In the United States of America Annual Percentage Interest (APY) for high interest savings account range from 3% to 3.5%. Under the conditions of global financial crisis one might be quite content with this rate, since many other types of investment opportunities offer much lower interest these days, especially taking into consideration negative returns of stock market. However in global context in the United States individuals receive one of the lowest annual percentage interest in the world. For instance, in Australia you can earn from 7% to 8% on high interest savings account that is organized and operated exactly in the same way as it is in United States. Similar situation is in other countries Germany offers around 5% APY, France – 7%, India – 10%, Italy – 4.75%, United Kingdom – 5%. Besides in many developing countries annual percentage interest for high interest savings accounts is 3-4 times higher than in the United States of America.
As you see interest rates differ across the countries substantially. Such a big difference is due to different inflation rates in different counties, different interest rate policies of central banks/monetary authorities and different country specific risks applicable in these countries.
The question is, whether you as a United States resident can get high interest savings account in some other 
country? In some cases you can, but in some countries banks provide such accounts only to residents; therefore they require certain confirmation of local residence from their new clients. In such cases, foreigners can still benefit from other country’s high interest rate indirectly through foreign bonds, but the problem is that bonds are different types of investment vehicles than high interest savings accounts and they do not have most of the benefits that savings accounts have. For instance, high interest savings accounts are highly liquid; you have a possibility to transfer the money from the savings account to checking account in minutes and withdraw it from ATM. Overseas bonds are not as liquid as savings accounts, you need some time and efforts to convert it into money. Besides savings accounts have very convenient online access that makes their usage very easy, while overseas bonds do not have such option.
Although annual percentage interest is high for overseas high interest savings account, it is subject to much paperwork and therefore does not worth dealing with it for small amounts like below $50,000. For larger sums overseas savings accounts offer much higher interests than local (United States) savings accounts and it may be worth dealing with it
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