A small bank in West Virginia has taken over the top spot in our rankings of the best nationally available savings accounts.

SFGI Direct is paying 2.25% APY with a minimum deposit of only $500 as of Oct. 9.

SFGI Direct is the online division of Summit Community Bank, headquartered in Moorefield, W.Va., which has branches throughout the state and in northern Virginia.

Its rate is just a little less than Tennessee Commerce Bank was paying when it led our late-August rankings of the best savings accounts.

While Tennessee Commerce is still paying 2.30% APY, it stopped opening new savings accounts a few weeks ago, so we can't include it this month.

The returns on SFGI savings accounts are also comparable to what you'd get with 12-month CDs, but these accounts are far more flexible, allowing investors to reduce or add to their balance anytime they'd like.

The downside, of course, is that yields on all savings accounts are variable. In better economic times, they could go up. In today's market, they're far more likely to go down.

The other top rates on savings accounts are:

2.15% APY with a minimum deposit of $1 from ShoreBank, which has branches in Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.

2.00% APY with a minimum deposit of $100 from 1st Constitution Bank, which has 11 branches in central New Jersey.

That rate is only guaranteed for the first three months. After that it drops to 1.95% for accounts with balances of over $10,000 and 1.60% for accounts with balances below $10,000.

1.85% APY with a minimum deposit of $2,500 from Discover Bank, which is owned by the credit card company.

Compare this deals with the best savings and money market account rates from other banks in our extensive database.

By Carolyn Siegel

Interest.com Associate Editor