Savings Accounts, Term Deposits and Money Market Funds Compared for Your Cash

What you need

Paste the snapshot template from this page, with every cash holding on its own line: current account, savings account, term deposit, cash at a broker. Add the interest rate you currently get next to each one if you know it, and the date any fixed term ends. The rest of your balance sheet stays in, because how much cash makes sense depends on your debts and investments too.

Below the snapshot, add two lines:

• Country of residence: [country, so the model uses the product types and deposit protection that apply there]
• When I may need the money: [e.g. €5,000 at any time, €8,000 in 2027 for a car, the rest not before 2030]

The prompt asks for product types only. It tells the model not to name or rank banks or specific accounts, because rates change often and a list from a model's memory would be out of date by the time you read it. You compare current offers yourself, using the checklist the answer gives you.

If you hold cash in more than one currency, convert it to your snapshot currency and note the original currency next to the amount.

Here is my financial snapshot. Use only these numbers.

Currency: [e.g. EUR]
Date: [today's date]
Age: [optional]

ASSETS
[name] — [category: cash / stocks / ETFs / crypto / property / metals / other] — [value]
[name] — [category] — [value]
...

LIABILITIES
[name] — [type: mortgage / car loan / credit card / student loan / other] — [outstanding balance] — [interest rate if known]
...

CONTEXT (optional but improves the answer)
Monthly income after tax: [amount]
Monthly spending: [amount]
Amount I add to savings or investments each month: [amount]
Value of the same assets 12 months ago: [amount]

The prompt

Copy this exact text and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini directly beneath your snapshot block.

You are a financial educator explaining savings products. Using only my snapshot
above and the two lines below:

Country of residence: [country]
When I may need the money: [amounts and dates]

1. Explain the main savings product types in plain language: instant-access
   savings accounts, higher-rate online savings accounts, notice accounts, term
   deposits (certificates of deposit in the US), money market accounts and money
   market funds. Use the names common in my country and say which are rare or
   unavailable there.
2. Compare them in a table: how interest is set (fixed or variable), access to
   the money, penalties for early withdrawal, minimum amounts, and whether a
   deposit protection scheme covers them. Tell me to confirm coverage limits
   with the scheme itself.
3. Group my cash by when I may need it, and show which product types fit each
   group and why.
4. Calculate what my current cash earns in a year at the rates in my snapshot,
   and what the same balance would earn at a clearly labelled example rate.
5. Give me a checklist for comparing real offers myself: rate type, how long a
   promotional rate lasts, fees, access rules and protection.

Do not name, recommend or rank any bank, account or provider. Ask for missing
figures rather than estimating. Mention that interest may be taxed, without
stating my country's tax rules as fact.

What good output looks like

A good answer opens with short definitions and one clear split: savings accounts, notice accounts and term deposits are bank deposits, while a money market fund is an investment fund whose value can move. The names should match your country, and the answer should say when a product type is rare there.

The table puts every product type on the same rows: fixed or variable rate, access, early withdrawal penalties, minimum amounts and whether deposit protection applies. It should send you to your country's deposit guarantee scheme to confirm protection limits instead of quoting a figure from memory.

The grouping step uses your dates. Money you might need at any time sits with instant-access products, and money with a known date, such as a car purchase next year, is where a term deposit or notice account could fit.

The interest calculation should add up. Say your snapshot shows €6,000 in a current account at 0%, €9,000 in a savings account at 1.5%, and CZK 100,000 (€4,000 at an example rate of 25 koruna per euro) in a one-year term deposit at 3%. That is €19,000 earning €255 a year before tax: €0, €135 and €120. At a labelled example rate of 2.5%, the €6,000 in the current account would earn €150 a year.

The checklist should fit on one screen, and the answer should name no bank.

What this can't tell you

The model has no current interest rates unless you paste them, and savings rates change often, so a rate it quotes from memory is probably stale. It cannot tell you with certainty which deposit protection limits apply to your accounts; check them with your country's deposit guarantee scheme.

Product names and rules differ between countries. A notice account or a money market account may not exist where you live, or may work differently. The model cannot tell you how interest is taxed in your country. Check the interest arithmetic, especially where monthly and yearly rates get mixed. Inflation stays out of the answer unless you ask for it, and a positive rate can still lose purchasing power.

Doing this without the retyping

In Sumio, this prompt is built in as "Savings Products Overview", one of the 62 in the app's AI assistant. It runs on the whole balance sheet you already track, and cash held in different currencies is converted to your base currency at current exchange rates. Your records are stored on your device. Running the analysis sends the figures it needs to an AI provider to produce the answer. The AI assistant is included in Sumio Premium.