Bank of America customers checking their savings statements this month are seeing the same thing they saw last month, and the month before that: a fraction of a percent.
The bank's flagship savings account still pays around 0.01% annual percentage yield, a rate that has barely budged even as the Federal Reserve spent years pushing borrowing costs higher.
On a $10,000 balance, that works out to about $1 a year.
Meanwhile, the same customer can walk into a grocery store and watch that $10,000 buy less than it did last year.
Food prices have climbed steadily since 2021, with eggs, beef, and coffee all hitting painful peaks at various points.
Rent has followed the same script, jumping fastest in Sun Belt cities before spreading to the Midwest and Northeast.
When inflation runs at 3% and your savings pays 0.01%, your money loses roughly 3% of its purchasing power annually.
Park $10,000 there for a year and you can effectively buy about $300 less than you could twelve months earlier — while the bank pays you a buck for the privilege.
Banks earn a spread by paying depositors very little and lending that money out at much higher rates, or parking it at the Fed.
When the Fed's benchmark rate was above 5%, that spread was historically wide.
Very little flowed to the person with $8,000 sitting in a savings account for a rainy day.
The comparison that stings most is what's available elsewhere.
High-yield savings accounts from online banks and brokerages have offered 4% to 5% at points over the past two years, with FDIC insurance just like the big banks.
On $10,000, that's $400 to $500 a year instead of $1.
The tradeoff is usually no branch to visit and no teller to chat with — a deal millions of Americans have quietly taken.
The average card APR sits above 20%, and Bank of America's own cards are no exception.
So the same institution paying you 0.01% on deposits may charge you 20%-plus if you carry a balance.
That spread is the entire business model, and it's worth understanding before you decide where your emergency fund lives.
Switching isn't complicated, but it does take an afternoon.
Open a high-yield account, link it to your checking, and move the money you don't need for monthly bills.
Keep enough in the big-bank account to avoid fees and cover autopay.
Many people leave a cushion behind and never look back.
One caution: rates on high-yield accounts are variable and have been drifting down as the Fed pivots.
A 4.5% offer today might be 3.5% by next spring.
That's still dramatically better than 0.01%, but don't lock your expectations to a number that moves.
Also watch for promotional rates that expire after a few months, minimum balance requirements, and monthly fees that can quietly erase your gains.
Read the fine print the same way you'd read a loan document.
The bigger point is that loyalty to a big bank rarely pays interest.
Convenience has value, and branches and apps matter to plenty of people.
But if the goal is keeping pace with rising prices, a near-zero savings rate is a losing position by design.
Our take: leaving a large balance in a 0.01% account is a choice, not a fate.
Final Thoughts
An hour of comparison shopping won't make anyone rich, but it can stop the slow bleed — and in a year when groceries and rent are already doing damage, that's worth something.