Your Vanguard Cash Account Was Set to Drop to 3.10%. It Went to 3.50% Instead. Still Not the Top.

Update, October 5, 2026: This one went the other way. The boost did end September 30, but the Fed raised its target range by a quarter point to 3.75% to 4% on September 16, and Vanguard moved. Its Cash Plus page now lists 3.50% APY, effective October 2, 2026, not the 3.10% this piece warned about. Vanguard doesn’t say whether any of that is a new promotion, so treat 3.50% as today’s number, not a promise. The gap is smaller, not gone. On October 2, Elevault paid 4.34% with no minimum and Pibank paid 4.25%, per The Motley Fool’s rate roundup. On $30,000, 3.50% earns about $1,050 a year and 4.34% about $1,300. That’s roughly $250 a year for one transfer. The FDIC’s national savings average is 0.37%. The move below still stands: find the rate you are actually promised, and if it is under 4%, move.

If your emergency fund is parked in Vanguard’s Cash Plus Account, the rate you think you’re earning has six weeks left.

Nothing has to happen at the Fed for it to drop. It’s already scheduled.

Read the footnote

Vanguard’s page lists the Cash Plus Account at 3.35% APY. That number is two numbers stapled together: a 3.10% base rate, set April 1, and a 0.25% “boost” that runs until September 30, 2026.

On October 1, the boost was scheduled to come off and leave you at 3.10%, which is what the account has actually been paying you all along with a promotion sitting on top.

This isn’t a Vanguard problem, and it isn’t a trick. It’s just how cash rates get advertised now. Look at SoFi’s savings account: the headline is up to 3.80%, and attached to it is a 0.70% APY boost. Same construction.

Translation: the advertised rate is a base rate plus a promotion, and only one of those two is the product.

What the gap is worth

On August 11, the best nationally available savings accounts were paying up to 4.50% APY, per Fortune’s tracking with Curinos. The FDIC’s national average across all savings accounts that day was 0.38%.

So run $30,000, which is a normal emergency fund for someone with a mortgage and a kid.

At 3.10%, that’s about $930 a year. At 4.50%, about $1,350. The difference is $420 for the work of opening one account and moving the money once.

Verdict: 3.10% isn’t a rip-off. Nobody is picking your pocket. It’s just mid, wearing a number that looks competitive until the end of September.

The bank’s bet is that you saw 3.35%, decided cash was handled, and won’t look again.

Do this

Open whatever account holds your cash and find the base rate, not the headline. It’s in the disclosure, usually one line under the big number, and it’s the only rate you’re actually promised.

If that base is under 4%, move. Check what the switch is worth on the savings calculator first, and compare current rates on our savings hub and best savings accounts pages.

If you’re staying put, put September 30 in your calendar with the words “check rate” next to it. A boost you know about and collect is fine. A boost you forgot was temporary is how a 4.50% decision turns into a 3.10% default.

One more thing worth knowing before you shop: a savings rate is not a promise either. Every one of these numbers is variable and can move any day, boost or no boost. What you’re really choosing is which bank tends to stay near the top of the table when rates fall, and which one quietly drifts toward that 0.38% average and hopes you’re busy.

Check yours this week. It’s a five-minute job and it’s worth about $35 a month.

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