The best way to look for high savings and money market rates
April 24, 2011
If you're looking for a new tool for choosing the best savings and money market accounts, check out the America's Best Rates feature on the MoneyRates.com homepage. This feature has just been updated for the first quarter of 2011.
What's different about America's Best Rates
There will always be a place for snapshots of the best deposit rates available, because when you are ready to choose a bank you need up-to-date information. Still, there is more to choosing a bank than one day's rate information. Changing banks involves some effort, so you don't want to have to make frequent switches just to maintain competitive rates.
That's why the America's Best Rates feature takes the unique approach of focusing on the consistency of high rates. Looking at a sample that includes the nation's biggest names in banking, it averages the rates offered by those banks throughout the calendar quarter. The result is a list of the 10 banks with the highest rates on savings accounts, and the 10 with the highest rates on money market accounts, during the most recently-completed calendar quarter.
The importance of consistency for savings accounts and money market accounts
Consistency is especially important for savings accounts and money market accounts. After all, if you find a great CD rate, you can lock it in for a period of time, and then it doesn't matter to you if that bank lowers its CD rates next week. For savings accounts and money market accounts, your rates are subject to constant fluctuation. You don't want to be drawn to a bank by a high rate one day, only to see it plummet after you sign up.
The approach of the America's Best Rates feature really seems to work in identifying which banks offer consistently high rates. Eight of the ten banks with the highest savings account rates from the prior quarter repeated in the first quarter of 2011, and all ten banks with the highest money market accounts repeated.
So congratulations to all the banks that made these lists, but the real winners are customers who now have some insight into where to find consistently high rates.
