MONEY MARKET INTEREST RATES DEPEND ON YOUR BALANCE
With interest rates being so low now, no one is going to give you a rate you are happy with. The best thing about money market interest rates though, is that they are variable and go up with the more you put in.
Everyone knows that the big advantage to a money market account is the ability to get your money out at any time. Unlike bank cd’s where you agree to give them your money for a set period of time, money markets allow you to take any part of your money out at any time with no penalty. They also pay a higher rate of interest than savings accounts.
The chart below is from Bank of America and shows their MM interest rates breakdown. You can see that the big jump in interest is made when you maintain a balance of over $10,000. At that point the rate goes up .35% from .15% to .5%. After that, there are other interest rate hikes for even higher balances but the difference is minimal after the $10,000 jump.
You will also see in that chart that there is also a bonus rate section and many banks and financial institutions will offer some sort of a bonus if you qualify. In this case, as you can read below, in order to qualify for the higher bonus money market interest rates you have to do one of three things, any of which are quite easy. For fulfilling one of those requirements, you get a significant jump in your rate and so it is obviously worth it to try to qualify.
Money market accounts are great for people who have more than $10,000 sitting in a checking account or have money that they don’t want to tie up. Savings accounts pay almost nothing in interest and this is one of the best options to earn some money with your money rather than having it just sit their making nothing.
