where are you putting your emergency fund?
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There is so much financial uncertainty right now because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now more than ever, it is essential to have some emergency savings. Ideally, you’ll want to have this money secure, and FDIC insured, which means not under your mattress, but you also want to earn some interest on these funds. So in this post, I will give you a few options to consider regarding where to keep your emergency savings.
T-Mobile Checking Account
The first account you should consider is the T-Mobile checking account. With this account, you will earn four percent interest on the first 3,000 dollars that you have in the account. Any balances above that, you will only make 1 percent. To qualify for the 4 percent interest, you must be a T-Mobile or Sprint customer, and you must deposit at least 200 dollars per month into this account. So if you are not a T-Mobile or Sprint customer and you want to open this account, you will only earn 1 percent, and if you are a T-Mobile or Sprint customer and if you don’t deposit that 200 dollars per month, your interest rate will drop down to 1 percent. Since there aren’t any T-Mobile branches that you can go to, all of your banking will have to be done online. So you can open your account by going to their website or downloading the T-Mobile Money app.
When you are ready to fund your account, you do have a few options. You can set up direct deposit through your paycheck, you can use the mobile app to deposit a check, or you can actually mail in a check to T-Mobile and they will deposit those funds into your account. Since this is a checking account, you will also be issued a debit card.
American Express Savings Account
The next account is the American Express savings account. As of May 15th, 2020, the interest rate on this account is 1.3 percent. You do not need to be a current customer of American Express to open the account, and there is no minimum deposit required to open the account as well. With this account, all of your banking will be done online; you will need to go to their website to open an account. This is a high-yield savings account, so you are limited to six withdrawals in one statement cycle. If you consistently make more than six withdrawals in one statement cycle, they will eventually close your account. So again, keep that in mind.
Discover Savings Account
The next account is the Discover savings account. This account is a high-yield savings account, and it does pay an interest rate of 1.25 percent. Again, you do not need to be a current customer to open the account, and there is no minimum deposit required to open the account. But you will have to go online to apply to open this account. Now, if you are a current Discover customer and already have one of their credit cards or checking accounts, you will be able to link this savings account to your online profile.