It’s time to have a long distance relationship with your Savings Account.

Most people deposit their paycheck into a local Savings or Checking Account. Whatever money is left over after paying bills, sits in the account and grows at a snails pace thanks to the low interest rate most banks provide. These accounts were opened at a local branch, because they thought it would be the most convenient way to do business with a bank. Well, the internet has changed all that.

Thanks to technology, internet savings accounts are opening up and providing you with interest rates that are double or even triple your local bank rates. Additionally, most of them don’t have the ridiculous minimums that so-called high-interest Money Market accounts or CD’s have. These banks are able to provide you with higher interest, because the internet has lowered their cost of doing business, and they’re passing that savings on to you. For these accounts there are no tellers to pay, no brick-and-mortar buildings, just quick and easy access to your internet saving account 24/7, and they’re FDIC insured.

So how does it work? It’s really quite simple. You open an account with one of these banks, and you electronically link your regular checking account to it. That’s it! When you want to transfer money between accounts, you visit the internet savings account site, and fill out an easy transfer form. Usually within five business days your money has been transfered.

Most of these banks even offer automatic savings plans. Here at Fiscal Sanity, we believe in paying yourself first, and these plans allow you to do that, automatically. Just go to the online transfer form and setup an automatic deposit of $100 a month to your new account. You’ll be surprised how fast it adds up.

The first bank to do this was ING, with their INGdirect Plan However, there are plenty of banks offering this service. With a little effort you can be on your way to big savings!

Check out these banks:

• Captial One
• Citi Direct
• Emigrant Direct
• E*Trade
• FNBOdirect
• HSBCdirect
• INGdirect