Bank of America customers are earning a fraction of what their cash could pull in elsewhere, and most have no idea how wide the gap has grown.
The bank's flagship savings account has hovered around 0.01% for years, a figure that has barely budged even as the Federal Reserve pushed rates to multi-decade highs.
On a $10,000 balance, that works out to about $1 a year—not a typo.
The math gets painful fast when you compare it to what's available.
Top-yield savings accounts and money market funds have spent much of the past two years paying north of 4%, with some still sitting near 4.5% today.
Park the same $10,000 there and you're looking at roughly $400 to $450 annually.
That's a difference of more than $400 a year on a modest balance, and the gap scales with every extra dollar you hold.
So why do millions of Americans leave the money sitting there?
Switching accounts feels like a hassle, and many people assume their bank is roughly competitive.
Big banks with sprawling branch networks fund themselves partly through cheap deposits, and they have little incentive to pay up when customers rarely move.
A 0.01% rate is so small it reads as basically zero, which makes it easy to ignore.
But that's exactly the point—small percentages on large balances compound into real money over time.
A household keeping $30,000 in a low-yield account could be forgoing well over $1,000 a year in interest, enough to cover a month of groceries for many families.
Bank of America does offer higher-yield options, but they often come with strings.
Some preferred-tier accounts require meeting minimum balance requirements or linking other products to unlock a better rate, and even then the yields typically trail the best online banks.
That structure rewards customers who already have money parked across multiple accounts—the opposite of the people who need the boost most.
If you're holding cash at a big bank, the move is straightforward.
Open a high-yield savings account at an online bank, which usually takes 10 to 15 minutes and requires no branch visit.
Keep enough in your checking account to cover monthly bills, then move the rest.
Just watch for transfer limits, and make sure the new account is FDIC-insured, which legitimate online banks are.
One caveat worth flagging: these higher yields won't last forever.
If the Fed cuts rates further, the top savings rates will drift down too.
That's not a reason to stay at 0.01%—it's a reason to act sooner rather than later.
For anyone who's been meaning to look at their savings, this is the nudge.
A few minutes of admin work could be worth hundreds of dollars a year, and the money is already yours.
Leaving it in a near-zero account isn't safety—it's a slow leak.
The bottom line: loyalty to a big bank rarely pays, and the gap between 0.01% and 4% is one of the easiest financial wins available to ordinary Americans.
Final Thoughts
Check what your savings is actually earning today, because the number is probably worse than you think.