Bank of America pays a fraction of what online banks offer on savings, and the gap has widened to a point where it's worth doing the math.
The bank's standard savings account currently yields around 0.01% APY, according to its published rates.
Meanwhile, a long list of federally insured online banks are paying in the 4% range.
That difference sounds abstract until you put dollars on it.
Park $10,000 in a typical big-bank savings account and you'll earn about a dollar a year.
Move the same $10,000 to an online account paying 4% and you're looking at roughly $400 over twelve months.
Same money, same federal insurance, wildly different outcome.
Your checking account, your debit card, your mortgage, and your savings sit in one app, and switching feels like a chore.
Big banks are betting that inertia is worth more than the deposits they lose.
The catch is that "savings account" at a megabank has quietly become a storage locker, not an investment.
If your emergency fund is sitting there earning pennies while inflation runs above 3%, you're losing purchasing power every month.
That's not a market crash — it's a slow leak nobody sends you a statement about.
Some big banks advertise higher "relationship" rates that require minimum balances, linked accounts, or specific tiers you may not actually qualify for.
Others lean on promotional rates that quietly expire after a few months.
Read the fine print before you assume the headline number applies to you.
If you want to make a move, start small and stay boring.
Confirm the account is FDIC-insured, check whether there are monthly fees or minimum balance requirements, and keep your checking where it is if you like the branch access.
You don't have to fire your bank to stop overpaying it — you just have to stop letting it hold your cash.
One more thing worth flagging: the gap between big-bank and online rates tends to shrink when the Federal Reserve cuts rates, and it widens when rates are high.
We've been in the wide part of that cycle.
If you've been meaning to move money for two years, you've likely already donated a few hundred dollars to your bank's shareholders.
None of this is a prediction about where rates go next, and nobody can promise you a specific return.
But the math on what you're earning today is knowable, and it takes about ten minutes to check.
The closing thought: banks aren't villains for paying low rates — they're businesses, and low deposit costs are great for their bottom line.
But that's exactly why you shouldn't treat loyalty to a logo as a financial strategy.
Final Thoughts
Your money should work for you, not for the shareholders.