Intro
Most checking accounts pay no interest yet are a necessity to write checks and pay bills. But wouldn’t it be great to earn high interest on your idle checking balances as if you had a high yield checking account? Learn how you can do that with the innovative financial products below!
Putting Idle Cash to Work
One of the most important things you can do for your financial health is to keep as much of your excess cash invested and earning money for you as possible.
The average checking account balance was $16,891 according to the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). That’s a lot of idle money just sitting there, earning next to nothing in most cases, while slowly being eaten away by inflation.
Savings accounts can be decent companions to checking accounts for earning higher interest on idle funds, but most require active management of funds to ensure there’s enough in the checking to cover bills, and because of that, you can’t put all your funds into one.
But now, multiple companies have developed financial products with the best of both worlds – with most of the features of a checking account but with the high interest rates of high yield savings accounts! Let’s review the best of them.
Wealthfront Cash Account
The first option up is the Wealthfront Cash Account. (Earn 5.50% 5.00%, an extra 0.5% for 3 months using this referral link, after which the normal rate is 5.00%)
This is not a high yield checking account exactly, but it provides many of the features of one, and it gets high marks for being easy and enjoyable to use and offering some of the best interest rates around.
After extensive research on the topic, this is the product I settled on for my own checking funds, and I’ve had a wonderful experience with it.
The biggest limitations of a Wealthfront Cash Account are not having a physical branch to deposit loose cash and not having physical checks for impromptu payments, though they do offer the ability to send a check on your behalf.
To work around these, I simply retain my former checking account with my physical bank while keeping most of my funds in my Wealthfront Cash Account so that they can earn interest, transferring between the two accounts as needed.
The Pros:
- Earn interest at 5.00%/yr (5.50% for 3 mos if referral link used)
- Extremely simple, intuitive interface (arguably better than SoFi)
- No maintenance/transfer fees
- Free unlimited same-day transfers (including wires)
- Can connect other accounts and see their balances
- Automated transfer of funds to investing accounts
- Early access to direct deposits
- Bill pay ability
- Up to $8M FDIC insurance
- Debit card allows cash withdrawals
- Free unlimited ATM access at 19K in network locations
- Fee reimbursement at all nationwide ATMs (2x/month)
- Compatible with most other payment apps
The Cons:
- No physical checks, but can instruct them to send a check
- Online account – no way to make loose cash deposits
- No overdraft protection – transactions will be declined
SoFi Checking & Savings Accounts
Another option is the SoFi account (earn a $300 new account bonus through this link!) When you sign up, you receive both a checking and savings account.Â
SoFi’s high yield savings account offers interest rates up to 4.50%/yr. To qualify for this rate, SoFi requires either recurring direct deposits of any value -or- combined minimum monthly deposits of at least $5K.
While the 4.50% rate only applies to the savings account, both checking and savings accounts can be used in tandem to simulate a high yield checking account thanks to a free overdraft feature SoFi provides.
This overdraft feature automatically draws funds from your savings account when the checking account runs low, allowing you to keep all of your funds in the savings account earning maximum interest until they’re needed.
SoFi also provides a useful feature where you can pay all bills directly from the savings account, so you don’t have to rely on the overdraft feature. In theory, if you don’t use ATMs or checks, you could use the savings account alone to manage bills.
While interest rates at SoFi are lower than Wealthfront and come with added requirements, SoFi accounts provide a few features Wealthfront does not: physical checks and a limited ability to make cash deposits, making SoFi a good alternative.
The Pros:
- $300 new account bonus (link)
- Earn interest at 4.50%/yr in Savings w/ direct deposit
- Easy to use interface
- No maintenance/transfer fees
- Physical checks available
- Overdraft protection and coverage up to $50
- Early access to direct deposits
- Bill pay ability
- Up to $2M FDIC insurance
- Debit card allows cash withdrawals
- Great ATM access
The Cons:
- Cash deposits only at Green Dot branches for a $4.95 fee
- Lower interest rate than other options
Fidelity Brokerage & CMA
Fidelity also offers two accounts with features like a high yield checking account: the Fidelity Brokerage Account and the Fidelity Cash Management Account (CMA).
These accounts have strikingly similar features. Both offer features of a high yield checking account like check writing, debit cards, bill pay, and automated sweeps of idle cash.
The main differences are in ATM fee reimbursement, overdraft protection, and the ease of obtaining the highest interest rates on idle cash.
While the CMA offers reimbursable fees at participating ATMs, the brokerage account requires a balance of at least $250K to qualify for fee reimbursement. The CMA also provides overdraft protection & alerts which the brokerage account lacks.
But the brokerage account takes the lead by automatically sweeping idle cash into your choice of high yield money market funds which are automatically redeemed as needed for bill payments. The default is SPAXX, the safe Fidelity Government Money Market exchange traded fund (ETF) with a yield of 4.96% at time of writing.
The Cash Management Account, however, only allows automated sweeps into a FDIC insured position known as FCASH (Taxable Interest Bearing Cash Option), offering a meager 2.72% interest at the time of writing. While you can invest idle cash in other options like SPAXX in the CMA, it unfortunately has to be done manually.
The main downside of both accounts is the inability to deposit loose cash. If that’s important to you, a work-around I recommend is retaining your current physical bank checking account for deposits while keeping all funds at Fidelity.
For me, since I rarely use ATMs and would prefer the ease of obtaining higher interest rates from SPAXX with automated sweeps, I’d choose the Fidelity Brokerage Account over the CMA, and the pros/cons below are based on that option.
But both Fidelity accounts can be solid alternatives to Wealthfront & SoFi. Â
The Pros:
- Earn interest at 4.96%/yr with SPAXX or other funds
- Automated sweep of funds into interest earning options
- No maintenance/transfer fees
- Early access to direct deposits
- Physical checks available
- Bill pay ability
- Debit card allows cash withdrawals
- Compatible with most mobile payment apps
- Up to $500K SIPC insurance
- Flexible investing features like margin and options trading
- $0 commission for online US stock, ETF, & option trades
The Cons:
- ATM fees only reimbursable with a $250K+ balance
- Online account – no way to make loose cash deposits
- No overdraft protection – transactions will be declined
Primis High Yield Checking Account
Another option is a high yield checking account called Primis Novus Checking with a current rate of 5.00% APY interest on checking balances. (Earn 6.00% 5.00%, an extra 1.00% for 6 mos using the link above and meeting requirements.)
To qualify for the 6.00% rate, a monthly direct deposit of $1,200 or more is required to be maintained. You can earn this initial rate on up to $100K. With such high rates, you may decide to move even more than just checking funds over.
This account provides the features of the other high yield checking account options above, with some added bonuses: a free pack of checks, free nationwide ATM usage, free incoming wires, and refundable originating wire fees (plus they credit you $10 extra!)
There’s a lot to like about Primis Novus Checking, and I came close to selecting this option for my own funds. My biggest hesitation was that Primis is a smaller, lesser known bank.
But make no mistake – while it’s smaller, it’s certainly not small. Primis reportedly has over $3B in deposits in 2024. For comparison, SoFi has over $21B in deposits, and Wealthfront has over $50B assets under management.
The Pros:
- Earn interest at 5.00% APY (6.00% for 6 mos)
- No maintenance/transfer fees
- No minimum balance requirements
- No transaction limits
- Early access to direct deposits
- Free pack of physical checks
- Free cashier’s checks
- Bill pay ability
- Free/reimbursable ATM fees nationwide
- Free incoming wires
- Refundable originating wires fees (& they give you +$10!)
- Simple, intuitive interface
- Up to $250K FDIC insurance
The Cons:
- Online only account not accessible at Primis branches
- No way to make loose cash deposits
Bottom Line
One of the most important things a person can do for their financial health is to keep as much excess cash invested and earning money as possible.
With the innovative financial accounts above, there’s no longer a need to let idle cash sit in a checking account earning next to nothing.
With these products, you can put that money to work getting all the benefits of a high yield checking account while earning the high interest of a high yield savings account!
If certain features these accounts lack are important to you, like the ability to make cash deposits, consider retaining your physical bank checking account for these needs while moving all funds to one of these accounts to maximize interest earned.
A person with the average checking account balance of $16,891 per the 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances can earn an additional $845/yr in interest income by switching to a high yield account earning 5.00%/yr like the Wealthfront Cash Account (5.50% for 3 mos with this referral link)
Earnings
The math behind the earnings:
Earn:
- Avg checking account balance (2022 Survey): $16,891
- Interest rate with a Wealthfront Cash Account: 5.00%/yr
- $16,891 x 0.05 = $845 in interest
Time Required:
- +1 hr to apply for, set up account, & transfer funds
- +1 hr to update direct deposits & bill pay to new account
- =2 hrs
Results:
- $16,891 x 0.05
- =$845/yr earned with a Wealthfront Cash Account
- $845 earned / 2 hrs
- =$423/hr earnings rate
