Bank of America customers holding money in a standard savings account are earning 0.01% APY, according to the bank's current published rates.
That means a $10,000 balance generates roughly $1 a year in interest.
Meanwhile, the same $10,000 parked in a top-yielding online savings account at around 4% APY would earn close to $400 over the same period.
Bank of America's standard savings rate has sat at that level for years, even as the Federal Reserve pushed its benchmark rate to heights that made online banks compete aggressively for deposits.
The gap between what big brick-and-mortar banks pay and what online-only institutions pay remains one of the widest quiet money leaks in American household finance.
Bank of America's savings product is built for convenience, not yield.
There's no monthly fee and no minimum balance requirement on the standard account, and your money sits alongside your checking, debit card, and branch access.
Customers pay for that convenience through forgone interest, and most never run the math on what it costs them.
Bank of America does offer a higher-yield option through its Preferred Rewards program, but the rates there still trail most online competitors.
To qualify for the top tier, you generally need a combined balance of $100,000 or more across Bank of America and Merrill accounts.
For households below that threshold, the standard account rate is what you get.
The comparison gets starker when you factor in inflation.
With consumer prices rising roughly 2% to 3% in a typical year, a 0.01% return means your savings are losing purchasing power in real terms every month.
Switching doesn't require closing your Bank of America checking account.
Many people keep their primary bank for direct deposit, bill pay, and ATM access while moving their emergency fund or short-term savings to a high-yield account elsewhere.
Transfers between banks typically take one to three business days, and there's usually no cost to open an online savings account.
A few things to check before you move money.
Confirm the online bank is FDIC-insured, since that protects balances up to $250,000 per depositor.
Read the fine print on promotional rates, because some introductory APYs drop after a few months.
And keep enough in your everyday account to avoid overdraft fees, which can wipe out a year of interest in a single slip.
For anyone with a few thousand dollars sitting idle, the math is hard to argue with.
Moving $5,000 from 0.01% to 4% APY is roughly $200 a year for about 20 minutes of paperwork.
That's not a windfall, but it's one of the easiest returns available to an ordinary saver.
Our take: loyalty to a big bank's savings account is one of the most expensive habits in personal finance, and it's almost entirely invisible because nothing ever shows up as a charge.
The rate you're not earning never appears on a statement, which is exactly why so many people leave it alone.
Final Thoughts
Check your current APY today and compare it against what's available elsewhere.