Best 4% interest savings accounts of May 2025

Editor's Note: APYs listed in this article are up-to-date as of the time of publication. They may fluctuate (up or down) as the Fed rate changes. CNBC Select will update as changes are made public.

The offer mentioned below for the CIT Bank® Platinum Savings and CFG Bank High Yield Money Market Account is no longer available.

Some high-yield savings accounts still offer around 4% annual percentage yield (APY). If your sole focus is to maximize your savings, these are the accounts to consider. (See our methodology below for more information on how we created this list.)

Who's this for? For those who want to earn a high APY, the My Banking Direct High Yield Savings Account offers one of the best returns we found.

Standout benefits: My Banking Direct's High Yield Savings Account has a 4.40% APY on all balance tiers with no monthly fees. There's a $500 minimum deposit required to open an account.

[ Jump to more details ]

Who's this for? The Western Alliance Bank High-Yield Savings Account offers a 4.25% APY, one of the highest we found, and requires just a $1 minimum deposit to open an account.

Standout benefits: There's no cap to earning the high APY and there are no monthly fees.

[ Jump to more details ]

Who's this for? For those savers on the go, UFB Portfolio Savings stands out for offering its users a free ATM card.

Standout benefits: Along with an ATM card, UFB Portfolio savers get a high 4.01% interest rate on all balance tiers with no cap, no monthly fees and no minimum deposit requirement. Add a UFB Freedom Checking account and meet checking account qualifications to get an additional up to 0.20% APY on savings.

[ Jump to more details ]

Who's this for? Though CFG Bank High Yield Money Market Account has "money market" in its name, it doesn't offer any of the typical bells and whistles you find with a money market account, such as check-writing privileges, debit cards and ATM access; it instead functions like a savings account.

Standout benefits: There's a $1,000 minimum deposit required to open CFG Bank's High Yield Money Market Account and you must maintain the $1,000 minimum to avoid a $10 monthly fee and to earn a high 5.25% APY, with no cap. Though this is a higher minimum than others on this list, it essentially helps the saver at the end of the day; the higher one's balance, the higher their interest earnings will be.

[ Jump to more details ]

Who's this for? The Bask Interest Savings Account offers a healthy APY, on top of zero monthly fees and no minimum requirements, making it the best choice for no fees. Just note that the bank may close your account if it remains unfunded for 15 business days.

Standout benefits: With Bask Interest Savings, you get 4.20% APY on any savings balance. Frequent travelers should consider the Bask Mileage Savings Account where they earn American Airlines AAdvantage^® miles back instead: Earn 2 miles for every $1 saved annually. Savers can then use these miles for flights on American Airlines or any of its 20+ partner airlines.

[ Jump to more details ]

Who's this for? There's no minimum deposit to open a Newtek Bank Personal High Yield Savings.

Standout benefits: Newtek savers earn a respectable 4.35% APY with a minimum balance requirement of just $0.01 to earn interest, and no monthly fees. There's no cap on how much interest you can earn with this APY.

[ Jump to more details ]

Who's this for? Laurel Road offers the best of both a savings and checking account: a high-yield savings and and a rewards checking.

Standout benefits: Laurel Road High Yield Savings offers a competitive interest rate at 3.80% APY, with no caps, no minimums required and zero monthly fees. Plus, account holders of the Laurel Road Loyalty Checking^SM can earn up to $20 cash reward for every month they make qualifying ACH direct deposits during their first 12 months, and $10 for every month after that, for as long as their account is open. There's currently a $100 welcome bonus, too.

[ Jump to more details ]

Who's this for? We like the Panacea High-Yield Savings Account for being accessible: Account holders can make unlimited withdrawals each month from their savings. This bank is especially ideal for those in the health care industry, like doctors and their families.

Standout benefits: Anyone can open Panacea's High-Yield Savings Account and earn 3.80% APY with a minimum $25 deposit. There are zero monthly fees.

[ Jump to more details ]

Who's this for? For those who need tools to help them save more, online bank Varo offers two programs that automatically transfer money from their checking account to their savings account: 1) Save Your Pay, which transfers a percentage of the account holder's paycheck into their savings, and 2) Save Your Change, which rounds up the account holder's checking account transactions to the nearest dollar and transfers the difference to their savings.

Standout benefits: TheVaro Savings Account has no monthly fees and users can qualify to earn 5.00% APY on balances up to $5,000 by meeting two requirements:

1. Receive $1,000 or more in direct deposits per month
2. End the month with a positive balance in both their Varo Bank Account and Varo Savings Account

For savers that max their balance to $5,000, that's $250 in interest earnings in a year. Varo savers earn 2.50% APY on any additional balance over $5,000 (which is still pretty decent) and there is no minimum balance required to earn this standard 2.50% APY.

[ Jump to more details ]

Who's this for? The CIT Bank Platinum Savings offers 4.10% APY on balances of $5,000 or more — making it the best option for savers with a larger amount of cash to deposit. Balances of less than $5,000 earn just 0.25% APY, which is why we only recommend this account for savers with at least $5,000 to put in the bank.

Standout benefits: CIT Bank's Platinum Savings has a $100 minimum opening deposit, which is easy to reach when depositing $5,000, and no monthly fees.

[ Jump to more details ]

My Banking Direct is an online financial service of Flagstar Bank, N.A. It offers a high-yield savings account, a checking account with a free debit card and no overdraft or monthly fees, plus a specialty five-month CD.

APY

4.40% APY

Minimum balance

$500 minimum deposit

Monthly fee

None

[ Return to summary ]

Western Alliance Bank savings products are powered by Raisin, which means that savers' accounts are opened and managed on the Raisin.com platform. The platform manages customers' deposits and withdrawals, bank statements, as well as customer service.

APY

4.25% APY

Minimum balance

$1 minimum deposit

Monthly fee

None

[ Return to summary ]

UFB Direct is the online division of Axos Bank^®. In addition to offering a high-yield savings account, UFB also offers a checking account that can boost your savings rate, a money market account and home loans through Axos.

If you're an existing UFB customer, note that the bank sometimes changes the name of its savings accounts when it raises the APY, and it does not automatically enroll existing customers into the new account. Any time UFB increases the APY on an account, customers should contact the bank to make sure they're enrolled in the account offering the best APY.

APY

Get up to 4.21% APY on any savings balance; add UFB Freedom Checking and meet checking account qualifications to get an additional up to 0.20% APY on savings

Minimum balance

None

Monthly fee

None

[ Return to summary ]

CFG Bank is an online-only bank. It offers both commercial and personal banking products, the latter including its high-yield money market account, CDs with varying terms and a checking account with debit card access and out-of-network ATM reimbursement.

APY

5.25% APY

Minimum balance

$1,000 minimum deposit and $1,000 minimum must be maintained to earn high APY

Monthly fee

$10 per month, unless you maintain a $1,000 minimum balance

[ Return to summary ]

Bask Bank is a division of Texas Capital Bank, but operates completely online. Along with its high-yield savings account, Bask also offers four different CD terms and a Bask Mileage Savings Account where you can earn 2.5 American Airlines AAdvantage^® miles for every $1 saved annually.

APY

4.20% APY

Minimum balance

None

Monthly fee

None

[ Return to summary ]

Newtek Bank is formerly National Bank of New York City (NBNYC); it had been acquired and rebranded as a part of NewtekOne. Its one branch is in Miami, FL. Newtek offers banking for both businesses and individuals. In addition to consumers having access to a high-yield savings account, there are also seven different CD terms available.

APY

4.35% APY

Minimum balance

$0.01 to earn interest

Monthly fee

None

[ Return to summary ]

Laurel Road is the digital banking arm of KeyBank and is widely known for its student loan refinancing services. Other consumer services it provides along with a high-yield savings account are checking and savings accounts that help you lower your student loan refinancing rate, rewards checking, a cash-back credit card that can go toward your student loan repayment, plus home loans and personal loans.

APY

3.80% APY

Minimum balance

None

Monthly fee

None

[ Return to summary ]

Panacea Financial is digital banking catered to those working in the healthcare industry and their families. Panacea offers personal loans and student loan refinancing for those in the medical, dental or veterinary fields, mortgages for doctors, as well as loans for those starting their own medical practice and insurance for doctors. It also has both personal and business bank accounts, as well as high-balance deposit accounts where you can get more FDIC insurance.

APY

3.80% APY

Minimum balance

$25 minimum deposit

Monthly fee

None

[ Return to summary ]

Varo Savings is a part of Varo Bank, which is an all-mobile national bank. In addition to its bank account offerings, Varo also has a credit builder card (no credit history required), cash advances and a tax filing service to offer customers.

APY

Up to 5.00% APY on balances up to $5,000

Minimum balance

1. Receive $1,000 or more in direct deposits per month
2. End the month with a positive balance in both Varo Bank Account and Varo Savings Account

Monthly fee

None

[ Return to summary ]

CIT Bank is an online division of First Citizens Bank, which has 500+ branch and ATM locations. CIT offers personal, custodial and trust accounts and its products include savings and checking, money market and CDs.

APY

4.10% APY on balances of $5,000 or more

Minimum balance

$100 minimum deposit

Monthly fee

None

[ Return to summary ]

When choosing a 5% APY savings account, be mindful of the fine print. Banks tout above-average APYs that often come with caveats.

Typical conditions might include a cap to how much you can earn the high APY on; for instance, earning 5% APY but only on a balance up to $1,000. This can limit your interest earnings so you really can only maximize your savings so much.

Another condition may be requiring a high minimum deposit to open a 5% APY account or to earn interest. Just make sure that the minimum is an amount you were planning to put into a savings account originally.

To apply for a 5% APY savings account, go to the website of the account you wish to open. Most savings accounts take not even 10 minutes to apply and just require a government-issued ID like a passport or driver's license, Social Security number, address, contact information, date of birth and a checking account routing number to deposit money.

This list is a good place to begin your search for a high-yield savings account offering one of the most attractive returns on your cash. You can't go wrong with any of these accounts when it comes to earning a good return as they are all in the ballpark range around 5% APY, give or take. Navigate the varying rates by focusing on what else is most important to you — maybe it's an account with easy access to your cash, one with an ATM card or one that has tools to help you save more.

If a 5% savings account isn't for you, consider other savings vehicles that offer competitive returns like CDs or money market accounts — the former rewards you with a fixed rate for locking up your funds for a fixed amount of time and the latter offers checking account privileges so you can more easily access your funds.

If you're willing to take on some risk, you can also invest in the market through low-cost index funds, which diversify your money in all different companies. Though the market offers more risk, there are potentially better returns.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every savings account review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of banking products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best 5% savings accounts.

To determine which interest savings accounts made this list, CNBC Select compared dozens of U.S. savings accounts offered by online and brick-and-mortar banks, including large credit unions. We narrowed down our picks by only considering those savings accounts that offer an APY of around 5% (at minimum 4.50% APY), along with low (or no) minimum balance requirements. Some banks offer around a 5% APY but only up to a cap; in these cases, we didn't include those that limited the high APY to a balance of $1,000 or less. We also took into consideration the fallback APY offered once the balance limit to earn the high APY is reached.

All of the accounts included on this list are FDIC-insured up to $250,000 per depositor. Note that the rates and fee structures for interest savings accounts are not guaranteed forever; they are subject to change without notice and they often fluctuate in accordance with the Fed rate. Your earnings depend on any associated fees and the balance you have in your interest savings account. To open an account, most banks and institutions require a deposit of new money, meaning you can't transfer the money you already had in an account at that bank.

Catch up on CNBC Select's in-depth coverage of credit cards, banking and money, and follow us on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay up to date.