You’ve poured your heart and soul into the small business you founded, but when it comes to financing day-to-day operations, you’ll need to strictly separate your personal wealth from your business funds. A business money market account can help provide a safe place for your company’s cash, allowing it to earn relatively high interest while still remaining liquid enough to take care of business expenses.

Scouring our database for the business money market accounts earning the highest APY (and are available nationwide), we’ve come up with the best places for you to place the money that funds your dream.

Bay State Savings Bank — Smile Worcester County Commercial Money Market Account

Based in Worcester, Mass., this bank has more than a century of experience meeting its customers’ financial needs, and offers the best business money market account currently available nationwide. With an APY of 2.35%, the Smile Worcester County Commercial Money Market Account will spread joy to business owners across the country, and it offers other benefits as well, including:

• Free access to Bay State Savings online banking
• Free online bill pay
• ATM transactions via a Mastercard debit card
• Telephone banking

To open this account, you need to make a minimum deposit of $5,000, the same amount you need to maintain in the account in order to avoid a $7 monthly maintenance fee — the good news is that there’s no minimum balance needed to earn the high APY.

Affinity Federal Credit Union — Business Money Manager Account

Being a credit union, Affinity requires you to become a member before you can open an account, including the Business Money Manager account. One way anyone can join is by making a $5 donation to the New Jersey Coalition for Financial Education or the Connecticut Jump$tart Coalition.

This account actually has two tiers of APY, based on the balance you maintain. A balance from $1,000 to $24,999 earns an APY of just 1.25%, while balances of $25,000 and up earn 2.25%. You do need at least $1,000 in order to open this account, and you’ll get hit with a $10 monthly fee for that month if the average daily balance falls below $1,000 on any given day.

First Internet Bank — Business Money Market Savings account

This online-only bank has a real knack for offering customers competitive rates with its money market accounts, and its business product doesn’t stray from the pattern. Account holders can expect an APY of 2.02%, one of the highest available nationwide, so long as they make the minimum deposit of $100 to open the account. There’s no minimum balance needed to earn the APY, but a $5 monthly fee will be charged by First Internet Bank if the average daily balance for that month falls below $4,000.

Bethpage Federal Credit Union — Business Money Market Account

A credit union based in Bethpage, N.Y., this financial institution has aggressively raised the APY on this account from a modest 0.5% APY in February 2018 to the current 2.00% depositors can expect to earn today. The most accessible and easiest way to join this credit union for everyone in the country is to simply open a special $5 savings account that makes you a member able to open the product you really came here for — the Business Money Market Account.

With a minimum deposit of $500, customers opening this account earn the full APY of 2.00% on the entire balance. While there’s no minimum balance required for this APY, customers will be charged a $20 monthly fee for not having an average daily balance of at least $2,500. You’ll also have to pay a $10 fee for each withdrawal you make from the account once you go over your limit of 6 free withdrawals per month.

nbkc bank — Business Money Market Savings account

This Kansas-based bank offers a decent interest rate on its Business Money Market Savings account. With a minimum deposit of $5, you can open this account and start earning 1.77% APY on balances up to $1,000,000. The portion of your balance exceeding $1,000,000 will earn a still respectable APY of 1.25%

While nbkc charges very little in terms of fees, keep in mind the six withdrawal per month limit on money market accounts stems from federal regulations and isn’t subject to the whims of individuals financial institutions. If you need to access your money more frequently, you may want to consider supplementing your money market account with a business checking account (see more below).

Primary Bank — Choice Business Money Market account

A relative newcomer to the banking scene, Primary Bank established itself in 2015 in Bedford, N.H. But don’t let its youth put you off — according to DepositAccounts.com (which similar to MagnifyMoney, is owned by LendingTree), it’s one of the healthiest banks in the country and its Choice Business Money Market account makes for a compelling option to place some of your business funds.

This account earns an APY of 1.11% on balances ranging from a penny to $500,000. Balances higher than that only earn 0.55% APY, a disappointing number when compared to some of the other APYs on this list. It also requires a minimum deposit of $10,000 to open. Still, the APY is one of the higher ones out there in the market and worth a look if the other financial institutions on this list aren’t to your liking.

Business money market accounts vs. business savings accounts

Since both business money market accounts and business savings accounts earn a comparatively high interest rate and give you a place to deposit your business funds separate from your personal money, how should you go about choosing between the two products? While nothing is wrong with a business savings account, money market accounts hold two distinct advantages over them:

• Higher APYs: While not true across the board, money market accounts earn higher interest than savings accounts in general. For example, looking at the rate tables at DepositAccounts.com, the business savings account available nationwide with the highest APY is Primary Bank’s Premium Business Statement Savings Special, with 2.00%. When compared to the APYs listed above, the majority of which are either at 2.0% and above, it’s clear that business money market accounts still earn higher rates.
• Easier Access to Funds: Business savings accounts don’t generally come with a debit card or checks to help depositors withdraw their funds from the account. While these features aren’t universal with business money market accounts, they’re more prevalent (the nbkc Business Money Market Savings Account and the First Internet Bank Business Money Market Savings account on this list are two examples of accounts with these perks). However, both money market accounts and savings accounts fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation D, which only allows a maximum of six withdraws from the account each month.

Business money market accounts vs. CDs or checking accounts

While a business money market account earns a high APY and — if it comes with perks such as online banking, checks and/or a debit card — allows easy access to funds, it can’t have the same liquidity as a checking account. For regular business expenses you need to pay with any sort of frequency, you’ll need a checking account from which you’ll pay vendors, staff, etc. However as with personal checking accounts, don’t expect to earn a high APY.

Certificates of deposits (CDs) are the most restrictive product in terms of liquidity — unless you’re dealing with the relatively-rare CD, which incurs no penalty for early withdrawals, the money you’ve deposited is untouchable until the certificate matures. However, CDs do have the advantage of locking in your money at fixed interest rates (whereas the bank can change how much interest the money in a money market or savings account earns whenever it wants) and earning the highest APY.

Why you need to separate your business and personal banking

There’s nothing explicitly stopping you legally from funding your business with your personal money, but doing so is generally frowned upon for the following reasons:

• You remove any legal distinction between you and your business: To paraphrase a certain businessman-turned presidential candidate, “Corporations are people too.” This becomes more than a campaign slogan when you’ve mingled your personal and business finances and someone successfully sues your business. If a court takes a look at your books and determines there’s no real distinction between your business’s finances and your personal wealth, they can include your own money in any damages that have to be paid.
• The IRS won’t let you deduct expenses: Even though you consider your Etsy shop a budding corporate empire, the IRS has its own definition of what constitutes a business versus what’s a hobby that makes you money — and changes what you can deduct based on its decision. One of the first criteria the IRS lists is “Whether you carry on the activity in a businesslike manner and maintain complete and accurate books and records” (emphasis ours). Having separate accounts goes a long way toward proving your hobby is actually a legitimate business.

What do I need to open a Business Money Market Account?

While the exact materials and information needed to open one of these accounts varies by institution, you should probably have on hand the following information when you’re ready to open an account:

• Employer Identification Number (this is a nine-digit number you receive after applying to the IRS which, if you own a business, you probably already have).
• A legal document indicating when the business was formed
• Your own social security number or government-issued ID

You may need additional information depending on how your company is structured (if you aren’t the sole proprietor, for example, you’ll probably need to provide ownership papers to the bank), but the above is a good place to start when gathering the materials you’ll need to open one of these accounts.