Fortune: high-yield savings up to 5%

Cash is having a weird moment. If you’re saving, the best online accounts are still paying rates that look genuinely good. If you’re borrowing, especially for a house, things just got a little more expensive. That split sharpened on Friday, May 1, when Fortune’s latest roundup kept the top high-yield savings rate at 5.00% APY, new Series I bonds reset to 4.26%, and Yahoo Finance showed the average 30-year fixed mortgage climbing to 6.21%. ### Why are people talking about 5% again? Because 5.00% on a savings account still stands out. Fortune’s May 1 list says that’s the top advertised high-yield rate available now, versus the FDIC national average savings rate of 0.38%. Basically, the gap between “average bank account” and “competitive online account” is still enormous. ### Is that 5% easy money? Not always. The headline rate is real, but the catch is that the very top savings offers often come with balance caps, activity rules, or other conditions. Fortune’s own listing under the 5.00% headline also shows other leading accounts closer to 4.21% and 4.20%, which is a better clue about where the broad top end of the market sits right now. ### Where do CDs fit? CDs are the “lock it up and stop checking” version of this trade. Fortune’s April 30 roundup put the best CD yields at 4.20% APY. That’s lower than the flashiest savings-account headline, but CDs give you rate certainty for a fixed term. If you think savings rates drift down later this year, that certainty is the whole appeal. ### What changed with I bonds? The Treasury’s new Series I bond rate kicked in on May 1 and runs through Oct. 31. Newly purchased I bonds now earn a 4.26% annualized rate, up from 4.03% through April 30. That new rate combines a 0.90% fixed rate with a 3.34% inflation component. So I bonds got a little more attractive again — not because they beat every above-inflation reset. ### So what should a saver compare? Three things — yield, access, and rules. A savings account usually wins on liquidity. A CD wins if you want to lock a known rate and can leave the money alone. An I bond is more specialized: you can’t cash out in the first year, and cashing out before five years costs three months of interest if you need the money. ### Why mention mortgages in a savings story? Because the same rate environment is rewarding cash and punishing debt. Yahoo Finance’s May 1 mortgage update showed the average 30-year fixed rate rising 11 basis points to 6.21% on the Zillow marketplace. So even as savers can still get 4%-plus or even 5%, homebuyers and refinancers are dealing with higher monthly payments. ### Does the Fed explain all of this? Partly — but not cleanly. Savings and other short-term deposit products tend to follow Fed policy more directly. Mortgage rates don’t. They move more with inflation expectations and longer-term bond-market shifts. That’s why you can get a market where cash yields stay attractive while mortgage costs also move up. ### Bottom line If you have idle cash, this is still a good window to stop leaving it in a near-zero account. But if you need to borrow, especially for a home, the trend is less friendly. Same market, opposite experience.