Find the Best High Yield Savings Rates Online – But Be Careful

With stocks and jobs on shaky ground, liquidity is the new black. Reliability now trumps outperformance as consumers seek safer havens to stash their cash. As the NY Times Bucks blog points out, online high yield savings accounts offer plenty of predictability as well as a tiny bit of return. You won’t find the jaw-dropping 3.5% APY that was par for the course a few years ago, but the rates of online banks are nearly all well above the national average.

However, opportunistic marketers are hip to the trend of savers scouring the web for high savings rates and often employ bait-and-switch tactics to get you in the door. Plus, some one-stop shops that claim to offer you competitive comparisons are really only feeding you the rates from their advertisers.

Furthermore, with so many banks making offers, it’s important to ensure that your CDs and savings accounts are guaranteed by the FDIC. For example, the so-called “certificates of deposit” offered by Stanford Financial Group turned out to be just another Ponzi scheme.

By all means, use the Internet when looking for high interest rate savings accounts and CDs. But keep the following in mind:
Be wary of exotic sounding instruments with unbelievable returns.
Always check the FDIC website to see if a bank is insured Watch for conflicts of interest when working with aggregators – are they buyer-centric or seller-centric?

The best practices for shopping for high yield savings accounts online are no different than any transaction on the Internet. The deals are out there – just be extra diligent when investigating the offers.