Best Online Savings Accounts

There are so many good reasons for saving and opening a savings account, including:

• The unexpected (an emergency fund),
• A vacation,
• A down-payment for a new home or car,
• To seize an investment opportunity,
• Or, because it feels nice to have money in the bank.

If you have decided that saving money is for you, then the next question is where to save. You could of course store it under your mattress, but that's probably ill advised. Your local bank is an option, but they historically have horrible interest rates (if any at all) and you want to at least get some return on your savings investment.

Thankfully there are plently of online banks and services that will step in and fill your savings needs. These are FDIC insured banks that generally have no brick and mortar locations (with some exceptions) and can offer much better interest rates on your savings (currently up to 3.3%).

So here is my run down of recommended high-yield savings accounts to get you started:

• WaMU (Washington Mutual) - 3.30% APY. The only downside to this is that you also have to open an active checking account with them to get the 3.30% rate.
• HSBC - 3.05% APY.
• E*Trade - 3.25% APY. Apparently some people don't like them and have had some issues but others love them. I suppose it's a personal preference.
• ING - 3.0% APY. Although it has the lowest % listed, this is the one I recently decided to go with.

The only one of these that I have personal experience with is ING. I recently opened a savings account with them after much research and so far have been extremly pleased.

They also offer a bonus referral program, so if you sign up with the below link and deposit at least $250 into the account you get an extra $25 free. It's not very often a bank will give you money for free.

ING Savings Account - $25 FREE