NEW YORK—The returns savers stand to get on their money are the highest they’ve been in 15 years, a new report shows. The news will not come as a big surprise to credit unions that have had to move to raise deposit rates in order to attract and retain funds.
Top-yielding online savings account rates are now just north of 5%, the highest since 2008, and much higher than last year’s 0.8%, noted CNBC, citing Bankrate.com data.
As CUToday.info reported, Apple is also now offering a high-yielding savings account that pays 4.15%.
“Higher returns on federally-insured savings and money market accounts represent the only free lunch in finance,” Greg McBride, Bankrate’s chief financial analyst, told CNBC.
Other Rates Remain Rock-Bottom
Meanwhile, the savings account rates at some of the largest retail banks, which have been near rock-bottom for years, are currently 0.39%, on average.
“On a $10,000 balance, that’s $500 you could be earning, versus close to zero,” said Ken Tumin, founder of DepositAccounts.com.
While savers could get better returns on their cash, just 22% of savers are earning 3% or more on their accounts — and nearly as many savers are not earning any interest at all, CNBC noted, citing Bankrate data.
“Most people said the main reasons for not switching to a high-yield savings account were because they preferred their local branch or were comfortable at their current bank. Some also said they worried about the security of their cash at an online institution or they didn’t have enough savings to make the switch worthwhile,” CNBC said.
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