Money Market Account (MMA)

A money market account is a deposit account that sits between checking and savings. It pays a rate competitive with savings accounts and typically adds transaction features savings accounts lack — a debit card, check-writing privileges, or both.

Deposits carry the same protection as any other bank account: $250,000 per depositor, per institution, per ownership category, insured by the FDIC at banks or the NCUA at credit unions. That is the crucial distinction from a money market fund, which despite the near-identical name is an investment product sold by brokerages, is not federally insured, and can in principle lose value.

The trade for those features is usually a higher minimum. Many money market accounts require $1,000 to $10,000 to open or to avoid a monthly fee, and some pay tiered rates that only become attractive at larger balances. Rates are variable and move with the Federal Reserve's policy rate.

Transaction limits are looser than they used to be. The federal rule capping certain withdrawals at six per month was suspended in 2020 and has not been reinstated, though individual banks are free to keep their own limits and fees, so the account agreement rather than federal law is what to check.

In practice, a high-yield savings account often pays as much or more with no minimum, so the case for a money market account rests on wanting spending access to the same balance — a home for a large emergency fund or an escrow-like reserve you occasionally write a check against.