Inflation beats savings rates, these high-yield accounts pay up to 4.5%

Cash parked in an ordinary savings account kept losing ground to inflation as the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers rose 4.2% over the past 12 months in May and the FDIC’s national average savings rate sat at 0.38%. SoFi’s 4.50% APY, available only to a member who met qualifying conditions, was one of the few posted yields that could edge past inflation, and even that margin was slim at just 0.3 percentage points.

The latest inflation reading was not a narrow one-off. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said the CPI-U rose 0.5% in May after a 0.6% increase in April, and energy accounted for over 60% of the monthly all-items gain. That backdrop matters for savers because a rate that trails inflation does not preserve purchasing power, and the interest earned on bank accounts is generally taxable, which can trim the net return further.

Among the highest advertised rates, Bankrate said the top savings offer on June 11 was 4.10% at CIT Bank. Marcus by Goldman Sachs was advertising 3.40% APY with no fees and no minimum deposit, while Ally Bank’s savings pages highlighted fee-light deposit accounts with daily compounding and no monthly maintenance fees, but rates that remained variable and could change after the account opened.

The safety tradeoff also deserves attention. FDIC insurance covers deposits up to $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category, and the agency says savings accounts, money market deposit accounts and CDs are covered deposit products. In practice, larger balances have to be organized across banks or ownership categories to stay within coverage, and SoFi’s own materials show how headline yields can be narrower than they first appear: the 4.50% APY applied only to balances up to $20,000 for eligible SoFi Plus members, while 3.10% APY applied to other savings balances, with rates subject to change.