Thanks! Good question..
The steeminterest thread from 2 weeks ago had this explanation from @bitcalm :
Steem pays interest on your Steem dollars every month at 10% APR; however, the interest doesn't appear in your account until a transaction is made. If you don't make transactions often, the accrued interest will not be used to calculate the next interest amount, hence it will not be compounded.
With that in mind, I'm not sure if transactions to your regular account address would trigger the SBD interest, or if you would need to add a micropayment to savings regularly to trigger it ..
But I'll be sure to experiment for science and find out now I have some funds again , thanks for the vote and resteem @ned and everyone :D