Let me just say I want to put most of money into a savings account, to help keep me motivated to save up for a Japanese Exchange program. I'm looking at $500 a month, so the stock market is not an option here. Is there anywhere else I could put it besides a savings account? It is kind of a long term goal i need 5k.

ALSO Which National Bank has the highest interest rate?
Washington mutual has a savings account where if you have 300 dollars you get .25% interest. Is this good? I checked other websites and I saw about .2% as an average.

Let me know, or if you have any other suggestions.

I have a Money Market Account with CitiBank. Its under my parents however it earns me 1.25% interest.

Don't you have to have like 1k to open one up?

I know its a high minumum

check out ing direct, they have pretty high interest rates from what i'm told.

I just closed my bofa savings account which was earning me all of .5%(fucking weak), to hopefully move up at ing direct.

LOL.

Anything less than 3.5% (Canadian) or 4% (US) isn't worth doing.

Savings accounts make you like 1 dollar a month. They do nothing when you don't have fuck loads in them. Better off loaning it to a friend/family member and charging them interest on your own.

Thats why I put my money in a CD. I usually just put money into the Money Market until the CD matures and then I renew it with the money from the Money Market and I usually get really good rates with CitiBank, highest I have ever received was a 6 month earning 5.25%.

In the end most banks will be about the same. Yes, I think you might have to have a minimum of $1,000 for a Money Market Account. Try ING DIRECT, I had really good service with them in the begining.

Online banks usually have higher rates of interest, because they dont require all the actual overhead. But make sure its FDIA insured, or whatever.

Also, 500 a month is plenty to put into the stock market.

FDIC. lol

Thats what I said bitch! Stfu...