Americans have more money saved this year than they did last year, survey shows

Most Americans have more money saved in their financial institutions in 2024 than they did the previous year, according to a new survey from Nerdwallet .

In the financial literacy website’s latest banking survey, Nerdwallet found that nearly 3 in 5 Americans with financial accounts report having more money saved now than 12 months ago, with higher interest rates the primary reason for saving.

Over the past decade, interest rates in savings accounts were so low, that it almost wasn’t even worth keeping money in savings versus a checking account, Nerdwallet said.

But now, higher interest rates in savings accounts, particularly with online institutions, have encouraged more people to utilize their savings accounts to take advantage of the interest rates and accumulate more free money.

Nerdwallet surveyed more than 2,000 Americans, the vast majority of whom said they used a financial institution, and asked them a variety of questions regarding their personal savings, interest rates and what they are looking for when it comes to choosing a bank.

Respondents said they valued things like online banking access (57%), mobile apps (53%) and phone customer service (44%). Even as more online-only banks pop up, many with better interest rates than their brick-and-mortar counterparts, having a physical branch remains an important consideration for more than half (53%) of those surveyed.

On the topic of interest rates, over a third of those people surveyed, 36% to be exact, said they’ve switched banks to go to one that offers better rates on savings.

There are multiple online-only banks that offer high-yield savings accounts with interest rates at or around 5%, Nerdwallet says, significantly higher than the national average APY of just 0.46%.

The difference in interest rates can amount to hundreds or thousands of dollars over time.

“Let’s say you have $10,000 in savings. After one year, a 5% APY would earn you $512 in interest, while a rate of 0.46% would return just $46. After five years, the interest earned would be $2,834 and $233 respectively,” Nerdwallet wrote in its report.

Those interest rates at online-banks could potentially go down in the coming months or years, but online banks have historically outperformed physical banks when it comes to interest rates, the website said.

While switching banks might seem like a pain, Elizabeth Ayoola, personal finance writer at NerdWallet, said it could pay off in the long run.

“It could mean the difference between saving hundreds of dollars to saving thousands,” Ayoola said. “If switching banks isn’t the right option for you, consider using a few banks that serve different purposes.”

That could mean having savings kept in an online-only savings account with higher interest rates and using a physical bank for daily expenses, Ayoola said.

To read more about the Nerdwallet survey, including the methodology used by pollsters, click here .

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