High Yield Saving Account | Online Banking | High Interest Savings

So you've heard of reading the fine print when it comes to financial offers, loans, and now savings accounts. Always look carefully at the ad on your screen or on the TV - many times you'll find the highest yield saving account offer will require a ridiculously large deposit - like $50,000.

Now maybe you have that kind of cash lying around in a mattress somewhere but even if I did, I certainly wouldn't stick that much in a savings account - and I wouldn't care WHAT the yield was!

Three things I'm going to be looking for in any online bank savings account I open are

• Compatability with financial software like Quicken
• No fee withdrawal options such as EFT (electronic funds transfer - or also ACH)
• FDIC Membership and minimally diversified business

I'm sure you're going to ask why I'm wary of having a broadly diversified bank for my high yield savings account - but I need more space than I have here so I'll cover it in its own heading.

If the lessons of the recent banking implosion have taught us anything, is that financial institutions that get "too big to fail..." have a propensity to fail. The reasons for this are many, but for my purposes here suffice to say that even the greatest of business managers isn't fit to run a massive highly diversified financial institution. It is simply too complex and becomes impossible to determine the riskiness of the company's assets.

Do A Little Digging Before Committing to Any Bank
That is why I recommend be a little cautious around financial companies that are overly diversified. Citigroup comes to mind as being on the bubble. Ally bank (a unit of GMAC) has one of the highest yielding accounts out there. I'm wary of appling there because of their association with GMAC. Even though my money would be backed by FDIC insurance - can I afford to have access to my emergency funds interrupted by a bank failure? I can't, but maybe others can. Is the riskiness of an over-diversified bank relative to a stand-alone bank worth the extra 0.1% interest rate they offer? Not necessarily.

Everbank, Ally Bank, and HSBC all sponsor web based free content sites like this one. Please give them your attention for a moment - no obligation. Visit Everbank or Ally bank or one of the other banks offering high yield savings banks run by a diversified financial company. The yields will always be a little better, but be mindful of the slight risks associated with diversified online savings banks.