If you’ve ever looked at a savings account and thought,

“Wait… why are there two different rates?” — you’re not alone.

APY. Interest rate. Dividend rate.

It can feel like we’re all speaking slightly different versions of the same language.

The good news?

It’s actually way simpler than it sounds.

Are these actually different things?

Not really.

Interest rate is the term most banks use. Dividend rate is what credit unions use (because you’re earning a share of earnings as a member)

Functionally, they’re the same thing: the base rate your money earns

So what’s going on with the two numbers?

It comes down to this:

Dividend rate (or interest rate) = the base percentage your money earns

APY (Annual Percentage Yield) = what you actually earn after compounding kicks in

Let’s simplify

Dividend Rate

This is the starting point.

It’s the rate used to calculate your interest. A simple snapshot of what your balance earns before anything has time to build.

APY

This is the real outcome over a year.

Because in real life, your interest doesn’t just sit there—it gets added to your balance, and then it starts earning too. That’s compounding.

In simple terms:

APY shows your money growing on top of itself.

It’s like this...

Think of it like your paycheck:

Dividend rate = your hourly wage

APY = your full paycheck after overtime

Your hourly wage tells you where you start. Your paycheck shows what you actually take home after everything adds up.

What that looks like in our accounts

When we say you can earn 4.00% APY*, we’re talking about the full picture—

what your money can earn over the course of a year as it compounds.

But every story has a starting point.

We start with the dividend rate because it’s the rate used to calculate your interest in the first place.

Remember, think of the dividend rate as a snapshot.

APY is the full story—after your money has had time to build, stack, and grow on itself.

The short version

Two numbers. One story.

The dividend rate tells you where your earnings begin. The APY shows where they can go over time

And honestly?

We can show you how your money starts growing.

But the best part?

That’s just page one.