An online money market account is convenient for many consumers who don't want to have to drive to a branch to do their banking.

Online Money Market Accounts

posted in: Banking Tips, Savings | 0

As the financial industry moves into the internet age, more and more options are becoming available for consumers. In the old days, banking required you to go to branch and speak with a teller or a manager to get anything done. With the invention of the ATM, cash withdrawals became a lot easier. However, we have now moved onto the stage of internet banking and online money market accounts. This revolution has made life much easier for consumers and banks. It has increased productivity and has many excellent features.

Choosing an Online Bank

The first thing to do is to choose the bank that you are going to work with. Online banks have proliferated in the last few years and more banks are also offering online set-up. Virtually every bank now has online banking and money market accounts so that transactions can be done from home. The accounts are virtually identical to traditional money market accounts at banks, yet they allow for all of the transactions and set-up to be done online.

Selecting the Highest Rate for Your Savings Account

You can choose the bank using a few important criteria. The first is the interest rate on your savings or loan products. All things being equal, if you have make more money from having funds in savings than other banks, you may want to choose the most attractive rate. Similarly, if you are seeking a loan, credit card or mortgage with a bank, the one with the lowest rate would be best. You can check out a few different options for savings accounts here.

Customer Service

Second, choose a bank with good customer service and an intuitive, interactive user experience. That means the site is easy to navigate and you can get help for any problems quickly. It should also load quickly and respond to queries rapidly. There is nothing worse than waiting on a bank account balance or statement when you don’t know what it will be.

ATMs

Third, you will want an online bank that has a partnership with an offline bank for you to get cash from an ATM. While cash is used less and less nowadays, it is still important to have in case of emergency or for those locations where credit cards are not accepted. Some online money market accounts even have free ATM partnerships with large institutions.

Online Only Banks

Consumers now have the option of choosing an online-only money market account. Which means that they do not have a specific branch where they need to go and sign up. Rather, they can upload all of the application documents online by filling out a brief form and sending proof of identification such as a driver’s license.

Money Market Accounts and CDs

Next you have to decide whether to pick a savings or checking account for your online bank account. That obviously depends on the purpose of your account and whether you will be using it often or whether you want to use it for savings.

For those people that want to place funds into savings, they may also put the money into a certificate of deposit. A certificate of deposit is an ultra-secure form of savings backed by the bank where the interest rate is slightly higher than your savings account yet you cannot access the funds for a certain amount of time (six months, a year, two years etc.). You can peruse some different CD options here. These products have long been offered by banks but are now offered by online banks as well. That means there are even more options when utilizing online banks.