History Of Savings Account Interest Rates

For much of the past 15 years, savers have contended with accounts that yielded close to nothing.

That all changed after the COVID-19 pandemic when you could finally park your cash in a high-yield savings account and earn a decent interest rate.

Rather than being the exception, this was the experience of savers prior to the Great Recession.

Whether or not the era of (relatively) high rates is over depends on how well the economy performs and how the Federal Reserve responds.

Historical Savings Account Interest Rates

A quick note on data: The FDIC posts monthly national deposit rates for various savings vehicles going back to 2009.

The national rate is defined as “the average of rates paid by all insured depository institutions and credit unions for which data is available, with rates weighted by each institution’s share of domestic deposits,” per the FDIC.

While this is the most comprehensive data available, it does come with some limitations.

One issue is that it minimizes the top rates available on the best high-yield savings accounts. For instance, Ally Bank offers a much higher savings account yield than Chase Bank. But Chase is much bigger, thereby pulling down the national average.

Another problem is that the data only goes back to 2009, thereby limiting the chance to offer comparisons.

To provide a fuller picture, we’ll show the FDIC national deposit rate data and the average annual return for cash as an investment asset. In this context, cash typically refers to money an investor can access quickly, such as the 3-month Treasury Bill.

Since there is long-term data of three-month Treasury Bill yields and savers wouldn’t settle for a lower T-Bill yield if they could have earned a better yield on a savings account, we’ll use that to provide a picture of the best rates over time.

Savings Account Rates Between 2022 and 2024

At the beginning of 2022, the national savings rate was a measly 0.06%. Two years later, it would jump to 0.46%.

National Savings Account Rates Average (FDIC)

• January 2022: 0.06%
• June 2022: 0.08%
• January 2023: 0.33%
• June 2023: 0.42%
• January 2024: 0.47%
• June 2024: 0.45%

The jump reflects the annual returns on cash, per NYU.

Three-Month T-Bills Yields

• 2022: 2.02%
• 2023: 5.07%
• 2024: 4.97%

The reason for the jump in savings rate had everything to do with the Federal Reserve and inflation.

When prices spiked in 2021 after economies began to reopen following government restrictions imposed to quash the spread of COVID-19, the Fed believed the subsequent inflationary phenomenon to be transitory.

By early 2022, though, the Fed admitted its mistake, reversed course and raised rates dramatically over the next 18 months to a range of 5.25% to 5.50%.

That’s where rates stood until the fall of 2024 when the Fed cut borrowing costs by a full percentage point over the course of four months.

While still elevated compared to recent history, the best savings account yields dropped as a result.

The Fed began 2025, though, by keeping interest rates unchanged, and is only expect to pare the federal funds rate twice throughout the year.

Savings Account Rates Between 2009 and 2021

Savings account yields were muted in the decade-plus prior to the bout of inflation.

The Federal Reserve held the federal funds rate at the zero-lower bound until 2015, and then only slowly increased it by 2.25 points through 2018 in a bid to return rates to a more normal level.

However, the Fed cut rates three times in the latter half of 2019 to buttress economic growth amid lower demand and a trade conflict with China.

Ultimately, the Fed would cut rates down to zero again at the onset of the pandemic and economic lockdowns.

National Savings Account Average (FDIC)

• May 2009: 0.22%
• January 2010: 0.21%
• January 2011: 0.17%
• January 2012: 0.11%
• January 2013: 0.07%
• January 2014: 0.06%
• January 2015: 0.06%
• January 2016: 0.06%
• January 2017: 0.06%
• January 2018: 0.06%
• January 2019: 0.09%
• January 2020: 0.09%
• January 2021: 0.05%

Three-Month T-Bills Yields

• 2009: 0.15%
• 2010: 0.14%
• 2011: 0.05%
• 2012: 0.09%
• 2013: 0.06%
• 2014: 0.03%
• 2015: 0.05%
• 2016: 0.32%
• 2017: 0.93%
• 2018: 1.94%
• 2019: 2.06%
• 2020: 0.35%
• 2021: 0.05%

Savings Rates Before 2009

Prior to 2009, cash yields would fluctuate but were rarely as low as they were in the period following the Great Recession.

For instance, in the years running up to the housing crash, savers received:

Three-Month T-Bills Yields

• 2005: 3.15%
• 2006: 4.73%
• 2007: 4.36%

That was due to the Federal Reserve increasing interest rates in order to cool off an overheating economy.

A few years early, the Fed had slashed rates in response to the dot com bubble burst and the economic fallout of 9/11. During that time, savers received:

Three-Month T-Bills Yields

• 2002: 1.61%
• 2003: 1.01%
• 2004: 1.37%

Cash yields peaked in 1981 at 14.04%, thanks to the Fed raising interest rates to astronomical levels to finally crush inflation. (Prices rose by 13.9% in 1980 and 11.8% the year after.)

The only other time period (besides the years after the Great Recession) when cash yields were consistently below 1% was during the Great Depression through World War II.

Yields fell to 0.96% in 1933, dropped to a low of 0.04% in 1940 and still only hit 0.60% in 1947. In total, savers dealt with 15 consecutive years of cash yields below 1%.

How To Get the Best Savings Interest Rates

One lesson you can glean from this quick history of savings account interest rates is that identifying the best yields can make a discernible difference to your financial situation.

Ally Savings currently offers a 3.70% APY, compared to just 0.01%.

Even when you go back to a period when the Fed held rates down to zero, it still paid to search for the best options.

In early 2015, for instance, Ally offered a 0.99% yield. That mark was much higher than what traditional banks offered at the time, and what some do now.

When considering which account to choose, make sure you pick one that consistently offers among the best rates available.

While these banks won’t always offer the best possible rate (Ally has been outstripped by rivals in recent years), they’ll still likely provide a competitive rate well above the national average.