The interest rate on a money market account is not one number. It is a variable rate the bank may change on any day without notice, applied by balance tier, often subject to a condition, and sometimes raised for an introductory period that ends on a date printed in the terms. The figure that answers "what is the interest rate on a money market account" is therefore the one on the issuing bank's own page today, for your tier, after every condition — and no page that prints a single rate, including any page on this site, can give you that.
So this page prints none. The official baseline — the FDIC's monthly national average for money market accounts — appears on one page of this site, dated: the high-yield money market accounts hub. What this page does instead is take apart an advertised money market rate using the federal rule that governs how deposit rates must be stated, so that you can read any bank's page and know what you would actually be paid.
The only comparable number is the APY, and even that has a tolerance
Regulation DD, the Truth in Savings rule administered by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (12 CFR Part 1030), defines two figures. The interest rate is "the annual rate of interest paid on an account which does not reflect compounding." The annual percentage yield is "a percentage rate reflecting the total amount of interest paid on an account, based on the interest rate and the frequency of compounding for a 365-day period." The rule then forbids a bank from advertising any rate other than the APY: the interest rate may appear alongside it, but not more conspicuously, and if you telephone to ask about an account the bank must quote the APY. Both figures are rounded to two decimal places, and a disclosed APY counts as accurate if it sits within one-twentieth of a point of what the rule's formula produces.
That makes the APY the number to compare, and APR vs APY explains the compounding arithmetic behind it. What it does not make the APY is large. On an illustrative 3.00% interest rate, daily compounding produces an annual percentage yield of about 3.05%, monthly about 3.04%, quarterly about 3.03%. The gap between the interest rate and the APY is a few hundredths of a point; the gaps in the rest of this page are measured in whole points and hundreds of dollars. Compounding frequency is the thing bank marketing most likes to talk about and the thing that matters least.
Tiers: the same headline can mean two different amounts
A tiered-rate account, in the rule's words, is "an account that has two or more interest rates that are applicable to specified balance levels." Most money market accounts are tiered, and the tier is where the first real gap opens, because there are two ways to run a tier and they pay very different amounts on the same advertised rate.
Regulation DD's Appendix A names them. Under Method A, the bank pays the rate for your tier on your entire balance; each tier has one APY. Under Method B, the bank pays each tier's rate only on the portion of the balance that sits inside that tier, so a balance in the second tier earns the first tier's rate on the first slice and the second tier's rate only on the rest. The rule requires a Method B bank to disclose each upper tier's APY as a range — the lowest and highest yield a balance in that tier could earn — because a single figure would overstate it.
Here is what that is worth. Illustrative tiers, not market rates: 1.00% on balances below $10,000, 3.00% from $10,000 to $49,999.99. Simple interest for one year.
| Balance | Method A pays | Method B pays | Method B, as a yield | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,500 | $315.00 | $115.00 | 1.10% | $200.00 |
| $20,000 | $600.00 | $400.00 | 2.00% | $200.00 |
| $49,999 | $1,499.97 | $1,299.97 | 2.60% | $200.00 |
Two things stand out. The difference is a flat $200 at every balance in the tier — the two-point gap applied to the first $10,000. And at the bottom of the tier, the account advertised at 3.00% pays a yield of 1.10%, barely above the tier it left. A saver who moved $10,500 to capture that headline captured almost nothing.
The rule's advertising provisions know this trap: an advertisement for a tiered-rate account that states an APY must state the APY for every tier, with each tier's minimum balance "in close proximity and with equal prominence." A bank following the rule shows you the tiers. A comparison table the bank neither pays for nor controls is not the bank's advertisement under the rule's own commentary, and shows you the top of the range.
Two more tier habits. Tiers can run in either direction — some accounts pay their highest rate on the lowest balances and step down above a cap, which is how a "balance cap" is usually implemented, so a large balance can earn less there than in a flat-rate account. And a "jumbo" tier starting at $100,000 is a real rate only for people who hold $100,000, which is why the FDIC computes its money market average across the $10,000 and $100,000 tiers rather than either alone.
Promotional and introductory rates, and the day they end
A rate that is high for a stated period and then falls to a lower rate known in advance is what the rule calls a stepped-rate account: "two or more interest rates that take effect in succeeding periods and are known when the account is opened." An advertisement stating an interest rate for such an account must state every rate and the period each runs, and Appendix A computes the disclosed APY by assuming each rate runs for its stated period over a 365-day term — so the properly disclosed yield is a blend, not the headline. That is why a promotional headline and the APY in the small print can differ.
Illustrative numbers again, not market rates. $25,000 placed in an account paying 4.00% for three months and 1.00% for the following nine, against the same $25,000 in an account paying a steady 2.50% all year. Simple interest.
| Introductory 4.00%, then 1.00% | Steady 2.50% | |
|---|---|---|
| First three months | $250.00 | $156.25 |
| Remaining nine months | $187.50 | $468.75 |
| Year | $437.50 | $625.00 |
The account with the bigger number on its page pays $187.50 less over the year — an effective 1.75%. It only wins if you move the money again on the day the promotion ends, and here the rule works against you: a bank need not send advance notice of a change that happens automatically on a stated event fully described at account opening. The rule's own example is a one-year fee-waiver promotion expiring on schedule; an introductory rate with a stated end date is the same mechanism. The reversion date is in the paperwork you were given at opening, and that is the only place it is guaranteed to be.
Relationship pricing and the other conditions
The third gap is the condition. Money market rates are commonly raised for holding a linked checking account, receiving a direct deposit above a monthly threshold, making a number of debit transactions, or bringing "new money" not already at the bank. The rule requires the bank to disclose at opening any minimum balance needed to obtain the disclosed APY and how a variable rate is determined; the conditions on a relationship rate live in that disclosure and the account agreement, not in the headline.
A condition has a cost, and the cost is usually a balance somewhere else earning nothing. Illustrative: a quarter-point boost for keeping $3,000 in a linked checking account that pays no interest, where that $3,000 could otherwise earn 2.00%.
| Money market balance | Boost earns | Idle $3,000 forgoes | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $25.00 | $60.00 | −$35.00 |
| $25,000 | $62.50 | $60.00 | $2.50 |
| $50,000 | $125.00 | $60.00 | $65.00 |
Below roughly $25,000 the relationship rate loses money on these numbers. Direct-deposit conditions have a different cost: the month you miss the threshold — a job change, a payroll cut-off — the rate drops for that month, and nothing warns you.
Fees are the bluntest condition. A money market account commonly carries three minimums, each of which the rule requires to be disclosed: to open, to avoid a monthly fee, and to earn the disclosed APY — frequently three different numbers. A monthly fee on a balance that slips below the second can exceed a modest balance's interest for the month. Every APY advertised in print or online must carry the statement that fees could reduce the earnings on the account (television, radio, billboard, telephone-response and indoor-sign advertisements are exempt from that line), and the rule bars calling an account "free" if any maintenance or activity fee can be charged.
The rate can change tomorrow, and no letter is coming
Nearly every money market account is a variable-rate account, which the rule defines as one "in which the interest rate may change after the account is opened, unless the institution contracts to give at least 30 calendar days advance written notice of rate decreases." Read the second clause carefully: the account is variable-rate precisely because the bank has not promised notice.
The rule's change-in-terms section requires 30 days' advance notice of any change to a disclosed term that may reduce the APY or otherwise hurt you — a new fee, a higher minimum balance (including the minimum needed to earn a tier's APY) — and then exempts "changes in the interest rate and corresponding changes in the annual percentage yield in variable-rate accounts." The rate is the one term that can move without a word. What the bank must have told you at opening is that it may change, how it is determined, how often, and whether there is any limit on the size of a change; "at the bank's discretion" and "at any time" are the usual answers, and they are the honest description of what you hold.
So, as finding the real top savings rate says of savings accounts, the rate you opened at tells you nothing about the rate you hold today. One document does: every periodic statement must show the annual percentage yield earned for the period and the dollar interest — the yield you actually received on your actual balance, after the tier and the conditions. That figure, not the marketing page, is the audit.
If you want a rate that cannot move, you are asking for a certificate of deposit and a lock; CD vs money market account prices that trade, HYSA vs CD vs T-bills adds Treasuries for larger balances, and nobody knows which way rates go next.
Why no two tables agree on the highest money market rate
Search this and several well-known sites will show different "highest money market account rates" on the same day. They disagree because a money market rate is not one number, and each table collapses it differently: the top of a Method B range printed as the yield on the whole balance; a tier that starts at $100,000; a rate that needs a linked checking account; an introductory rate three weeks before it reverts; a last-checked date that differs from table to table. The rule's requirement that an advertised APY carry an offer period or a recent "accurate as of" date binds the bank's own page, and any listing the bank pays for or controls, and nothing else.
The baseline for judging any of them is the FDIC's national average, published on the third Monday of each month from information as of the last business day of the month before, deposit-weighted across every insured bank and credit union for which data is available. The hub prints it with its date. Two cautions travel with it. Large branch banks dominate the average, so a competitive online rate far above it is normal, not suspicious. And the same FDIC page publishes a national rate cap — for a money market account, the higher of the national rate plus 75 basis points or the federal funds rate plus 75 basis points. It is a supervisory ceiling on what a less-than-well-capitalised bank may pay, not a yield available to anyone, and reading it as one is the most common misreading of that page.
Verifying a money market rate in five minutes
At the bank's own site, not at a table.
- Find the APY for your balance tier and which tier method the bank uses. Ranges on the upper tiers mean Method B, and the low end of the range is what a balance at the bottom of the tier earns.
- Find the date. An "accurate as of" date or an offer period must accompany any advertised APY; without one you cannot know how old the number is.
- Find the conditions — relationship, direct deposit, transaction count, new money, promotional end date — and price each as in the tables above.
- Find the three minimums — to open, to avoid the fee, to earn the APY — and the fee itself.
- Find the charter. Account, not fund — that difference is the whole of money market vs high-yield savings and of are money market accounts FDIC insured. Then look the bank up by its FDIC certificate, because two brands can share one charter and one $250,000 limit; a credit union's insurer is the National Credit Union Administration, a separate agency.
- After the first statement, read the APY earned. If it is not the figure you opened at, one of the items above explains why.
What to actually do
Compare only APYs, and only for your tier. Interest rate and compounding frequency are worth hundredths of a point; the tier is worth whole points.
Ask which tier method applies before moving a balance that sits near a tier boundary. On the illustration above, Method B paid 1.10% on a balance advertised at 3.00%.
Diarise the reversion date of any introductory rate. The bank is not required to remind you, and the rule's own examples say so.
Price every condition. A relationship boost that needs an idle checking balance loses money below about $25,000 on the illustration here; a direct-deposit condition fails in the month your payroll changes.
Read the APY earned on every statement, or at least twice a year. It is the only number that reflects your tier, your conditions and the rate actually being paid this month. When it drifts below the floor you set for yourself, move.
Take the baseline from the FDIC, never the cap, and take it from the hub with its date. How money market accounts work covers the mechanics behind the tiers and the access features; this page's job was only the rate.
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