We're focusing on what will make a money market account most useful, including APY, access to your money, and more. Here's what they had to say about money market accounts. (Some text may be lightly edited for clarity.)
What makes a money market account good or not good?
Sophia Acevedo, banking editor, Business Insider:
"A good money market account generally provides several ways to access your money, like a debit card, ATM card, or paper checks."
Roger Ma, CFP® professional and author of "Work Your Money, Not Your Life":
"I don't really recommend a money market account for parking your money. I don't know if their fees are really that competitive versus high-yield savings accounts. For most people, I think what makes sense is a high-yield savings account for your emergency fund and any short-term goals."
How should someone decide whether to put their money in a money market account or another interest-earning account?
Tania Brown, CFP® professional and vice president of coaching strategy at OfColor:
"So I guess we'll start off with how much money you want to put in and the level of transactions you want to have. If you want to have any transactions, that automatically takes out CDs. Then you're stuck between the high-yield savings and the money market account."
Mykail James, MBA, certified financial education instructor, BoujieBudgets.com:
"How soon do you need the money? What kind of access do you need to it? And if you want your money to grow and you want to keep temptation away, then I would put it in a CD."
Sophia Acevedo, Business Insider:
"I would create a list of what I prioritize most in a bank account. For example, some banks have accounts that charge monthly service fees. I would look to see what the requirements are for waiving the monthly maintenance fee and whether I think I could feasibly meet those requirements each month. If I'm searching for an interest-earning bank account, I'll pay attention to interest rates. I would make sure the account pays a higher interest rate than the average bank account."
Methodology: How We Chose the Best Money Market Accounts
At Business Insider, we aim to help smart people make the best decisions with their money. We understand that "best" is often subjective, so in addition to highlighting the clear benefits of a financial product or account — a high APY, for example — we outline the limitations, too. We spent hours comparing and contrasting the features and fine print of various products so you don't have to.
Our personal finance team is editorially independent, which means our business team does not decide how we cover products and what we write about. Our editorial standards page has more information about how we review and choose products.
There are a lot of money market accounts out there. Through our research, we've found that the best money market accounts are offered by banks with a strong online presence and mobile access.
We reviewed money market accounts using our bank account methodology at nearly two dozen institutions to identify the strongest options.
While interest rates are an important aspect of any money market account, we also considered minimum deposits and balance requirements, overdraft, and excess transaction fees, the ability to access funds, and any other standout features.
We score these features on a scale of zero to five and figure out the weighted average to get an account's total rating. The highest total rating a money market account can get is five stars, while the lowest rating is one star.