Online Savings Accounts - selecting the best

Online savings accounts often appear to give you a more value - in other words a much higher interest rate, over 6% in some cases. Better still, there are often no fees, or very low fees. You can also access your money whenever you want.

The thing to watch out for is the fine print. You may be fine with placing your savings in an account like this and never - or rarely - withdrawing it. But an emergency could crop up and you need to access some of your savings. Then you find that not only is there a high transaction fee, but you've blown your interest on the balance for the rest of that month.

One month of no interest may not seem like much to worry about. However, it actually puts you further behind than you would be if you had an saving account with slightly lower interest rates and no transaction fees. Another possible problem could be that your single transaction may put your balance below the minimum required to keep your high interest. So not only have you blown your high interest for the month, but your account has reverted to low interest until such times as you can get that balance back up.

Internet Banking Benefits

Internet banking is the way to go for any person who has their own PC and Internet access. How much better to sit at your computer and do your banking without having to queue up inline to wait your turn - having first had to get in the car, drive to the bank, find a parking spot and then get your banking done in time to pick up the kids from school. Life often seems just one daily rush, but with Internet banking and an online savings account you can cut a bit of slack time and relax.

Internet banking lets you keep up to date with payments in the easiest way possible and they can even be used for business savings. You can set your account to pay money automatically every day, week, month or whatever time slot is necessary. For those bills that vary in their payable balance, you can simply hit the Pay Anyone button and add their banking details just once. After that, they are there until you cancel them.

You can also set up your account to automatically transfer certain sums of money to other accounts or transfer funds to a term deposit, either in the same financial institution or in others. You can print out your own statements or receipts and you don't have to wait until the bank opens. You can have access to all your details 24/7. How good it that?