provides an impressive 3.65% APY on its 5-year CD.
Bread Savings only requires a minimum deposit of $100 to get that high APY. There are no monthly maintenance fees and you're allowed unlimited free deposits via mobile check, ACH transfer and wire transfer. Outgoing wire transfers cost $25, official check requests are $15 and paper statements are $5 per statement.
With a $10,000 balance at Bread Savings, you'd currently earn $215 in interest in a year.
Synchrony Bank is the online-only banking arm of Synchrony Financial, the largest provider of private-label credit cards in the US. Synchrony High-Yield Savings requires no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and provide a competitive APY of 1.65%. Outgoing wire transfers cost $25.
While there's no option of a complementary checking account at Synchrony, savings accounts at Synchrony have debit cards that can withdraw money from ATMs. Synchrony doesn't charge for non-network ATMS and gives $5 back per month for other bank's ATM fees.
With a $10,000 balance at Synchrony, you'd currently earn $165 in interest in a year.
There's always a wild card -- Varo provides the only notable banking innovation on our list, with a tiered savings rate that encourages low balances. Varo will give you 5.00% APY back if your daily balance never goes over $5,000 during an entire monthly billing cycle. If it gets above $5,000, you'll get 1.20% on the entire balance for that month.
To qualify for any interest at all, you'll need to have $1,000 in direct deposits every month. Along with the minimum in direct deposits, the following unique balance requirements apply: to earn 1.20% APY, your daily average balance for a month must be at least $4.95 (31-day months) or $5.12 (30-day months). To earn 5.00% APY, your average daily balance for the month must be at least $1.21 (31-day months) or $1.25 (30-day months).
While Varo presents a tempting APY for those with lower balances, the requirement of $1,000 in direct deposits each month means you'll need to be constantly moving money out of your savings account in order to achieve the 5.00% rate.
With a $5,000 balance at Varo, you'd currently earn $250 in interest in a year.
With a $10,000 balance at Varo, you'd currently earn $120 in interest in a year.
See how the various APYs at each of the providers on our list stack up:
Compare the best high-yield savings accounts
| Bank | Annual percentage yield (APY) | Minimum deposit | First year earnings on $5,000 | First year earnings on $10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bask Bank | 2.02% | $0 | $101 | $202 |
| My Banking Direct | 2.02% | $500 | $101 | $202 |
| Quontic Bank | 1.85% | $100 | $93 | $185 |
| UFB Direct | Up to 1.81% | $0 | $91 | $181 |
| BrioDirect | 1.80% | $0 | $90 | $180 |
| Citizens Access | 1.75% | $5,000 | $83 | $175 |
| TAB Bank | 1.68% | $0 | $84 | $168 |
| Bread Savings | 2.15% | $100 | $107.50 | $215 |
| Synchrony Bank | 1.65% | $0 | $83 | $165 |
| Varo | 1.20% to 5.00% | $0 | $250 | $120 |
FAQs
What are high-yield savings accounts?
High-yield savings accounts are deposit accounts hosted by banks, credit unions and neobanks that provide a greater interest rate on your savings than traditional savings accounts. Whereas the average savings account APY in the US is currently 0.08%, many high-yield savings accounts are offering APYs above 1.00%.
Although federal restrictions changed during the pandemic, most savings accounts still allow only six withdrawals per month, and those rules usually apply to high-yield accounts. Many banks and organizations providing high-yield savings accounts operate online only, with no traditional bank branches. In fact, all of the accounts in our list of high-yield savings accounts are online only.
Who are high-yield savings accounts good for?
High-yield savings accounts are a great place to put unexpected windfalls, such as tax refunds or inheritances, while you decide how to invest the money long term. They are also a great place to park money for an emergency or a short-term savings goal, like a vacation or automobile.
Although banks may modify APYs slightly from time to time, high-yield savings accounts have less volatility than stocks or mutual funds, and you can expect to get a fairly standard rate of interest back over a short period of time. You're definitely not going to lose money either -- all of the accounts listed above are insured by the FDIC, that is the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., for $250,000.
How do banks determine APYs for high-yield savings accounts?
While every bank uses its own system for determining APYs for savings accounts, most accounts are loosely connected to the federal funds rate -- the interest rate at which banks lend to each other. The Federal Reserve has hiked the federal funds rate three times already in 2022 -- up 0.25 percentage points in March, 0.50 percentage points in May and another 0.75 percentage points in June -- in an effort to counter soaring inflation.
As a result, APYs for deposit accounts like savings accounts and CDs have also risen over the past few months. The average interest rate for savings accounts has only grown from 0.06% to 0.08% during this period, but many banks -- particularly those offering online services only -- have passed along that increased value of lending money to their customers with APYs higher than 1.00%.
What is a good APY for a high-yield savings account?
The federal rate hikes generally trickle down to consumer deposit accounts, but it can take a while to see the effects. Rates of 0.50% to 0.60% were the highest available in early spring, but now several banks are providing high-yield savings APYs above 1.00%.
Despite the Fed rate increases, the big banks of Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase seem unwilling to budge so far, and are still offering savings accounts with very low 0.01% to 0.03% interest.
Methodology
CNET reviews high-yield savings accounts based on the latest information posted on bank, credit union and neobank websites. We evaluated APYs, minimum deposits, monthly maintenance fees, minimum balances and other terms and conditions for saving accounts from more than 50 organizations. We selected the savings accounts with the highest APYs and the best terms for banking consumers.
The banks, credit unions and neobanks we reviewed include: Affirm Savings, Alliant Credit Union, Ally, America First Credit Union, American Express High Yield Savings Account, Axos High Yield Savings, Bank of America Advantage Savings, Bank of the West, Bank5 Connect, Barclays, Bask Bank, Bread Savings, BrioDirect High-Yield Savings, Capital One 360 Checking, Charles Schwab, Chase Premier Savings, Chime, Citibank, Citizens Online Savings Account, Colorado Federal Savings Bank, Consumers Credit Union, Discover, First Internet Bank of Indiana, LendingClub, Live Oak Bank, M&T Bank, Marcus, My Banking Direct, Nationwide My Savings, Navy Federal Credit Union, nbkc, OneUnited Bank, PenFed CU, PNC, Popular Direct Select Savings, PurePoint Financial, Quontic Bank, Rising Bank, Salem Five Direct, Sally Mae Smarty Pig, Santander Bank, Synchrony, TAB Bank, TD Bank, TIAA Bank, Truist Bank, U.S. Bank, UFB Direct, Union Bank, USAA Bank, Varo, Vio and Wells Fargo.
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The editorial content on this page is based solely on objective, independent assessments by our writers and is not influenced by advertising or partnerships. It has not been provided or commissioned by any third party. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to products or services offered by our partners.
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