High Yield Guru

Welcome to the
High Yield Guru
The source for information on high yield on-line savings accounts

Recently, many financial institutions have begun offering high yield on-line savings accounts. These on-line accounts offer interest rates that are much higher than regular savings accounts, offer more flexiblity than CDs and are FDIC insured (unlike many money market accounts). These accounts are offered by many major banks including ING, Citibank, Emmigrant, HSBC, GMAC Bank and others. This website discusses the features of these accounts, information you need to have when deciding to open one and a comparison of features for these accounts from several major financial institutions.

Account Features

The accounts have different features in terms of access to your money, fees, minimum balances and interest rate. These on-line accounts are typically linked to an existing checking account. Money is deposited and withdraw from the on-line savings account from the linked checking account via the internet. Although this may limit the access to the on-line account, since it is primarily intended for savings, this is not a problem for most people. However, many of these accounts have begun to offer ATM cards and checks, although the number of monthly transactions may be limited. There are several key questions to consider when you open one of these accounts including:

How can you access your money (check, ATM, on-line link to another account)?
Are you limited to a certain number of transactions per month?
How are deposits made?
Is there a minimum balance get the advertised interest rate?
How often does the interest rate change?

Comparison of Accounts from Major Financial Institutions

Bank	Rate	Minimum Balance	Deposits	Withdrawals
ING	4.40%	$0	Online via linked account	Online via linked account
GMAC Bank	4.90% - 5.00% (balance dependent)	$50 ( to open account) $500 (to avoid fees)	Electronic transfer, wire transfer, mail	Checks., electronic transfer, wire transfer
Citibank	5.0%	None	Via ATM, at Citibank Branches, mail or via Citibank Inter Institutional transfer service	Citibank ATM/Debit Card via ATM, in person at Citibank Financial Center or via Citibank Inter Institutional transfer service
Emigrant Direct	5.05%	None	Online via linked account (only initial deposit by check)	Online via linked account, transfer takes 2-4 business days
HSBC	5.05%	$1	HSBC ATM, transfer funds from another account (HSBC or non-HSBC) or via mail	Transfer to another account on-line or via phone (up to six per month), linked HSBC ATM card (unlimited transactions)
Capital One	4.80	None	Online via linked account (transfer takes 2-5 business days)	Online via linked account, (transfer takes 2-5 business days)

Note: All of the accounts listed in the above table are FDIC insured

.