Bank Savings Account Interest Rate
You can access your money in your High Yield Savings and (non-IRA) Money Market accounts these ways:
- Bank Savings Account Interest Rates History
- Bank Savings Account Interest Rates 2020
- Bank Savings Account Interest Rates Compare
- Bank Savings Account Interest Rate Calculator
- ATM: With the optional ATM card available with a High Yield Savings or Money Market account, you can get cash and perform basic transactions either in the U.S. or abroad, at any ATM displaying the Plus or Accel logos. Synchrony Bank currently doesn’t charge a fee to use an ATM, but there may be an ATM fee charged by the ATM owner/operator. Synchrony Bank will refund domestic ATM fees charged by other financial institutions, up to $5 per statement cycle. If you have Diamond status in our Perks Rewards program, you’ll receive unlimited ATM fee refunds each statement cycle. (Fees associated with using an ATM machine abroad, such as currency conversion and foreign transaction fees, are not refundable by Synchrony Bank.)
- Electronic transfer:You can transfer your money to and from accounts you hold at Synchrony and other banks. Just sign in to synchronybank.com. You can also use our automated phone system by calling 1-866-226-5638 anytime. We do not charge a fee to transfer funds to and from your High Yield Savings and Money Market accounts.
- Check: You can optionally request checks for your Money Market account.
- Wire transfer: Request a wire transfer from your High Yield Savings or Money Market account by calling 1-866-226-5638 from 7 a.m. to midnight ET Monday–Friday, or 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Saturday–Sunday.
Looking for the best bank to keep your money? With so many banks in South Africa that offer multiple savings accounts each, it can be extremely confusing.
I know because I’m in the process of finding the best savings bank account myself. I was astounded by the lack of information online so I thought I better record my research.
To make life a bit easier for you, below you’ll find a breakdown of the best interest rates on the different savings accounts I came across within South Africa. Hope this helps!
¤ 0.03% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is available when you open a Santander ® Savings account. This is a variable-rate account and the rate may change at any time. Rates shown are in effect as of today. Fees may reduce earnings. A minimum deposit of $25 is required to open a Santander ® Savings account. Personal accounts only. These savings accounts are FDIC insured and can earn you 12x your bank. Many people are missing out on guaranteed returns as their money languishes in a big bank savings account earning next to no. While the bank is known for innovating, U.S. Bank’s savings account offers a very low interest rate. People looking for a competitive savings rate should look elsewhere. Bank earned a 2.7. The GoalSave account isn’t exactly your typical everyday savings account, however, if you want to deposit your money and hold it in the account it might be a good option. They offer the best interest rate at 4% interest per annum from 1-30 days after the money has been added to your account.
BONUS CONTENT: Looking for an investment in South Africa with the best return? View my 10 best investments in South Africa for beginners here.
01. African Bank Fixed Deposit Account (5.5% to 10.01%)
African Bank fixed deposit account tops the list! Their interest rates start out at 5.5% interest for the first 3 months and can be increased to as much as 10.1% interest the longer you hold your money, which is outstanding.
Here’s a full break down:
What’s really great about this savings account is that it’s fixed rate, which means as long as you keep your money in the account, the interest rate is guaranteed for the investment period selected. The interest won’t fluctuate.
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SIDE NOTE: As discussed in this quora post, only the best investors in the world achieve a 10% return on their investment in the long term. So finding a bank that offers 10% interest on your money is truly special.
02. African Bank MyWorld Savings Account (4.25%)
MyWorld is an everyday savings account that offers some of the best interest rates at 4.25%. This might not sound like much however you don’t even need to have a minimum deposit in your account. As long as you have some money in your account you’ll be entitled to the 4.25% per annum.
To put this into perspective, for a similar ABSA savings account you’ll only get around 1.55% per annum.
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03. Tyme Bank GoalSave (4% to 6%)
Bank Savings Account Interest Rates History
The GoalSave account isn’t exactly your typical everyday savings account, however, if you want to deposit your money and hold it in the account it might be a good option.
They offer the best interest rate at 4% interest per annum from 1-30 days after the money has been added to your account. This increases the longer you hold your money to us much as 6% interest.
Here’s a table with more details:
They do offer a bonus of 7% if you give the bank 10 days notice before withdrawing your investment after the 90 day period. As far as I understand you’ll only receive 7% on that 10 day notice period, which is a bit of a disappointment.
Unfortunately, your maximum initial investment is capped at R10,000 however you can own a maximum of 10 of these accounts, which means you can invest a maximum of R100,000 in total.
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04. Capitec Global One account Fixed Term Savings Plan (4.59 % to 7.76%)
The fixed-term savings account offers you the opportunity to earn an interest rate of up to 7.76%. Keep in mind that you’ll need to make a minimum deposit of R10,000 and the minimum period you can keep your money in the account for is 6 months. So it’s not exactly your everyday savings account.
Here’s a table that will explain the effective interest rate you can earn in more details:
NOTE: During your research, you might come across “Nominal” or “Effective” interest rates. Nominal interest rates don’t take into account the compounding effect of the interest you earn.
On the other hand, effective interest rates do consider the compounding effect. This makes the “Effective interest rate” a lot more accurate because it shows the total interest you’ll earn for a given period.
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05. FNB (3% to 7.8%)
FNB has a high initial interest rate of 3.05% on a low deposit, and max out at around 7.8% interest rate for investments of R10,000 plus, which isn’t bad considering what other banks have been offering. The amount of interest you earn obviously depends on the account you choose, so let’s quickly run through the options you have.
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06. Nedbank (2.75% to 7.51%)
Bank Savings Account Interest Rates 2020
Nedbank offers a wide range of flexible and fixed-term savings accounts that ranges their interest rates depending on how much money you have, and how long you keep it in your account.
That said there’s way too much information to fit it all in this article. You can either view it all on the Nedbank’s website here or if you want a snapshot I’ll summarize some of the highest interest yielding savings accounts in the table below.
Bank Savings Account Interest Rates Compare
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07. Capitec Global One Savings Account (2.25%)
This account is more of your every day account that doesn’t require an initial deposit. The biggest drawback is, you can only earn 2.25% interest per annum if you have less than R100,000 in the account.
And if you have more than R100,000 things don’t get much better. Your interest rate crawls up from 2.25% to only 2.5%. I mean why did they even bother?
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08. Standard Bank (1.35% to 6.42%)
Standard bank also has a big variety of savings account options. They offer interest rates from as low as 1.35% to as high as 6.42% depending on the account you choose, how much you deposit, and how quickly you would like access to that money.
They even have 4 “accessibility” options so make sure you check out the bank’s website here to get a detailed description of each. Or, if you prefer a summary I’ll also lay out a summary in the table below.
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09. ABSA Bank (0% to 6.75%)
Absa interest rates for savings account ranges from 0.00% to 0.45% which is extremely poop. I highly suggest you rather look into their dynamic fixed deposit account if you do decide to go with ABSA because it’s a lot higher.
Dynamic fixed deposit accounts offer interest rates between 3.75% to 6.75% which is a lot higher than your everyday savings account.
If you would like to view more options with in-depth details on ABSA’s website, then visit this link. I’ll also include a summary in the table below of options that stood out to me if you would like more of a summary of what ABSA has to offer.
[View Bank]
Bank Savings Account Interest Rate Calculator
Final Thoughts
Interest rates change all the time so please don’t be surprised if the information I mentioned in this article doesn’t exactly match up to what you’re seeing. That said, this article should give you a general idea of which banks offer the best savings accounts in South Africa.
I hope this information saves you a few hours of research. I know I wish I had it when I was researching my savings account.
YOUR TURN: Did we miss a bank? Or did we miss any info? Please let us know in the comments below so we can start learning from each other.
BONUS CONTENT:
- Looking for an investment in South Africa with the best return? View my 10 best investments in South Africa for beginners here.
- Looking for ways to make money online as a beginner? Here’s my free guide that shares 14 free ways to make money online in South Africa with very little experience and without spending a lot of money.