What's the best high-yield savings account for yield and convenient transfers?

[snic]

Bread Savings (used to be Comenity - could it be the names are getting stupider?) has competitive yields, but you can't initiate ACH transfers from the account for more than $5k/day. To do that you'd have to pull the funds using another bank that has a higher daily limit.

Live Oak Bank allows you to transfer large sums (haven't hit a limit yet) but their yields are no longer competitive (currently 3.5% when most others are 4% or more).

Wealthfront Savings has competitive yields but they refused to complete a transfer I requested, so I dropped them.

Which bank hits the sweet spot of high yields and ease of transfers?

[JupiterGreen]

I've been sticking with Marcus (currently 3.75%) because it's easy and they have been raising the interest rate on a regular basis. But I'll be honest, it's getting harder to stay with them when so many banks are at 4 and over. I opened an account with them back when they were one of the highest rates around.  My experience has been easy transfers to and from my bank and Vanguard. So +1 for ease with Marcus, but the rate is not too competitive right now, hopefully that will change soon.

[RWD]

You can get ~4.4% (after expense ratio) with a money market fund at Vanguard right now.

[Mariposa]

Fidelity Cash Management Account. You can keep funds in a money market fund, which automatically liquidates for payments and transfers.

Their prime money market account (a bit riskier than a federal or treasury MM) is 4.35% right now:
https://institutional.fidelity.com/app/funds-and-products/454/fidelity-money-market-fund-sprxx.html

Note that MM funds are not FDIC insured.

[JupiterGreen]

Fidelity Cash Management Account. You can keep funds in a money market fund, which automatically liquidates for payments and transfers.

Their prime money market account (a bit riskier than a federal or treasury MM) is 4.35% right now:
https://institutional.fidelity.com/app/funds-and-products/454/fidelity-money-market-fund-sprxx.html

Note that MM funds are not FDIC insured.

The Fidelity fund is not insured? Or are you saying all money markets, because I believe money markets are FDIC insured up to 250k in the US just like savings accounts.

[CoffeeR]

Fidelity Cash Management Account. You can keep funds in a money market fund, which automatically liquidates for payments and transfers.

Their prime money market account (a bit riskier than a federal or treasury MM) is 4.35% right now:
https://institutional.fidelity.com/app/funds-and-products/454/fidelity-money-market-fund-sprxx.html

Note that MM funds are not FDIC insured.

The Fidelity fund is not insured? Or are you saying all money markets, because I believe money markets are FDIC insured up to 250k in the US just like savings accounts.

The difference is between a money market account (at a bank which is FDIC insured) and a money market fund which is a mutual fund, usually found in brokerages, and it is not FDIC insured. My "cash" money is a SWVXX (Schwab Value Advantage Money Fund) paying as of today 4.48%. This Schwab money market fund as well as the equivalent Fidelity or Vanguard funds are not FDIC insured.

[JupiterGreen]

Fidelity Cash Management Account. You can keep funds in a money market fund, which automatically liquidates for payments and transfers.

Their prime money market account (a bit riskier than a federal or treasury MM) is 4.35% right now:
https://institutional.fidelity.com/app/funds-and-products/454/fidelity-money-market-fund-sprxx.html

Note that MM funds are not FDIC insured.

The Fidelity fund is not insured? Or are you saying all money markets, because I believe money markets are FDIC insured up to 250k in the US just like savings accounts.

The difference is between a money market account (at a bank which is FDIC insured) and a money market fund which is a mutual fund, usually found in brokerages, and it is not FDIC insured. My "cash" money is a SWVXX (Schwab Value Advantage Money Fund) paying as of today 4.48%. This Schwab money market fund as well as the equivalent Fidelity or Vanguard funds are not FDIC insured.

Interesting, I didn’t know that. Thanks for the information.

[seemsright]

Check your local credit unions.
We just moved money around to get a extra percent.

We now get 4% on both savings and checking. Easy online banking, and they will do what ever we want including giving our DD a debit card at age 9. Credit unions are amazing.

[snic]

Credit unions aren't all amazing. I actually asked this question on behalf of my elderly mother, whose finances I'm now managing, because I want to move some of her savings from her credit union that pays an absurd 0.1% to a high-yield savings account.

I like the idea of a money-market fund such as Vanguard - thanks to RWD for the suggestion. Their "Federal" MM fund invests mostly in US government securities so it's pretty safe even though it's not FDIC insured. And one can easily buy brokered CDs or T bills. I figure Vanguard would probably also make it pretty easy to move money into and out of the account. In fact, I'm thinking of moving a chunk of my own savings from high-yield savings accounts at various banks to a MM fund, as it does seem to provide exactly what I'm looking for - high yield and ease of investing in other low-risk, high-yield securities.

[Mariposa]

I would have done a Vanguard MM fund, and I've found it fairly easy to move money to/from Vanguard, but they don't allow check writing / free ATM withdrawals / bill pay / automatic credit card payments. So I opened a Fidelity Cash Management account for those things, and keep all the money in their prime MM fund.

Fidelity's prime MM fund (SPRXX) is a bit riskier than a federal MM fund; Vanguard doesn't even have prime MM funds anymore. There was an issue of liquidity in prime MM funds in 2008, when people didn't have access to the money for 1-2 years.

[ResolLaTot]

Fidelity Cash Management Account. You can keep funds in a money market fund, which automatically liquidates for payments and transfers.

Their prime money market account (a bit riskier than a federal or treasury MM) is 4.35% right now:
https://institutional.fidelity.com/app/funds-and-products/454/fidelity-money-market-fund-sprxx.html

Note that MM funds are not FDIC insured.

The Fidelity fund is not insured? Or are you saying all money markets, because I believe money markets are FDIC insured up to 250k in the US just like savings accounts.

The difference is between a money market account (at a bank which is FDIC insured) and a money market fund which is a mutual fund, usually found in brokerages, and it is not FDIC insured. My "cash" money is a SWVXX (Schwab Value Advantage Money Fund) paying as of today 4.48%. This Schwab money market fund as well as the equivalent Fidelity or Vanguard funds are not FDIC insured.

Interesting, I didn’t know that. Thanks for the information.

Perhaps Vanguard is monitoring this thread... They just notified me of Cash-Deposit, their alternative to the non-fdic insured MM.


https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/vanguard-cash-deposit?incmpgn=RIG:EM:CMPGN:CM:01122023:BTL:TXT:CashDep23Echo_C015037:CSA:OTHR:OTH:XXX:UHN:POS01:XX&CMPSP=4776911192&EMGRP=RT045779606

[HPstache]

Fidelity Cash Management Account. You can keep funds in a money market fund, which automatically liquidates for payments and transfers.

Their prime money market account (a bit riskier than a federal or treasury MM) is 4.35% right now:
https://institutional.fidelity.com/app/funds-and-products/454/fidelity-money-market-fund-sprxx.html

Note that MM funds are not FDIC insured.

The Fidelity fund is not insured? Or are you saying all money markets, because I believe money markets are FDIC insured up to 250k in the US just like savings accounts.

The difference is between a money market account (at a bank which is FDIC insured) and a money market fund which is a mutual fund, usually found in brokerages, and it is not FDIC insured. My "cash" money is a SWVXX (Schwab Value Advantage Money Fund) paying as of today 4.48%. This Schwab money market fund as well as the equivalent Fidelity or Vanguard funds are not FDIC insured.

Interesting, I didn’t know that. Thanks for the information.

Perhaps Vanguard is monitoring this thread... They just notified me of Cash-Deposit, their alternative to the non-fdic insured MM.


https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/vanguard-cash-deposit?incmpgn=RIG:EM:CMPGN:CM:01122023:BTL:TXT:CashDep23Echo_C015037:CSA:OTHR:OTH:XXX:UHN:POS01:XX&CMPSP=4776911192&EMGRP=RT045779606

You are being monitored, but probably not by Vanguard specifically...

[snic]

Perhaps Vanguard is monitoring this thread... They just notified me of Cash-Deposit, their alternative to the non-fdic insured MM.


https://investor.vanguard.com/investment-products/vanguard-cash-deposit?incmpgn=RIG:EM:CMPGN:CM:01122023:BTL:TXT:CashDep23Echo_C015037:CSA:OTHR:OTH:XXX:UHN:POS01:XX&CMPSP=4776911192&EMGRP=RT045779606

3.1% APY, blecchh