Many credit unions also offer Life Savings Insurance from the CUNA Mutual Insurance Society at no direct charge to the member. Life Savings Insurance, a benefit offered only through credit unions, supplements your other life insurance protection by matching your eligible savings deposits with an equal amount of group term life insurance, up to certain limits, generally between $2,000 and $5,000. For example, let's say your credit union offers Life Savings with a $2,000 limit and you have $3,000 in your savings account. In the event of your death, subject to the age terms in the certificate of insurance, your beneficiary will receive a Life Savings benefit of $2,000, in addition to your $3,000 account balance.

Money market deposit accounts, available at credit unions and other financial institutions, are a type of federally insured savings account. They generally pay higher interest rates than regular savings accounts and offer limited checkwriting privileges. The interest rate on these accounts can change weekly, along with changes in short-term market rates. To qualify for the higher interest rate and to avoid fees, you have to make a minimum initial deposit and maintain a minimum balance.

Money market mutual funds generally pay higher yields than regular savings accounts and usually require that you make a minimum initial deposit and maintain a minimum balance. They also offer checkwriting privileges with specified minimum amount requirements.

When you buy shares of a money market fund, your money is pooled with other people's money and loaned for short periods of time to banks, large corporations, the federal government, and state and local governments. The interest these borrowers pay on their loans is passed through to you and other shareholders as dividends, so the yield you earn varies along with changes in short-term market rates. Money market funds seek to maintain a stable price of $1 per share, and are considered relatively safe due to strict restrictions on the type of investments they can make. However, money market funds are not insured or guaranteed by any government agency, nor are they guaranteed by a financial institution, no matter how or where their shares are sold.

Certificates of deposit (CDs), called share certificates at credit unions, are federally insured and typically require minimum deposits ranging from $500 to $5,000. They generally pay higher interest rates than regular savings accounts, in exchange for an agreement to leave your money on deposit for a specific amount of time. If you withdraw your money before the term is up, you'll be charged an interest penalty - typically from one to six months’ interest. Therefore, if you withdraw your money soon after you deposit it, the penalty could be greater than the amount of interest earned to that point, and you could lose some of your principal.

Certificate terms generally range from several months to five years. Usually, the longer the term, the higher the interest rate. A good way to buy CDs is to split your money among ones with different maturities. With this laddering technique, if interest rates rise, you'll have part of your money coming due to reinvest. If interest rates fall, you'll still have other CDs locked in at higher rates.