Brian McKay
Brian McKay
Co-Founder & Lead Data Architect- Automated Online Rate Data Aggregation
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MonitorBankRates Reader Survey: 84% of Readers Plan to Move Money to a Higher-Yield Account After the September Fed Rate Increase
The Federal Reserve raised rates 0.25% on September 16, 2026. In the week that followed, 576 MonitorBankRates readers answered three one-question polls about what they plan to do next. 84% of readers said they will move money into a higher-yield account, 77% of readers on home loan pages said they are putting off buying a home, and readers split almost evenly on holding off on other borrowing.
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From September 16 to September 23, 2026, MonitorBankRates ran an anonymous reader survey in a bar at the top of every page on the site. Each visitor saw one yes or no question matched to the section they were reading: home loan pages asked about putting off a home purchase, auto loan, personal loan and credit card pages asked about holding off on borrowing, and every other page asked about moving money to a higher-yield account. Readers cast 576 votes across the three questions.
One vote per browser. No names, email addresses or personal information were collected. Results describe MonitorBankRates readers who chose to answer, not a national sample. Margins of error for each question are in the methodology section below.
Key takeaways
- 84% of readers plan to move money into a higher-yield account after the September 16 rate increase, in the survey's largest question pool: 319 of 380 votes.
- 77% of readers on home loan pages are putting off buying a home because of higher rates, on 98 of 127 votes.
- Readers split almost evenly on holding off on other borrowing. 52% said yes on 69 votes, a result inside that question's margin of error, so it reads as an even split.
- The three questions ran side by side for the same week, September 16 to 23, so the gap between savers acting and borrowers splitting comes from the same stretch of days.
- 576 readers voted in total, anonymously, with one vote per browser.
How the three questions compare
Share of readers answering yes, by question
The dashed line marks an even split. The borrowing question's 52% is inside its margin of error, so that result reads as an even split.
84% of readers plan to move money to a higher-yield account
The saver question drew the most votes: 380, with 319 readers saying yes and 61 saying no. In a MonitorBankRates survey of 380 readers taken in the week after the September 16 rate increase, 84% said they plan to move money into a higher-yield account.
For a saver acting on that plan, the starting points on MonitorBankRates are the savings account rates, CD rates and money market rates pages, which list current offers from banks and credit unions nationwide. The CD vs. high-yield savings calculator compares the two account types side by side, with defaults set from today's MBR averages across more than 8,000 institutions, updated daily.
77% of readers on home loan pages are putting off buying a home
Readers on mortgage, refinance and home equity pages were asked whether higher rates have them putting off a home purchase. 98 of 127 said yes, 77%, with a margin of error of 7.3 points. Even at the low end of that range, about seven in ten of these readers are waiting.
These are readers already on home loan pages, so the pool leans toward people actively shopping or comparing mortgage rates. A reader weighing the numbers behind that decision can model a payment on the mortgage calculator, which loads current MBR average rates as its defaults and can pull figures for any state.
Readers split almost evenly on holding off on other borrowing
On auto loan, personal loan and credit card pages, readers were asked whether higher rates will make them hold off on borrowing. 36 of 69 said yes and 33 said no. That is 52% yes with a margin of error of 11.8 points, so the honest description is an even split: about half of these readers plan to borrow anyway.
This question collected the fewest votes of the three, and 69 responses is a small pool. The split reads differently from the home loan result: readers putting off a house were lopsided at 77%, while readers facing an auto loan, personal loan or credit card decision divided about evenly.
Yes and no votes, by question
Navy segments are yes votes; gray segments are no votes. 576 votes in total.
Full results
| Question | Yes | No | Yes share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will you move money into a higher-yield account? | 319 | 61 | 84% |
| Are you putting off buying a home because of higher rates? | 98 | 29 | 77% |
| Will higher rates make you hold off on borrowing? | 36 | 33 | 52% |
Margins of error are at 95% confidence for each question's own vote count. The borrowing result is inside its margin, so it reads as an even split.
How the survey was run
The September 2026 MonitorBankRates Reader Survey ran from September 16 through September 23, 2026 as three one-question yes or no polls in a bar at the top of MonitorBankRates.com pages. The question a visitor saw depended on the section: mortgage, refinance and home equity pages asked the home purchase question; auto loan, personal loan and credit card pages asked the borrowing question; savings, CD, money market, checking and all other pages asked the higher-yield account question.
Each browser could vote once per question, enforced with a local setting on the visitor's device. Votes were tallied by MonitorBankRates. The survey was anonymous: no names, email addresses or personal information were collected. Respondents are MonitorBankRates readers who chose to answer, so results describe this site's readers rather than a nationally representative sample.
These results are free for editorial, academic and policy use. Cite them as "MonitorBankRates Reader Survey, September 2026." The figures on this page are final and will not change.
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This article is for general information and is not financial advice. Results reflect the answers of MonitorBankRates readers who chose to respond and are not a nationally representative sample.
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