Rates updated · Based on 94 tracked high-yield savings accounts
How much are you losing in a typical high-yield savings account instead of the best one?
A saver in a typical high-yield savings account gives up about $977 a year versus a top-available one — a gap of 3.91 percentage points (0.46% national average vs 4.37% best available) on a $25,000 balance.
Gap Spread
3.91%
percentage points
Best Available
4.37%
APY
National Average
0.46%
APY
What the gap costs you per year
| Balance | Annual interest lost | 5-year cost |
|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $391 | $1,955 |
| $25,000 | $977 | $4,885 |
| $50,000 | $1,953 | $9,765 |
| $100,000 | $3,907 | $19,535 |
| $250,000 | $9,767 | $48,835 |
How the High-Yield Savings Spread Index has moved
Each month's value is recorded as a dated snapshot. The full machine-readable series is published as a public dataset.
History accrues monthly. The first dated snapshot appears after the next monthly update — prior months are not back-filled or estimated.
Methodology
High-Yield Savings Spread Index = representativeBalance × (bestAvailableAPY − nationalAverageAPY)
representativeBalance is $25,000 — held fixed so the Index moves only when rates move. bestAvailableAPY is the average of the top-3 rates across the 94 actively tracked high-yield savings accounts in the SwitchWize rate database. nationalAverageAPY is the FDIC national average rate for this product — what a typical big-bank saver actually earns (updated quarterly).
The dated monthly series is published as a public dataset at /data/indices/hysa-spread.
See today's top high-yield savings accounts
Compare every tracked high-yield savings account ranked by rate, then trust and access.
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