Interest Confusion

[jake619]

Regarding banking, if I can get a 1.0% savings account, why would I put money in a 12 month CD that yields similar interest?  What am I missing here?  For that matter, what's the purpose of a lower-APR CD?  That seems even crazier but I could be missing something.

[awal]

Other than the interest rate being guaranteed for the term, I've got nothing.

Most times when I see savings accounts with APRs that are competitive to CDs its for a specified tier (amount of money) - which honestly sounds a lot like a CD without the early withdrawal penalty.

[jake619]

Yeah, I understand the locked in APR.  But Barclays online savings is 1.0% w/ no fee/no min.  Ally is right behind that and so is AMEX for that matter.  Weird.  Maybe in a former time there was an advantage over savings accounts, but today I can't see locking up the money for the same APR.