Have a Bank of America Savings Account? You're Probably Missing Out on $300-Plus a Year

Bank of America is the second-biggest bank in the U.S., with trillions of dollars in assets and about 3,700 branches.

However, although it's popular, Bank of America is one of the absolute worst banks you could choose for your savings.

Bank of America's regular savings account, Bank of America Advantage Savings, pays an APY of 0.01% -- a tiny fraction of the national average APY of 0.41%. Preferred Rewards members can earn a paltry 0.04% if they maintain an average balance of $100,000 or more across all their Bank of America accounts.

Luckily, there are savings accounts that could earn you 100 times Bank of America's highest APY. See how much your Bank of America savings account could be costing you -- and how you could earn a lot more money starting today.

How you could miss out on over $300 per year

The median balance of Americans' "transaction accounts" (savings, checking, and similar accounts) was $8,000 as of 2022, according to the Federal Reserve.

If you had $8,000 in a Bank of America savings account earning a 0.01% APY, your savings would earn a whopping $0.80 in one year.

If you instead put that money in a high-yield savings account with an APY of 4.00%, you'd earn $320 in a year.

How about after 10 years? You're looking at earnings of $8 versus $3,842.

You could earn thousands more with an hour of work

Switching bank accounts has never been easier. The best high-yield savings accounts have easy-to-use websites and mobile apps. You can open your new savings account and move your money in a matter of minutes.

You'll also need to:

• Open a checking account with your new bank (this may happen automatically if your new bank offers a checking and savings combo)
• Update any automatic payments that come from your old account
• Update your direct deposit at work
• Close the old account

The whole process should take about an hour at most -- not bad for something that could earn you thousands of dollars in the long run.

Ready to start earning 10 times the national average APY? Check out our list of the best high-yield savings accounts and open a new account today.

What's the tradeoff?

High-yield savings accounts are offered by reputable, FDIC-insured banks. Your deposits are just as safe as they would be with Bank of America or any other big, traditional bank. They also offer all the same essential services.

There's only one thing Bank of America offers that most banks don't: thousands of branches across the U.S.

Most of us rarely, if ever, need to walk into a physical bank. But if you frequently make large cash deposits or withdrawals, having a local bank branch makes things much easier.

Even then, you can deposit cash into one bank account and then transfer it to a high-yield savings account at another bank. Just make sure you:

1. Account for the fact that transfers between different banks typically take a few business days
2. Avoid unnecessary fees at your local bank (some charge a maintenance fee if your balance is too low, for example)

In short, there's pretty much no reason not to open a high-yield savings account. Your future self will thank you for making the switch immediately.