Bank of America customers who keep cash parked in a standard savings account are earning a fraction of what the same money could bring in elsewhere.
The bank's headline savings rate has hovered around 0.01% to 0.04% annual percentage yield, depending on the account and balance tier.
That means $10,000 sitting still for a full year might earn roughly $1 to $4 before taxes.
The gap matters more now than it did a few years ago.
When the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates higher, online banks and money market funds followed.
Many of them currently pay in the 4% to 5% range on FDIC-insured savings.
On $10,000, that difference is hundreds of dollars a year, not pocket change.
Big banks like Bank of America are not secretly broken.
They pay low deposit rates because they don't have to.
Millions of customers keep checking and savings together for convenience, branch access, and ATM networks.
That loyalty is worth real money to the bank, and it shows up in the spread between what it pays depositors and what it charges borrowers.
Bank of America's higher-tier savings options, including some Preferred Rewards tiers, can bump your rate slightly.
But even the top tiers generally land well below what a competitive online savings account offers.
If you qualify for rewards upgrades, it's still worth checking the current terms, since they change.
A few practical moves: Check your current APY.
Log in and find the rate on your savings account.
Many people assume they're earning more than they are.
You don't have to leave Bank of America entirely.
Branch access, direct deposit, and bill pay have value.
The switch is usually just for the savings bucket.
Open a separate high-yield savings account.
Moving emergency fund cash to an FDIC-insured online bank takes minutes.
Transfers between banks typically take one to two business days.
Some people keep one month of expenses at the big bank for instant access and move the rest.
Some accounts charge monthly fees if balances dip below a threshold.
Factor that into your math before you move money around.
One more thing: rates are not locked in forever.
The Fed's next moves will push savings yields up or down across the board.
A rate that looks great today may drift lower in a year, so it pays to check every few months rather than setting it and forgetting it.
The same dollar earns different amounts depending on where it sits, and the gap between a big-bank savings account and a competitive one has been unusually wide.
Our take: loyalty to a brand is fine for checking accounts and branches, but savings balances are one place where it quietly costs you.
Spend ten minutes checking your rate this week.
Final Thoughts
If it starts with 0.0, you already know what to do next.