American Express savings account

The Good

• No wire fees
• Competitive interest rate
• $250,000 maximum daily ACH transfer
• No minimum balance or monthly payments
• Known for fantastic customer service
• Highest rated mobile app

Founded in 1850, American Express (also known as AmEx) is a financial powerhouse with over 50,000 worldwide employees.  Fortune magazine listed AmEx as one of the top 20 most admired companies in the world, and the brand is estimated to be worth somewhere around $15 billion. One out of every four credit cards in the U.S. is an AmEx, and credit cards are what most people associate with the brand.  However, they offer a full suite of money management tools, including high yield savings accounts.

My favorite feature of the AmEx high yield savings account is NO WIRE FEES.   Obviously, they have a solid interest rate (1.75% at the time of this writing), but not having to pay wire fees at $20-30 a pop can save many people just as much as they’d earn in interest.

They also allow for an appropriately high $250,000 in daily ACH transfers, and you can connect to up to three other bank accounts.  For most people, this is plenty and comes in handy when buying a house or making any large purchase (if it’s not, check out our other top rated savings accounts).  As with all our top rated savings accounts, there is no minimum to open account nor are there any monthly fees.

Finally, AmEx is known for customer service.  Their credit cards often offer amazing benefits like travel insurance, or roadside coverage, and benefits that you might pay for from other providers.  When we spoke with AmEx, the reputation for fantastic customer service held up.  We were routed quickly to the right person, Jimmy, without any hold times, and he was one of the most knowledgeable representatives that we spoke to.  And keeping in line with customer service is their investment in their digital website experience and mobile app.  The mobile app has the highest rating in the iTunes store of any of our top rated savings account providers.

The Bad

• No ATM access
• No checking account
• Not the highest interest rate

There is not a lot of negative against the AmEx savings account, though it depends on your needs.  For some consumers who want to periodically take cash out, not having ATM access is a drawback.  They don’t offer any kind of debt or ATM card for you to use.  And since AmEx does not offer a checking account, you don’t have the option to open a checking account a work around.

While they have a very competitive interest rate, it’s also not the highest.  AmEx is about 0.10% below the highest offering – but it’s a tradeoff.  The providers with the highest interest rates charge for wire fees and don’t invest in customer experience to the same degree.  Marcus by Goldman Sachs is probably the closest comparison to AmEx and has been built for a similar consumer – the difference is interest rates is 0.05%.  To put that into perspective, if you sock away $100,000 in savings each year, it’s an annual difference of only about $50 annually.  So probably not enough to justify making a decision upon, one way or another.

The Summary

AmEx is a high regarded brand with a very solid offering for savers.  They’ve built the product for people who might need to move a lot of money around, and who don’t need to access cash out of it often (thus, no ATM cards).  If this sounds like you – or if you just like the AmEx service based off past experiences with other products – definitely check out their savings account.