JP Morgan Chase has always been a torchbearer in the banking arena. Under Jamie Dimon’s leadership, it has become a pioneer in mobile banking, provides some of the most valuable credit card offers for consumers and small businesses, and does everything better than other major money center banks.

I, however, would note that it remains quite remarkable that people still keep savings or CD monies with any of the major money center banks. Savings and money market rates are just much higher with online banks and even some local banks and credit unions. Money center banks do sometimes entice people with aggressive promotions.

When I learned that Chase was introducing a new online brokerage, I was intrigued. As I indicated in an early article when Chase first announced this intention in August, I thought Chase could instantly become a leader in this space by making discount brokerage services available to its vast clientele, giving away free trades and making the account easy to open online.

At launch in October, Chase's online brokerage was branded as You Invest. Since the launch coincided with Chase's launch of Sapphire Checking, many were also told through credit card forums and other blogs that they could meet Chase’s 60,000 Sapphire point bonus for Sapphire Checking through a You Invest account. (I suspected and have now confirmed that was incorrect.) I nonetheless wanted to see if I was right that Chase would instantly be a leader among discount brokerages with You Invest, so I was quick to try out the platform. Experiences can differ, but my view is that Chase produced a product which wasn’t even 1/10^th baked and that never should have seen the light of day. I would almost call it disastrous.

The interface is awful. It is completely bare bones and lacking in functionality. Finding anything in the interface – such as a trade or balance history - is basically impossible. For a company that has always focused like a laser on getting the user experience right, Chase seems to have just completely left it out of the equation here.

Placing a trade in this program is difficult and cumbersome, requiring many more time-consuming steps than Schwab, Fidelity or TD Ameritrade. Active traders will find managing or adjusting a trade to be frustrating. There is no options trading or after-hours trading. Chase didn’t seem to involve anyone who knows anything about what an active trader looks for or expects during the trading process.

The absolute worst experience, however, comes if and when you need to reach someone by phone. The first and second line customer support representatives are completely unable to figure out their own system or answer even the simplest questions about either the interface or account activity. Online brokerage CSRs are generally well trained and can field simple account and interface questions. My own hunch after one series of phone interactions is that Chase has not trained its staff specifically for YouInvest, and is using the same phone staff that fields checking and savings account queries. Getting an answer about your account will take 30 or 40 minutes, and then may be inaccurate or outright incorrect.

Surprisingly, but true, Chase has introduced a product that is just grossly unfit for any market, much less for the one that they are addressing.

Chase desperately needs to pull back its You Invest product.

Until they do, view it is as “You Avoid”.

The Federal Reserve moved in September 2018 to a 2 – 2.25% Fed Funds rate, and savings and money market rates are now firmly above 2%.

Interest rates are poised to go up again in December 2018. Unless Trump fires Jay Powell, the Federal Reserve will likely continue to raise rates in 2019 until it reach its stated 3% + neutral rate by end of the year.

Not everyone checks BestCashCow.com, or a competing site, every day in order to get the best savings rates. In fact, there are people who don’t even check monthly or quarterly. And, most people just don’t like the hassle of moving around large amounts of cash in order to continue to get a competitive rate as rates rise.

For these people, BestCashCow has developed our Best Bets in Online Savings and Money Market Accounts for 2019. On this list, you will find the five online bank accounts that have correlated the strongest with each Federal Reserve move (the highest beta). For each of these accounts, we have recorded a savings or money market rate increase either just before or within days of each Fed Funds rate increase over the course of 2018.

If interest rates continue on their current trajectory, we believe that with these 5 online savings and money market accounts, you are most likely to wake up on December 31, 2019 and learn that your savings rate has increased with each Fed move over the course of the year.

Excluded from this list are those banks that have maintained rate competitiveness over the course of 2018 but have exhibited a tendency towards requiring existing depositors to move their money between accounts (from savings to money market or vis-a-versa) or from one brand to another in order to get the best rate. It isn’t that we don’t like these banks and these rates, but this list is designed for those depositors who want to go to sleep for 2019 and do not want to worry about whether they are earning a very competitive savings or money market rate.

Here is BestCashCow's list:

Citizens Access

CIT Bank

Sallie Mae Money Market

Marcus Savings

Purepoint

See the best online savings and money market rates today.

Advertiser Disclosure: This list contains advertisers and non-advertisers. No bank, advertiser or non-advertiser, has provided any consideration for inclusion in this list. Please read our advertiser policy here.

Online savings and CD rates rose in October. We continue to favor savings rates over CD rates. It remains likely that the Federal Reserve will raise the Fed Funds rate from its current 2.00 – 2.25% Fed Funds rate to a 2.25% - 2.50% rate in December. While the Fed continues to guide towards a Fed Funds rate over 3.00% before the end of 2019, it is increasingly possible that Presidential histrionics and/or a slowing economy may temper those moves so locking into online CDs may be an attractive proposition to some.

Here are 3 savings accounts that we find interesting at this point:

1. Citizens Access – 2.25% Savings Rate for balances over $5,000

Citizens Access is a division of Citizens Bank, N.A., a large established bank with over $150 billion in assets. It entered the online market in 2018 with a competitive 2.00% savings rate and has been quick to move rates up in response to Fed Funds moves. The reviews of the bank on BestCashCow are extremely positive.

Editor’s Note: Citizens Access is an advertiser of BestCashCow. Please read our Advertiser Disclosure here.

2. MySavingsDirect – 2.25% Savings Rate, No Minimum Balance

MySavingsDirect is a division of Emigrant Bank, a large New York-based bank. While the rate is attractive, Emigrant has developed a customer-unfriendly practice of remaining competitive for new customers by raising rates at different subsidiaries when the Federal Reserve moves. This practice leaves earlier customers earning a non-competitive rate. As rates continue to rise in 2019, you can expect that you will need to move your assets out of MySavingsDirect (perhaps to another Emigrant subsidiary) in order to stay competitive. That’s an OK strategy so long as you make a plan to check the latest savings rates on BestCashCow frequently. The good news is that Emigrant’s divisions make accounts easy to open and fund.

3. Marcus – 2.05% Online Savings rate for balances over $1

Marcus has outstanding customer reviews and lightening fast ACH transfers. Since Marcus is part of Goldman Sachs, depositors, especially those inclined to deposit over FDIC limits, can always sleep well at night. Importantly, as rates have risen through 2018, Marcus has proven to be faster to raise rates than the other most recognized online banks (Amex, Barclays and Ally). While it may not always sit on top of the table, depositors with Marcus can anticipate that their savings will remain competitive as rates rise. Those depositors who follow rates closely and are prepared to make adjustments as rates rise can now get 2.15% in Marcus’s 13-Month No Penalty CD. We recently wrote an article highlighting No Penalty CDs as a relatively risk-free way to boost your savings rate.

Editor’s Note: Marcus is an advertiser of BestCashCow. Please read our Advertiser Disclosure here.

See and compare all of the best online savings rates here.

Those compelled to reach for the higher rates than online CDs offer after a decade of abnormally lower returns on cash may want to consider the following two online CD products:

1. Citizens Access – 2.70% 1-Year CD for balances over $5,000

Citizens Access, mentioned above for its online savings account, is also offering one of the most competitive online CD rates nationally available. Even if savings rates are above 3.00% at the end of 2019, we don’t think you’ll make much less though 2019 by locking into a one-year CD throughout the course of the year with cash that you know you won’t need to access. Citizens Access has an early withdrawal penalty on CDs of 12-months or less of only 3 months’ interest.

See all of the best 1-year online CD rates here. You should also compare locally-offered 1-year CD rates here.

2. Citizens Access – 3.05% 3-Year CD for balances over $5,000

We are inclined to question whether a 35 basis point improvement over Citizens Access’s one-year CD rate represents an attractive enough premium for an additional two years’ commitment. However, many economists believe that inflation is not present and that the Federal Reserve just is not going to ever get much above a 3% Fed Funds rate in this cycle. Citizens Access’s early withdrawal penalty on CDs over 12 months is equal to 6 months interest on the CD which is shorter than the penalties for early withdrawal on long-term CDs charged by many other online banks.

See all of the best 3-year online CD rates here. You should also compare locally-offered 3-year CD rates here.

Have a great month and Happy Thanksgiving!