Is interest paid on a regular savings account more than what is paid on savings certificates?

Question

Civics

Answer 1

Certificates of Deposit always pay a higher interest rate because you are committing yourself to leave the money in the bank for the term of the Certificate. You are also agreeing to pay a penalty for withdrawing your money before the end of the term.

Answer 2

They both suck. What you should do is open an "e-Savings" account with one of the banks that offer free checking/sacvings, such as Citibank, Washington Mutual, etc. Their Savings APY are in the 4.75 to 5.0% range. Their CDs are about the same rate of return, but you are locked in for 6-months, which is a pretty sucky deal. Depending on how much you have and how long you will be holding it in savings, you may also want to consider US T-Bills through TreasuryDirect.gov. Super simple to use. Just log on and puut in your checking account info. Decide how long you want the T-Bill to be (4-week, 6-month, etc). Savings bonds are a horrible choice, but T-Bills pay pretty good.

If you are a young worker, I would also strongly urge you to set up a Roth IRA account. ScotTrade is a cheap brokerage that doesn't charge any fees. If you don't want any risk, you can put the money directly into T-Bills, but mutual funds would be a better choice at your age. With a Roth IRA, you will never have to pay taxes on the interest, UNLIKE traditional IRAs, 401Ks and Social Security.

Answer 3

It varies, but at the same institution a savings certificate or CD would usually have a better rate than a regular savings account. Different institutions have different rates, and on CD's, the rate also varies depending on the length of time the CD is for.

Answer 4

right now they are VERY close... emigrant direct has 5.05% apy with no fees OR minimums.. and i can take money out whenever i want.. the longer you have to leave money in for without touching it, the more your supposed to get... if you wont need any of the money for more than 5 years, you should put some of it in a total stock market index fund as outlined in the below chart.

right now, the best cd 1-5 years long yields between 4.5%- 5.45%

only one place in america offering the 5.45%
as far as im concerned, tieing my money up for a year wont get me any more.. maybe an extra 0.4%

if you might need the $ in bonds stocks
>20 years ------------------ ----20%-----80%
15-20 years -----------------------40% 60%
10-15 years -----------------------60% 40%
5-10 years -----------------------80% 20%
<5years ----------------------100% savings account

in this chart you can use a high yeild savings such as emigrant direct instead of bonds.

stocks average 11% per year over the long haul... but short term no one knows, so thats why your percentage should increase as the holding period does. "stocks" should be low cost total market index funds in a taxable account.
try firstrade.com for that.

Answer 5

Try this bank for a 6.01% APY savings account: