Here are 10 interest savings accounts offering 5% APY (or close to it) (2024)

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.

If there's one upside of a rising interest rate environment, it's earning a higher return on that cash sitting in a savings account.

Several high-yield savings accounts are offering around a 5% annual percentage yield (APY) — a significant increase from the pandemic-era rates that once hovered around just 1% and a high we haven't seen since the 1990s. (And we still have the rest of the year to see how savings rates play out following the forthcoming Federal Reserve rate hikes.)

With a 5% APY being one of the highest yields we're seeing in the market right now, CNBC Select researched just what FDIC-insured savings accounts are offering an APY of 5% — or close to it — and the minimum balances required to earn that decently attractive return. If your sole focus is to maximize your savings, these are the accounts to consider. (Seeour methodologybelow for more information on how we created this list.)

The Western Alliance Bank Savings Account offers a 5.32% APY and requires just a $1 minimum deposit to open an account. There is no cap for earning the 5.32% APY, making this high-yield savings account the best overall 5% APY choice.

Western Alliance Bank savings products are powered by Raisin, which means that savers' accounts are opened and managed on the Raisin.com platform.

With the Newtek Bank Personal High Yield Savings, account holders earn a respectable 5.25% APY with a minimum balance requirement of just $0.01 to earn interest. There's no minimum deposit to open an account and no cap on how much interest you can earn with this APY.

Newtek Bank is formerly National Bank of New York City (NBNYC); it has recently been acquired and rebranded as a part of NewtekOne.

TheBask Interest Savings Accountoffers a 5.10% APY to all savings account holders, with 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.

Frequent travelers should consider the Bask Mileage Savings Account where they earn American Airlines AAdvantage^®miles back instead: Earn 2.5 miles for every $1 saved annually. Savers can then use these miles for flights on American Airlines or any of its 20+ partner airlines.

Bask Bank is a division of Texas Capital Bank, but operates completely online.

The UFB Secure Savings account offers a high 5.25% interest rate with no cap. Though UFB Direct notes that this is a tiered savings rate, at the time of writing all balance tiers earn this sameAPY.

This account has no minimum deposit requirement so savers can deposit $1 or $100 and earn the same high APY. For those savers on the go, UFB stands out for offering users a free ATM card. UFB Direct is the online division of Axos Bank.

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. Anytime 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.

Varo Savings Account users can qualify to earn 5.00% APY on balances up to $5,000 by meeting two requirements:

1. Receiving $1,000 or more in direct deposits per month
2. Ending the month with a positive balance in both the 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 3.00% APY on any additional balance over $5,000 (which is still pretty decent) and there is no minimum balance required to earn this standard 3.00% APY. Varo Savings is a part of Varo Bank, which is an all-mobile national bank.

For those who want extra help saving, the online bank offers two programs that automatically transfer money from your Varo bank account to your savings account: Save Your Pay, which transfers a percentage of your paycheck into your savings, and Save Your Change, which rounds up your checking account transactions to the nearest dollar and transfers the difference to your savings.

Though Laurel Road is widely known for its student loan refinancing services, the digital banking arm of KeyBank recently launched the Laurel Road High Yield Savings. This savings account offers a competitive interest rate at 5.00% APY, with no minimums required and zero monthly fees.

Laurel Road also offers the Laurel Road Loyalty Checking^SM — a rewards checking account. Account holders earn a$20 cash rewardfor 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. Plus, Laurel Road offers the chance to earn a $300 welcome bonus with this checking account.

Cardholders of the Mango Prepaid Mastercard^® (issued byMetropolitan Commercial Bank) have access to a savings feature where they can earn up to 6.00% APY on balances up to $2,500 by meeting two requirements:

1. Make a minimum deposit of $25 and have that minimum balance at the end of the month
2. Make signature purchases of $1,500 or more on the Mango Prepaid Mastercard each month

For savers that max their balance to $2,500, that's $150 in interest earnings in a year — which is why we ranked this account the best for making a small deposit (up to $2,500). The APY thereafter is a low 0.10% over $2,500 — which at that point we'd recommend shifting other savings beyond the $2,500 to a high-yielding bank account.

The CIT Bank Platinum Savings offers 4.95% 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.

The savings account has a $100 minimum opening deposit and no monthly fees.

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.

There is a $1,000 minimum deposit required to open CFG Bank High Yield Account and to earn the 5.25% APY. 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.

There is no cap for earning the 5.25% APY, which means savers can deposit as much as they want and still earn that high APY.

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.

If your money is sitting in a savings account, maximize the interest you earn on it by switching to an account like one of the above. After all, the higher your interest rate, the faster your money can grow.

With the national average APY on savings accounts well below half of one percent, that means a savings of $2,500 may only earn you around $10 in interest the first year. Parking that same $2,500 in an online high-yield account offering 5% APY, however, means netting $125 in interest earnings the first year instead. And, naturally, the higher your balance, the higher your interest earnings. If you're going to maintain a savings account, such as for an emergency fund, you might as well earn the highest return possible.

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To determine which interest savings accounts made this list, CNBC Selectanalyzed 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.

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