Kids Savings Account Rates: What a Year Earns at Each Balance

A child with $1,000 in Call Federal Credit Union’s Youth Savings earns $60.00 in a year. With $10,000 the account earns about $76, not $600, because the 6.00% rate stops at $1,000.00. The FDIC’s national average for savings, 0.37%, would pay $3.70 on the first and $37.00 on the second.

That gap between a headline rate and what a real balance earns is what this page computes. Figures are from the institutions’ own pages and the FDIC, checked on 5 October 2026. Nothing here is a recommendation, and only accounts whose rate we could confirm on a primary page appear in the rate table.

What APY means

APY, annual percentage yield, is the interest a balance earns over a year with compounding included. A rate quoted as APY can be applied directly: $1,000 at 6.00% APY earns $60.00 over a year if it sits there all twelve months. The figures below make that assumption — a constant balance, held for a year, with no deposits or withdrawals.

The accounts, as published

Call Federal’s rates page also shows a last dividend declaration date for Youth Savings of 22 September 2026 (callfederal.org/products/rates). Capital One’s page says only that its rate is variable and effective 10/2/2026; because the number itself did not display, this page does not print one. Capital One’s page also says the balance is “fully insured to the FDIC’s allowable limits.”

What the table hides: the cap

Call Federal’s rate has three bands. The first $1,000.00 earns 6.00%. The next $44.68 earns somewhere from 5.88% to 5.99%; the page gives a range, not a single figure, so the tables here show both ends. Every dollar from $1,044.69 up earns 0.15%, which is less than half the FDIC national average of 0.37%.

So the rate that matters for a growing balance is the blended one: total interest divided by the balance.

Year-one interest by balance

interest = Σ (dollars in band × band rate). The baseline column is the national average for savings, 0.37%, labelled “National Average Rates — September 2026” and current as of 21 September 2026 (fdic.gov). It is an average, not an offer.

The two big rows, worked out so you can check them:

Going from $1,000 to $10,000 multiplies the balance by ten and the interest by about 1.3. If you want the effect of regular deposits or a different rate, the compound interest calculator, savings goal calculator and savings-by-18 calculator take your own numbers.

Why the national average is a useful baseline

The FDIC publishes the average rate paid on savings deposits across insured institutions: 0.37% in September 2026, with money market accounts at 0.63% and interest checking at 0.07%. It is the rate a child’s money earns at an ordinary savings account, so every figure above can be set against it without trusting a marketing page. The kids debit card net-cost breakdown and the debit card fee comparison use the same benchmark when checking whether a card’s “savings rate” is interest or a reward.

Check these before you open one

• The cap. Find the balance at which the rate drops and what it drops to.
• Membership. Call Federal’s membership page says it serves people who live, work, worship, volunteer or attend school in the Richmond, Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area — the cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, Petersburg and Richmond plus 16 counties, including Chesterfield, Henrico, Hanover and Goochland. We did not find a different rule for youth accounts on the pages checked.
• Age and ownership. Call Federal requires a parent or legal guardian as joint owner and an age of 17 or younger to open; its rates page says the account moves to Primary Savings in the quarter after the 18th birthday. Capital One requires one adult co-owner.
• Insurance. Call Federal’s page says savings are federally insured to at least $250,000 by the National Credit Union Administration. Capital One’s page says the balance is insured to the FDIC’s allowable limits.

What this page leaves out

Other youth accounts are advertised at higher or lower rates elsewhere. We left out any whose rate we could not confirm on the institution’s own current page. If you find one, apply the same test: ask for the band table, then compute the interest at your balance.