How much interest should a savings account earn?
January 31, 2009 by admin
Filed under Questions and Answers
Entidine asked:
I had about $6,000 in a savings account last year and it earned about $12 in interest. That’s only about two-tenths of a percent. Is that right? I thought savings accounts earned 3% on average. 3% of $6,000 is $180. What gives?
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I had about $6,000 in a savings account last year and it earned about $12 in interest. That’s only about two-tenths of a percent. Is that right? I thought savings accounts earned 3% on average. 3% of $6,000 is $180. What gives?
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girly_heather23 on Mon, 2nd Feb 2009 9:54 am
You can earn 3% interest with online banks. i use ing direct, but hsbc or citi also have online banks, that are linked to your checking acct. you should def earn more then 12$. bankrate.com is a good site to find good yields.
MikeeyMan on Mon, 2nd Feb 2009 9:44 pm
Savings accounts with major banks are no good… You should be in a money market account or a savings account with an online bank…
The Ingdirect orange savings account and the etrade savings account pay about 4%. You would have earned $240 with either one of those. I have accounts with both of them.
Greg S on Thu, 5th Feb 2009 7:16 pm
Savings accounts USED to give 3% nowadays you are lucky if you get 0.9%. You can use online banks, and get a better rate or perhaps look into a money market account.
Also if you don’t need you money right away you could get 3 – 3 month CDs at your bank stagger them out so if something happens you will have money available each month you should get 3% on that.
Randy G on Sat, 7th Feb 2009 11:01 am
Passbook saving accounts offered by banks are little better than your mattress. It is only a place for storing money. The interest rate that you get is often not enough to even account for inflation.
“Money Market” accounts do better — often the 3-5 percent that you mentioned (right now, most money market accounts seem to be offering about 3.8 %, but it varies with the economy, and if you shop around, you might find a deal).
Try ING Orange, or one of the ones that the first responder mentioned.
Franco on Sun, 8th Feb 2009 7:47 am
I think you opened the wrong kind of a/c. You should have been getting 2% at the very least. But it is your fault for not checking the interest rate first and not shopping around a little! There are many types of accounts to trap the innocent
Now, put your money in UK banks. They pay me 6.15% and the pound is stronger than the dollar.
labchatboard on Wed, 11th Feb 2009 7:29 pm
Try looking into Term Deposits. They can be short or medium term such a 1 to 3 months and the interest rate is much better than a regular savings account.