Bank of America customers with standard savings accounts are earning 0.01% APY, according to the bank's current published rates.
That means $10,000 parked in a basic account generates about $1 in interest over a year.
Meanwhile, the same balance in a top-yielding online savings account could earn roughly $400 or more, based on rates that have hovered near 4% to 5% at various points over the past two years.
It is one of the widest spreads between big-bank savings and online alternatives in recent memory, and it is costing millions of households real money every month.
Big banks with massive branch networks, legacy technology, and heavy marketing budgets have little incentive to compete on deposit rates when customers rarely switch.
Regional and online banks, by contrast, use higher yields as their primary recruiting tool.
They do not need to pay for thousands of storefronts, so they pass some of that savings back to depositors.
Bank of America does offer higher-yield options, including promotional rates tied to its Rewards program or certain balances.
But those tiers typically require meeting specific criteria, and the headline rate most customers see when they open a basic savings account remains at the bottom of the market.
What makes this especially painful right now is that the cost of borrowing has not fallen nearly as fast as deposit rates.
Credit card APRs at major banks still sit above 20% on average, and many customers are paying interest on one side of the ledger while earning almost nothing on the other.
That spread is where banks make a large chunk of their money.
For households already stretched by grocery prices, rent, and insurance costs, the fix is not complicated.
Moving emergency savings to a federally insured online account takes about 15 minutes and does not require closing a checking account.
Many people keep their direct deposit and bill pay at a big bank while parking savings elsewhere, a setup that offers convenience and a better return.
A few things to check before switching: confirm the account is FDIC insured, review any minimum balance requirements or monthly fees, and look at whether the rate is promotional or ongoing.
Some institutions advertise a high rate that quietly drops after a few months.
The Federal Reserve's decisions influence what banks pay on deposits, and yields that look attractive today may decline if the central bank cuts rates further.
A savings account is not a locked-in investment, so it pays to review the rate every few months rather than setting it and forgetting it.
The broader takeaway is that loyalty to a single institution rarely pays off in dollars.
Banks count on inertia, and the numbers show it works.
Customers who take 20 minutes to compare rates often find they have been leaving hundreds of dollars a year on the table.
Our take: the 0.01% savings rate is less a product feature than a business strategy, and it depends entirely on customers not noticing.
If your bank is paying you a dollar a year on five figures, that is not a relationship, it is a subsidy you are providing.
Final Thoughts
The good news is that switching savings accounts is one of the few financial moves that costs nothing and can pay off immediately.