How To Open A High-yield Savings Account Online To Earn Up To 100 Times More Interest On Your Money

 Why should you carve out a quarter of an hour to apply for a new account and move over your money? To make more and save more. Online-only accounts often come with more favorable interest rates and fees.

Compared to some nationwide banks, which can pay as little as .01% interest, some of the best online banks pay up to 100 times more interest, offering around 1%. And at the same time, they usually charge no recurring monthly fees with no minimum balance requirements. That's a big win for your money.

Unless you have a job where you get paid in cash, there is no reason you can't go entirely online-only for your banking. But if you just want to start with a high-yield savings account like those offered by Ally, Marcus, or Wealthfront, you can follow these basics steps to get started.

1. Gather your personal information

The first step with any new bank account is getting your personal information together. Banks are required by law to collect customer information. Expect to provide your name, address, phone number, and Social Security number when applying for any new financial account.

Many of the laws regarding providing your information to banks come from the PATRIOT Act introduced after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. In the banking industry, this is known as KYC or Know Your Customer requirements. For us law-abiding customers, that just means we have to provide a little extra information compared to a couple of decades ago.

2. Fill out the application

Most online banking applications take less than 10 minutes to complete. If you are working with a bank that offers a strong customer experience, it may take even less than five minutes.

Most of the application details should be things you already know off of the top of your head. Outside of some employer details, everything in the application is personal.

Online banking may be intimidating if it is new to you, but rest assured that it is safe and simple to use. If you have enough computer skills to make a purchase online or send an email, you can handle the online banking application process and anything you need to do to maintain your account.

3. Fund your account

In many cases, your identity confirmation is instant and you can fund your account right away. If you've ever filled out a direct deposit form for payroll or linked a checking account to pay a mortgage or credit card bill, this will feel very familiar.

My favorite online banks have no minimum balance requirements to avoid monthly fees, though some banks do require a minimum to open a new account. Whether you plan to deposit $1, $100, or $1,000 in your new account, the process is almost always the same.

You may also have the option to mail in a check, deposit a check using your new bank's mobile app, or make a transfer with a bank wire. Outside of wire transfers, there are typically no fees or costs with transferring funds to or from an online savings account.

4. Bonus: Set up your online banking and bill pay

If you add a new checking account at the same time, which is easy to do at most banks and credit unions, you shouldn't stop when you fund your account. Taking a few extra minutes up front can help you get moving on an automatic financial plan.

One of the biggest benefits of online banking is the ability to manage your finances from one central hub. If you connect all of your accounts, including other banks, investments, credit cards, and bills, you'll be able to save a lot of time in the future.

If your account is linked, it makes it really easy to transfer funds. Whether you need to pay for an emergency, want to add to your savings balance, or pay a utility bill, you can do it in a few clicks from your online banking dashboard.

Personal Finance Insider offers tools and calculators to help you make smart decisions with your money. We do not give investment advice or encourage you to buy or sell stocks or other financial products. What you decide to do with your money is up to you. If you take action based on one of the recommendations listed in the calculator, we get a small share of the revenue from our commerce partners.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Online – How To Make Money

Whether you’re tackling the intimidating lawlessness of the Old West by yourself, or rocking along as part of a larger posse, money is absolutely essential to keeping yourself out of the ground in Red Dead Redemption 2’s online mode. With something approaching an avalanche of activities for the player to do in Red Dead Redemption 2’s online mode, it’s not always easy to see what the quickest way to make bank would be. Luckily, we have your back partner.

Looting 

The most obvious way to make money with practically very little effort (well, other than the killing required in the first place), is simply to loot the corpses of fallen enemies. Though the actual cash you get from the bodies of your foes is meagre to say the least, the chance of nabbing more expensive items such as pocket watches, platinum bands and more is rather high. As a result, after you’ve looted a whole bunch of enemies, a quick trip to the fence to sell off your spoils is always recommended to top up your cash reserves. 

Story Missions 

By far the best way to make money in Red Dead Redemption 2’s online mode, is simply to complete the story missions that are dotted around the map and which can be distinguished by their yellow fog clouds. In addition to completion rewards which often scale into the hundreds of dollars, completed story missions also provide chunks of gold and often a small mountain of corpses to loot as an added bonus.

Become A Collector 

Another great way to earn some serious scratch in Red Dead Redemption 2’s online mode is to get involved in the Collector profession, though you’ll need to be patient before you can start earning the big bucks.

First off, you’ll want to work towards becoming a level 5 Collector as this will allow you to unlock the super useful Metal Detector upgrade. Additionally, in order to obtain the highest amount of money possible, you’ll also need to upgrade your Diamond Bag. Once you have both of these things and have filled your duplicate storage, many more rare collectibles will start to appear on enemies and in special locations across the map, allowing you to earn even more cash from your collector moonlighting activities.

Finally (and this is primarily where the metal detector comes in), once you’ve purchased some maps from the Collector Vendor, you can use the Metal Detector to find buried goodies which often results in the collection of high value trinkets and experience points. Better still, because this activity can be done passively, you can likely nab some valuables on your way to a mission or activity too.

Treasure Hunting 

A simple way to earn money is to do a spot of treasure hunting. With treasure maps being dished out to players for every five levels from level ten, in addition to being often discovered on the bodies of bandit leaders in their hideouts, there’s almost always some treasure hunting shenanigans that you can indulge in.

It’s a worthwhile pursuit too, because in addition to stacks of cash and some gold, you’ll also get some special resources such as health tonics and more besides.