Bank of America customers are earning 0.01% on their savings accounts right now.
The Federal Reserve's benchmark rate sits in a range of 4.25% to 4.50%.
It is the entire story of why your money feels stuck while the bank's does not.
A $10,000 balance at 0.01% earns about $1 a year.
The same $10,000 in a competitive online savings account paying roughly 4% earns around $400.
Same dollars, same deposit insurance, same Fed.
Banks like Bank of America have spent the past two years defending their deposit costs.
When rates rose fast, they were slow to pass increases to savers.
Executives have openly told analysts that deposit pricing is a lever they manage carefully.
Translation: your loyalty is the product being managed.
The reason so many people stay is friction, not ignorance.
Checking and savings sit in the same app, the branch is nearby, and switching feels like a chore during a week already full of them.
The cost of that inertia is now visible at the grocery store and the rental portal.
CPI readings have shown shelter and food costs cooling slowly, but they are still climbing year over year.
Every dollar parked at 0.01% is a dollar not offsetting those increases.
Meanwhile, credit card APRs remain near record highs, often above 20%.
So the same bank paying you almost nothing on deposits may be charging you double digits on balances.
That spread is the business model, and it is legal, disclosed, and easy to escape.
First, check your current savings rate in the app.
It is usually buried under account details.
Second, look at what high-yield savings accounts and money market funds are paying.
Rates are widely published and change often, so compare before you move.
Third, decide how much you actually need instant access to.
Many households keep one month of expenses in the low-rate account for convenience and move the rest.
You do not have to close anything or break up with your bank to stop the bleeding.
Fourth, watch for minimum balance rules and monthly fees, which can quietly cancel out small gains.
Fifth, remember that promotional rates expire.
A headline rate today may drop in three months.
There is no guarantee any rate stays where it is.
The Fed can cut, banks can reprice, and yields can fall.
But the 0.01% floor has proven remarkably sticky across rate cycles, which tells you something about incentives.
If inflation runs near 3% and your savings pay 0.01%, your purchasing power shrinks every month.
Moving even part of your balance is not a gamble.
The takeaway is uncomfortable but simple: banks are not charities, and loyalty does not compound.
The Fed handed savers a rare window, and most big-bank customers are sleeping through it.
Final Thoughts
Ten minutes of comparison shopping could be the highest-paid work you do this month.