American Express Savings Account Review

American Express Bank, the banking arm of the credit card company American Express, is still offering one of the best bank savings account rates avaiable right now. The rate on the Amex savings account is slightly better than the rates on Discover Bank and Zions Bank savings account.

The High Yeild Savings Account from American Express currently has a rate of 1.29 percent and a yield of 1.30 percent. That rate is more than 5 times the current savings account rate of 0.25 percent as reported by MonitorBankRates.com and Informars.com.

As with any savings account, the interest rate on the Amex account is a variable rate. This means the rate can change at any time, unlike a certificate of deposit account that has a fixed rate for the duration of the term.

American Express Savings

If you're looking for a fixed rate, Amex Bank is also offering a 12 month CD rate and yield at 0.90 percent, though we would recommend sticking with the savings account since the yield is 40 basis points higher and interest rates should be heading higher this year.

Update: American Express savings account rates have declined since this review but Amex's savings are still very competitive with other banks. When you compare this bank's current savings rates at 0.85 percent which were recently raised from 0.75 percent to other bank's the rate is very good.

Right now the FDIC's current national average savings rate is at 0.10 percent. American Express savings rate is 8.5 times the current national average. Amex's savings rate is exactly at the FDIC's rate cap of 0.85 percent.

I wonder if the FDIC raised the rate cap if Amex would raise their rate as well. The FDIC's cap is calculated by adding 75 basis points to the national rate which at this time is only 0.10 percent.

Update 6/16/12: American Express savings has lowered the rate the bank pays on it's online savings account. The current American Express Savings Account Rate is 0.84 percent with an APY of 0.85 percent. American Express lowering the interest rate on their account isn't a surprise these days since most banks have done so as well.

The interesting thing is since the post American Express savings rates were as low as 0.75 percent with an APY of 0.75 percent. Amex has recently raised their savings rate 10 basis points to the current level.