How can you earn the most on your money that are sitting in a “parking space” such as CDs, savings accounts, and money market accounts? Those places aren’t designed to get you a great return, averaging less than 0.5% interest on your savings. While you’ve always had the option of credit unions and local banks for better deals on savings, there’s now an even better choice: a “Direct” -- an online bank which has no branches, and can therefore offer you better rates. ING Direct (ingdirect.com) was the first bank to do this, and they’ve been phenomenally innovative, with checking accounts offering over 4.5% in interest, no-fee savings accounts and more. They spawned an entire league of competitors who are offering even greater rates on savings accounts now. We’ve gotten almost no complaints over the years on these Direct banks, compared to regular banks, so the customer service is fantastic. The newest player in the game is wtdirect.com, who are geared only to people with big bucks. You’ll need $10,000 to earn any meaningful interest, but they’re paying 5.26%, which is a good deal, and not a teaser rate. They limit the number of withdrawals to 6 per month, so this one is geared for those who mainly want to “park” their cash. Fnbodirect.com has a 6% teaser rate through September, and the national average is about 5.05%. However there are some economic trends that may push the rates even higher- inflation may step up, which will push up interest rates, and in turn, rates on savings. If you want to keep some of your business at a monster mega bank, you can electronically link your high-interest savings account to your crummy mega-bank checking account, and in just two days be able to transfer money back and forth between the two accounts.