With interest rates so low these days looking at the rates offered on CDs and savings accounts brings tears to my eyes. Still I try and get the very best rate for my savings even if we’re only talking an additional quarter point of interest. Here are 7 tactics I use to earn more money on my savings:

1. Be on the Lookout for Introductory Offers. Some online banks will offer special promotions for opening up an account. Everbank offers a special intro rate on it’s checking and money market accounts for the first three months. I’ve also seen special new money promotions from ing were they will offer you a special rate on new money added to the account by a certain date.

2. Create a CD Ladder. This one is pretty well known but still a solid tactic for earning higher interest none the less. If you have $5,000 in savings that you want to put in a bank and you need access to some of that money within a year and some within two years and the remaining money you don’t need access to until five years create a CD ladder to increase the average rate of interest on all your money. Banks offer higher interest the longer you lock up your money in a CD with them. So by putting some of your money in a 1 year CD and some in a 2 year CD and the remainder in a 5 year CD, your average rate will be higher.

3. Break up Money into Separate CDs. Avoid larger withdrawal penalties by breaking up savings into several CDs. Let’s say you have $5,000 dollars that you know you will need in one years time but there’s a small chance that you might need access to maybe $1,000 to $2,000 during the year. Banks often charge a penalty for early withdrawels based on the amount of money in the entire CD. With ing and other banks there is no cost to create a CD so what I do is create five separate CD’s of $1,000 each. If it turns out I need emergency access to $1000 during the year I just redeem a single CD and pay the early withdrawal penalty on $1,000 instead of $5,000 if I had put it all into one CD.

4. Link Your Savings & Checking Accounts. As mentioned in the first tip many banks offer introductory rates that are better than anywhere else. But after those introductory periods expire you may find yourself earning much less interest than other online banks offer. I make sure that my online savings accounts are linked to a central checking account so I can easily and quickly transfer money to another bank offering higher interest rates for my money.

5. Become a Savvy Searcher. There are lots of great savings rate comparison tools out there that help you find the best rates. However, I’m always leary that they don’t show you all the options as some of them make money on getting you to sign up for an online account through them. I always do web searches to see if any online banks are offering special promotions and I keep a spreadsheet with all the major online banks and check them frequently to see who is offering competitive rates.

6. Know the Penalty for Early Withdrawal. Sometimes knowing the withdrawal penalty can present opportunities. I was looking at the online bank Ally recently. All there CDs come with the same early withdrawal penalty of two months interest. So what’s stopping me from buying a 5 year CD that offers 2.74% interest versus there 1 year CD that 1.44%. If I put my money in the 5 year CD and pull it out at the end of one year and pay the early withdrawal penalty I’m still earning over 2% on my money vs the 1.44% on the 1 year CD. I plan to contact Ally to see if there is anything to keep me from doing this.

7. Ask you Bank to Match to Match. All else being equal I’d rather have my money in one bank. You have less 1099 forms you have to enter into your tax software at the end of the year and sometimes they offer special levels of service and rewards based on the total amount of money you have with your bank. Something I wasn’t aware of until a few years ago is that sometimes banks do match competitors rates. I remembered telling my banker at one bank how I was thinking of putting some money in a competitors CD because they offered a higher rate. The banker quickly did a search and discovered an unadvertised rate they could offer me that would beat there competitors. It never pays to ask. One thing to keep in mind is that classic brick and morter banks will almost never match an online banks savings rates. Still, it never hurts to ask.