Bank of America is the second-largest bank in the country, with roughly 35 million consumer and small-business customers.
It is also, by most measures, one of the stingiest places to park your cash.
Its flagship savings account has paid a 0.01% annual percentage yield for years, and customers keep finding out the hard way what that number actually means.
A $10,000 balance at 0.01% earns about a dollar a year.
Meanwhile, the same $10,000 in a competitive online savings account paying roughly 4% earns around $400 annually.
It is a vacation, a few months of groceries, or a chunk of an emergency fund that simply never shows up.
The branch is familiar, the app is fine, and moving money sounds like a hassle.
Banks count on it, and the checking-plus-savings bundle is designed to make leaving feel like untangling a knot.
There is a catch worth knowing: many of these accounts still charge monthly maintenance fees unless you hit balance or deposit requirements.
So in some cases you are paying the bank for the privilege of earning almost nothing.
It is boring, and it is also where the money leaks out.
Big banks offer branches, tellers, ATMs, fraud support, and FDIC insurance up to $250,000 per depositor.
If you need to walk in and talk to a human, that has value.
But that value lives in the checking account, not in a savings account paying a penny per hundred dollars.
You can keep the branch and ditch the yield problem.
The practical move is boring and effective: keep enough in checking to cover bills and avoid fees, then move the rest to a federally insured high-yield savings account, a money market account, or short-term Treasury bills bought directly through TreasuryDirect.
All are covered by federal insurance or backed by the government.
Transfers between banks take a day or two, which is the only real cost.
Promotional rates often come with a catch—a minimum balance, a limited-time window, or a requirement to open a new account.
Read the fine print before you switch, and check the rate again in six months.
If you have a five-figure sum sitting in a legacy savings account, open your statement tonight.
The number you get is the price of loyalty, and it is almost certainly higher than you think.
Our take: this is not a scandal, it is a business model, and it is legal.
But nobody is coming to move your money for you.
Final Thoughts
Ten minutes of account-shopping is one of the highest-paid hours most Americans will ever work.