I've had a bank account for years, and like most people, I never really thought about whether it was doing anything useful with the money I left there.

I worked, paid my bills and tried to put some money aside whenever I could. Whatever I managed to save usually ended up sitting in the same place bank because it felt safe and convenient.

I think that's probably how a lot of people manage their savings: To find a bank you think it's reliable, open an account and then stop thinking about it. As long as the balance isn't going down, everything seems fine. 

But recently I started looking at it differently. I asked myself a fairly simple question: how much is my money actually earning while it sits there?

The answer made me realise that I had been paying much more attention to how much money I had than to what that money was actually doing.

The difference between 1.25% and 2.25%

Let's use a simple example: Suppose you have 10,000€ in savings and your bank pays you 1.25% interest per year. That sounds reasonable at first. After all, your money is earning something. 1.25% on 10,000€ is 125€ in gross interest. Assuming the standard 28% tax on interest in Portugal (I'm from Portugal, btw), that leaves you with around 90€ net for the entire year.

Now imagine that, instead, you find a suitable savings product paying 2.25%. The same 10,000€ would generate 225€ in gross interest. After 28% tax, you'd keep around 162€ net. That's a difference of 72€ in one year. 72€ isn't going to change anyone's life. But that's not really the point.

You didn't have to work extra hours or save another 72€ to earn those 72€. You simply had to put the same 10,000€ somewhere that paid a little more. And the difference becomes more noticeable as the amount increases. With 20,000€, the same one-percentage-point difference would mean roughly 144€ more net interest per year. With 50,000€, it would be about 360€.

This is when I started thinking that perhaps I shouldn't automatically assume that leaving my money in the account I've always used was the best option.

Why do we leave our money there?

Sometimes the answer is simply:because it's always been there! We choose a bank when we're young, or our parents do it for us. We start receiving our salary into that account and eventually use it for everything. If we start saving, we usually open whatever savings product our bank offers. It's just convenience at it's best :)

But there is a difference between choosing convenience deliberately and never checking whether our choice still makes sense. Financial products change. Interest rates change. Banks launch new accounts and promotions. Conditions change too. Something that was competitive a few years ago might not be particularly attractive today.

The European Central Bank's figures give an interesting illustration of this. In May 2026, the average interest rate on new household deposits in the euro area with an agreed maturity of up to one year was around 1.91%, while overnight deposits were earning only around 0.27%. Those are euro-area averages, not rates that every Portuguese bank offers, but they show why the type of account matters.

If your money is sitting somewhere earning almost nothing, it may be worth spending a little time finding out why.

I'm not saying you should take more risk!!

When I talk about getting more from savings, I'm not talking about putting emergency money into the stock market or buying cryptocurrency because someone influencer promised huge returns. In Portugal, eligible deposits are generally covered by the deposit guarantee scheme up to 100,000€ per depositor and per credit institution. That safety matters. If I need money unexpectedly, I want to know that I can access it. I don't want to discover that the money I need tomorrow is tied up somewhere or has lost a significant part of its value. So the question isn't really whether a bank account is good or bad. It's whether the particular account I'm using is appropriate for the money I have sitting in it, and that's a much more useful question.

The cost of never checking

I think this is where most people, including me, can lose money without really noticing. If a bank pays you a little less than another suitable option, the difference might not seem worth worrying about. Who cares about 72€ a year? But 72€ today, another 72€ next year, and another one after that starts to add up.

The bigger issue is the habit itself. If we never compare rates, never look at fees and never ask what our savings are earning, we can easily spend years making the same decision simply because it is the decision we've always made. That's what I want to change, not necessarily by constantly moving my money around, but by actually knowing what I'm choosing.

What I'm doing differently

I'm not trying to find the highest interest rate available at any given moment, because that would quickly become exhausting, and there are usually conditions, limits and other details that matter more than the headline rate. Instead, I'm trying to develop a much simpler habit: Every now and then, I check what my money is earning, I look at the conditions, I check whether there are fees and I ask myself whether the reason I'm keeping the money there is still a good one.

Sometimes the answer will be yes, that's fine.At least then I'm making a conscious decision instead of simply leaving everything where it has always been.

I also ask: How much is this money earning me?

And perhaps more importantly: If I had to choose where to put this money today, would I choose the same place?

That's a surprisingly difficult question to answer if you've never asked it before.

Maybe you should ask yourself the same question.

How much is your bank currently paying you on your savings?