Happy (almost) New Year! It’s still technically the holiday season, but the end of 2014 is right around the corner. Whether you’re still in the middle of your holiday shopping or you’ve already bought all your presents, you may be feeling the pains of over-spending and have already decided on one particular New Years Resolution: save, save, save.
Luckily, there are plenty of online savings accounts to help you save up in the new year - and earn a little interest while you’re at it. Here’s a list of the best to boost your savings in 2014:
SmartyPig. SmartyPig is number one on the list for two big reasons: interest rates and motivation. Right now, SmartyPig has one of the best interest rates in the country, offering a 1.00 percent annual percentage yield (APY) and beating out most of the other online savings accounts. But beyond the numbers, SmartyPig helps encourages you to save money with a user-friendly interface. The SmartyPig dashboard lets you track your savings progress with piggy bank meters and allows you to earn bonuses if you convert your savings into partner gift cards.
GE Capital Bank. Did you know General Electric has an online bank? Well, it’s one of the best on the market! The GE Capital Bank not only offers useful blog posts and calculators to help you save more money, but it comes with one of the most competitive interest rates in the country: 0.90 percent.
CIT Bank. CIT Savings also offers very competitive interest rates and bases its rates on a tiered system. For a regular saver, you can still earn a decent return at 0.85 percent interest; but boost your account balance up to $25,000 and you could earn 1.00 percent.
Ally Bank. Close behind its other counterparts, Ally Bank currently offers savers a 0.84 percent APY, which puts it in the top ten for returns. Ally also allows you to conveniently deposit checks through your mobile device using the Ally Bank mobile app.
Capital One 360. Formerly ING Direct, Capital One 360 still offers the easy-to-use user interface, convenient sub-account creation and low fees that it did under the ING brand. To top it off? They reward their savers with a not-too-shabby interest rate of 0.75 percent.
