Straight answer

Is my savings account rate too low?

Here's the yardstick, from the source banks use: the FDIC publishes national average deposit rates every month. As of the July 2026 table, the national average savings rate is about 0.38–0.40% APY — while widely available high-yield savings accounts pay around 3.6%.

National avg.0.40%
Available3.63%

On a typical emergency fund, that gap is hundreds of dollars a year — our live example computes to $412 — for money that's just sitting there either way.

Source: fdic.gov national rates and rate caps, July 2026 monthly table. The FDIC updates it monthly; every number here is from that table, not an estimate.

Check yours in one minute:

  1. Find your APY on your bank statement or in your banking app (search "interest rate" or "APY").
  2. Compare it against the FDIC's table: fdic.gov/national-rates-and-rate-caps.
  3. If you're near the average while 3%+ accounts are common, the difference is yours to claim.

Or have us watch the gap — without ever seeing your balance

Dusklamp's Rate Lookout checks the FDIC benchmark against your bank's advertised rate and tells you when the gap moves. The private part — what the gap costs you — is computed on your own device, from a balance you type only into your own browser. It never reaches our servers. Not "we won't look" — can't.

Ask us to watch your rate

No sign-up, no bank login, ever — you describe what to watch, you get a private link, and that link is your whole account.

Source named on this page: fdic.gov (FDIC national rates and rate caps, published monthly). Federal, public, free. · Dusklamp home