I use smartypig.com thru BBVA. Rate is 1%. The best part about it is that you can have buckets within the account, and have specific amounts moved into each bucket automatically from an outside account. So I have categories that include:
-Annual Savings: my cash savings goals for the year, I end up with about 14-18K at the end of the year, and when 1/1 rolls around, I use this cash to fund my and DH's Roths to the max at the start of the year. It's safe to assume that our earned income will exceed the max, and I like to get it done and out of the way ASAP. And feel special for maxing out so early in the year. Any remainder gets rolled into the "house fund"
-House Fund: cash I've set aside for a down payment on a house. I used to keep, like $120K in here, but in 2014 I got real and figured that most of that money should be doing better than 1%. So it's only 40K now.
Then I have a series of "sinking funds." Savings for a specific purpose (vacation), or a known upcoming bill. "Predictable Rainy Days," if you are a YNAB user, so I automatically transfer certain amounts to the following accounts monthly. The exception is vacation, I am a bit more haphazard about saving for that. But anyway, the predictable rainy days include:
-Tuition (paid 2x/yr for our 2 kids)
-Insurance (one bucket for the following, life insurance paid in Feb (me) and April (DH), car insurance paid 2x/yr, renters insurance paid annually, and motorcycle insurance paid annually.)
But... the account is designed for you to save, not spend. So there are a few things you need to do to access funds (get them from the smarty pig account to my checking account)but it's not difficult. The process is like this- Set up new bucket, transfer funds you want to keep saved to new bucket and close out remainder of old bucket to checking account. A bit of forethought required, but it's a system that happens to work for me.
