The best savings accounts on the market pay 5% or better—offering the highest rates in two decades. Start earning a great return today, before rates fall.

It's hard to go wrong with high-yield savings accounts, but there are a few things you should know. Read on to find out which moves to avoid.

As the name implies, a high-yield savings account is a savings account with a significantly higher interest rate than a standard savings account — with some high-yield accounts offering rates up to 20 to 25 times the national average, which the FDIC currently puts at a meager 0.05%.

Savings accounts have a simple premise, but often come with complex mechanisms for you to earn bonus interest. When you open a savings account with a bank, you deposit money into it and let that money earn interest.

“In today's low interest rate environment, high yield savings accounts offer savers a way to protect their principal while earning an above-average interest rate,” said Evan Kulak, co-founder of Polaris Portfolios, a Chicago-based financial planning firm.