Cash Flow Terms

Account aggregation is the practice of pulling a person's balances and transactions from several financial institutions into one place, using a service that connects to each institution on the person's behalf. It is what makes a budgeting app, a net-worth tracker or a planner's software show accounts it does not hold.

Account takeover is a criminal gaining control of a financial account you already have, rather than opening a new one in your name. Its defining move is not the withdrawal: it is changing the contact details and alerts of record first, so that the account's owner stops being told what is happening to it.

Accrued interest is interest that has been earned, or has been incurred, but has not yet been paid. On a bond it is the interest built up since the last coupon date; on a loan it is the interest that has run up since the last payment.

An ACH transfer is a payment moved over the Automated Clearing House network, the batch system that carries most recurring consumer money in the United States. Entries travel in two directions, and which direction a payment runs decides who is able to start it and who can stop it.

The annual percentage rate is the regulated measure of what credit costs, expressed as a yearly rate that relates what the borrower receives to what the borrower pays. What it folds in beyond interest depends on the kind of credit, which is why comparing APRs is sound advice on a mortgage and incomplete advice on a credit card.

Annual percentage yield is the standardized figure showing what a deposit account pays over a year once compounding is taken into account. Federal law prescribes how it is calculated and requires it in any advertisement that states a rate of return, which is why every savings rate you see is an APY.

An ATM fee is usually two separate charges on one cash withdrawal: a surcharge from whoever owns the machine, and a separate fee from the cardholder's own bank. Only the first has to be disclosed at the machine.

The average daily balance is the figure a credit card issuer applies its interest rate to: the sum of what you owed on each day of the billing cycle, divided by the number of days in the cycle. Federal regulation names it as one of five balance computation methods an issuer may disclose by name.

A bank account bonus is cash or something else of value a bank offers for opening, keeping or funding an account. Regulation DD defines it as expressly not interest, which is why it sits outside the advertised annual percentage yield, and the IRS nonetheless treats it as interest income.

A bank run is a wave of depositors demanding their money back at the same time. It can close a bank that would have been fine left alone, because a bank holds long-dated assets against deposits repayable on demand, and the depositor who asks first is paid from cash while the loss falls on whoever waits.

A bank statement is the periodic record an institution sends showing every transaction, fee and balance on a deposit account for a set period. Receiving it starts legal clocks: reading it late can shift a loss from the bank to you.

A brick-and-mortar bank is a bank that operates staffed physical branches. The branch is a regulated object rather than merely a building: federal law requires an insured institution to give its regulator and its customers advance notice before closing one.

A brokerage account is an account at a broker-dealer used to buy, hold and sell securities. This page covers the ordinary taxable version, the one with no contribution limit, no withdrawal rules and no special tax treatment, and what is and is not protected inside it.

A brokered CD is a bank certificate of deposit bought through a brokerage firm or other deposit broker rather than from the bank directly. The intermediary is where the extra risk sits: whether the money actually reached an insured bank, how the deposit is titled, and whether anyone will buy the CD back before it matures.

A budgeting app is software, usually on a phone, that helps you track spending and plan a budget. Most connect to your bank and card accounts through a read-only data service to pull transactions automatically, while some rely on manual entry.

A business bank account is a deposit account held in a business's name and used only for business money, kept separate from the owner's personal accounts. The separation protects clean bookkeeping and, for an LLC or corporation, the liability shield.

A business emergency fund is cash the business holds in its own accounts, deliberately not spent on operations, to absorb a shock such as losing a large customer or a slow collection cycle. It is sized against fixed costs, payroll and how concentrated the revenue is, not against household expenses.

A callable CD is a certificate of deposit the issuing bank may end early, at its own option, after a stated period of call protection. The depositor gets back principal and accrued interest with no penalty, and loses the rate; the words describing the call period say nothing about when the CD matures.

Card skimming is the copying of payment card data by an illegal card reader attached to a machine that reads cards, often alongside a hidden camera that records the PIN being entered. The card is copied rather than stolen, so the victim still has it and nothing looks wrong until the charges appear.

Cash equivalents are holdings that behave like cash: they can be turned into spendable money quickly and at a value you can predict. They are the third of the three broad asset classes, alongside stocks and bonds, and they are safe in one specific sense rather than in every sense.

A cash management account is a brokerage product that attaches everyday payment features to a securities account and automatically moves the uninvested cash somewhere it earns interest or dividends. The name is a product name rather than a legal category, so what protects the cash depends entirely on where the account has parked it.

A cashier's check is a check on which the drawer and the drawee are the same bank, so it is the bank's own obligation rather than a statement about the buyer's balance. That structure is what makes it accepted for large purchases, and it is also why the buyer cannot simply stop payment on it.

A CD ladder is a savings structure that splits a sum across several certificates of deposit with staggered maturity dates, so part of the money comes due at regular intervals. Each maturing rung is reinvested at the longest term, which after one full cycle leaves every rung earning the long rate while one matures every period.

A certificate of deposit is a federally insured bank deposit that pays a fixed rate in exchange for leaving the money alone until a stated maturity date. The interesting question is not the rate but what breaking it costs, and that answer comes from the deposit agreement rather than from federal law.

A certified check is your own check that the bank drawn on has formally accepted, adding its own promise to pay alongside yours. The bank does not have to certify anything, and a refusal to certify is not a dishonor.

A chargeback is the reversal of a credit already posted to an account, initiated by the institution that posted it. It is the payment networks' word rather than the law's, which is why a chargeback and a consumer's statutory dispute right are two different things.

Check float is the gap between the moment a check is written and the moment the money actually leaves the payer's account. Electronic check collection has compressed it to nearly nothing, which makes the habits built around it expensive.

Check fraud is the use of a check to take money the taker is not entitled to, by forging a signature, altering a genuine check, or manufacturing a fake one. It is a paper-instrument crime, which means the federal electronic-transfer protections do not reach it.

Check washing is the alteration of a genuine stolen check and its redeposit, usually by changing the payee and raising the amount. The name comes from the classic method of removing the original ink with chemicals, and agencies describe the technique at different widths.

A check-cashing service converts a check into cash on the spot for a fee, without the customer needing an account. Federal law regulates the business as a money services business for anti-money-laundering purposes only; what it may charge is a matter of state law.

A checking account is a deposit account built for paying other people, by check, debit card, or electronic transfer, with no limit on how often you use it. It typically pays little or no interest, so what distinguishes one from another is the fee schedule.

Combining finances is the account-structure decision a couple makes when they start running one household: fully joint accounts, fully separate accounts, or a hybrid with one joint household account plus each partner's own. It is a choice about mechanics, not about commitment, and there is no research showing any pattern predicts a better relationship.

Compound interest is growth earned on both your original money and on all the growth it has already produced, interest on interest, which makes balances accelerate over time rather than grow in a straight line.

Compounding frequency is how often accrued interest is added to a balance so that it starts earning interest itself. Federal law requires the frequency to be disclosed but sets no minimum, and it is a separate question from how often the interest is actually credited to the account.

Credit card rewards are the cash back, points or miles an issuer credits for using a card. A rewards balance is a liability of the program rather than money you hold, which is why its value can be reduced, and why the four documented ways a program fails all involve what happens between earning and redeeming.

A credit union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned by the people who bank at it, who each hold one vote regardless of their balance and who must qualify for membership under the institution's charter. The federal share guarantee covers all federal credit unions and nearly all state-chartered ones, but not quite all of them.

Currency exchange is the act of converting money from one currency to another. The cost is rarely a stated fee; it is mostly hidden in the spread, the gap between the rate you are given and the true mid-market rate, so where and how you convert can matter more than any posted commission.

"Custodial account" names at least three unrelated arrangements: an account an adult holds for a minor under a state transfers-to-minors act, a retirement or education account the tax code deems to be a trust, and, loosely, any account an institutional custodian holds. Which one is meant decides who owns the money, who is taxed on it, and what happens when the child grows up.

A debit card draws directly on the money in your deposit account rather than on a line of credit. In the electronic-transfer rules it is an "access device", and that classification is what sets both the ceiling on your liability for fraud and the two preconditions the bank must satisfy before any liability attaches at all.

Direct deposit is an electronic credit that a payer, usually an employer or a government agency, pushes into your account on a schedule. Because the payer initiates it rather than you, the rules that govern it are about notice, crediting, and who is allowed to require it.

A direct deposit switch scam is a scheme in which a criminal changes the bank account on file in an employer's payroll system so that an employee's pay is routed to an account the criminal controls. The FBI calls it payroll diversion. Its signature move is suppressing the alerts that would otherwise announce the change.

A dormant account is a deposit account an institution has reclassified because the customer has neither transacted on it nor been in touch for a period set by state law, commonly three to five years. The status is the step before the balance is turned over to the state, and it usually carries a fee.

A down payment is the share of a purchase price you pay from your own funds instead of borrowing. On a house it sets the loan-to-value ratio, decides whether mortgage insurance is required, and takes cash out of reach in exchange for a smaller loan.

Dry powder is cash held deliberately and left uninvested so it can be deployed when an opportunity appears. In institutional use it has a narrower meaning: capital investors have committed to a fund that the fund has not yet called.

Dynamic currency conversion is the offer, made at a foreign card terminal or ATM, to charge you in your own currency instead of the local one. The merchant or machine operator performs the conversion and chooses the rate, which is why the markup does not appear on your statement as a fee.

Earned wage access, or EWA, is a service that lets a worker draw a portion of wages they have already earned before the regular payday. Often marketed as a paycheck advance app, it differs from a payday loan because it advances money the worker has already worked for, frequently with no mandatory fee.

An emergency budget is a stripped-down spending plan that covers only true essentials (housing, food, utilities, insurance, transportation, and minimum debt payments) used when income drops or a crisis hits.

An emergency fund is cash set aside to cover genuine surprises, a job loss, a medical bill, a failed transmission, so they don't land on a credit card or force you to sell investments at a bad time. The common target is three to six months of essential expenses.

Escrow is an arrangement in which a neutral third party holds money that is not its own until a stated condition is satisfied. In a home purchase the word names two different arrangements, one that ends at closing and one that lasts as long as the loan.

An extended warranty is an agreement, bought separately from the product, that pays to repair or replace it for a stated period. Under federal law it is not a warranty at all: because you paid extra for it, or bought it after the sale, it is a service contract.

FDIC insurance is the federal guarantee that a depositor is made whole, up to a statutory limit, when an FDIC-insured bank fails. The limit is $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category, and the third part of that phrase is what decides how far the coverage actually stretches.

The federal funds rate is what banks charge each other for borrowing overnight. The Federal Reserve does not set it directly: it sets a target range and steers the market rate inside it, eight scheduled times a year.

The Federal Reserve is the central bank of the United States. Congress gave it three statutory goals, it calls the mandate "dual" for a reason it explains itself, and its one numerical target is 2 percent inflation measured on a price index that is not the CPI.

A financial power of attorney is the type of power of attorney that authorizes an agent to handle money and property on the principal's behalf: banking, paying bills, filing taxes, and managing investments and real estate. What makes it work in practice isn't how broadly it's worded; it's whether it actually grants the specific authority a situation requires.

Fintech, short for financial technology, is software and app-based services that deliver banking, payments, investing, lending, and planning tools, usually faster and cheaper than traditional institutions, and sometimes with different consumer protections.

A foreign transaction fee is the charge a card issuer adds when a card is used abroad, with a foreign merchant, or in a foreign currency. Regulation Z treats it as a finance charge, and it is one fee even when part of it originates with the payment network rather than with the bank.

Form 1099-INT is the return a bank, broker or other payer files reporting interest paid to you. Its official title is "Interest Income", the reporting trigger is $10, and the form sorts interest into boxes that are taxed by three different governments.

Fraud is deception used to obtain money, property or an advantage from someone who would not have parted with it knowingly. It is defined by the deception rather than by the size of the loss, which is why an authorized payment can still be fraud.

Gross pay is the total amount an employer owes you for the work done in a pay period, measured before any taxes or other deductions are taken out.

A high-yield savings account is a federally insured savings account, usually at an online bank, paying interest rates often many times the national average for traditional savings accounts. Same safety, same liquidity, meaningfully more interest.

Interest is the price paid for the use of money, expressed as a rate per year and applied to a balance over time. It is one mechanism seen from two sides: what a lender earns is what a borrower pays.

An interest rate cut is a reduction in the central bank's target for its benchmark short-term rate, made to make borrowing cheaper and support a slowing economy. Its effects reach almost every loan and savings account you hold.

An international money transfer is a payment sent from a person or business in one country to a recipient in another. The total cost is usually two charges stacked together, an upfront fee and a markup built into the exchange rate, and large transfers can carry reporting obligations and scam risk.

An IRA CD is an ordinary bank certificate of deposit held inside an individual retirement arrangement. It is not a separate product: the CD supplies the rate and the maturity date, the IRA supplies the contribution, distribution and tax rules, and almost every mistake made with one comes from applying a rule of the account to the deposit or the other way round.

A joint account is a deposit account owned by two or more people, each of whom can use it. Federal deposit insurance treats every form of joint titling alike and then adds each owner's share of every joint account at the bank together, so a second joint account does not buy a second limit.

A maintenance fee is the recurring charge a bank imposes for holding a deposit account. Federal law makes it the fee that decides whether an account may be advertised as "free", which is why the list of what does and does not count is worth reading.

A minimum balance requirement is a balance an account holder has to keep in a deposit account to get something: to open it, to avoid a monthly fee, or to earn the advertised yield. Federal law treats those as three separate requirements.

A mobile deposit is a check deposited by photographing it in a bank's app instead of handing over the paper. Federal law calls it remote deposit capture, and it changes both who bears the risk of a duplicate and when the money becomes available.

A money market account is a federally insured bank deposit that pays savings rates while offering some of the payment features of checking. It is a deposit, not an investment, and it is not the same thing as a money market fund despite the near-identical name.

A money market fund is a mutual fund that invests in short-term debt. It is a security, not a bank deposit, so it is not FDIC-insured and you can lose money in it. The money market account with the near-identical name is a bank deposit and is insured, and the two are frequently sold on the same screen.

A money mule is a person who receives money obtained from fraud victims and passes it on at someone else's direction. Some know what they are doing and many do not, and the money moving through their account is another person's loss rather than their own.

A money order is a prepaid payment instrument bought for cash: you pay the face amount plus a fee up front, and the issuer pays the named payee. Who issued it matters, because federal law singles out the postal version for better treatment.

A multi-currency account is a single account that holds balances in more than one currency at the same time, letting the holder receive, keep and spend each currency without converting it first. Whether it is treated as a foreign account depends on where the institution is, not on which currencies it holds.

NCUA share insurance is the federal guarantee that covers member accounts at a federally insured credit union up to a standard maximum of $250,000. The limit is not an independent number: the statute defines it by cross-reference to the bank figure, so the two cannot drift apart.

A neobank is a company delivering banking services entirely online. The Treasury's definition covers two legally different things: a chartered bank with no branches, and a technology company sitting on top of somebody else's bank. Deposit insurance behaves differently in each, and the name does not tell you which you have.

Net pay is the amount of a paycheck that actually reaches you: gross pay minus taxes and every other deduction. It is the money a household can spend and budget on.

A nonsufficient funds fee is what a bank charges when it refuses a payment because the account did not hold enough available money, and returns the item unpaid. Regulation DD requires the amount to be disclosed and does not cap it.

Open banking is the framework under which a bank must hand a customer's own account data to that customer, or to a company the customer authorizes, through an interface built for the purpose. In the United States it is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's word for what its personal financial data rights rule, 12 CFR part 1033, is meant to build.

An overdraft happens when a bank pays a transaction that the available balance cannot cover, leaving the account negative, and charges a fee for doing so. The federal permission rule most people know about reaches only two kinds of transaction, which is why opting out does not close the exposure.

Overdraft protection is a marketing label rather than a legal category. It covers at least two mechanically different arrangements for funding a payment the balance cannot cover, and federal law expressly puts both of them outside the definition of an "overdraft service".

A paper savings bond is a Series EE or Series I savings bond issued as a physical certificate rather than as an entry in a TreasuryDirect account. Paper is a legacy form that Treasury no longer sells, and a paper bond is never paid automatically: nothing happens until the holder presents it.

A payable-on-death account is an ordinary deposit account with one or more beneficiaries named on the bank's records, so the balance passes directly to them at the owner's death without going through probate. During the owner's life the beneficiary has no rights in it at all.

A peer-to-peer payment is money sent from one individual to another through an app, addressed by phone number, email, or username rather than by account number. The federal electronic-transfer rules reach these apps whether or not the provider is a bank, because the definition that brings them in is functional rather than institutional.

A prepaid debit card spends money loaded onto it in advance rather than drawing on a checking account or a line of credit. Federal law calls the wider category a prepaid account and gives it most of a debit card's protections, with one large exception: an account the issuer has not verified may have no fraud liability cap at all.

A prime money market fund is a money market fund that holds private-sector short-term debt, such as commercial paper and bank CDs, rather than only government securities. That extra credit is why it usually yields a little more, and why the 2008 crisis reforms were aimed squarely at it.

Private banking is a bank's premium service tier for wealthy clients — a dedicated banker plus preferential access to lending, deposit services, investment management, and trust services, usually gated by a high minimum balance.

Regulation E is the federal rule that governs electronic fund transfers on consumer accounts, from a debit card purchase to a direct deposit. It carries out the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, it is written and enforced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau at 12 CFR part 1005, and its most useful machinery is a procedure the bank must follow once you report an error.

Remittances are transfers of money sent by a person in one country to someone in another, most often to family. In US law the transaction has a precise name, the remittance transfer, and since the start of 2026 a 1 percent federal excise tax applies to those funded with cash or a similar physical instrument.

Rent is the payment a tenant makes for the use of property they do not own, under a lease. It buys occupancy and nothing else, which is both the complaint and the point: no equity accrues, and no repair bill, property tax bill or price risk lands on the tenant either.

Round-up savings is an automation that rounds each card purchase up to the next whole dollar and moves the difference into a savings or investment account. It is a way of starting to save without deciding to, and the amounts it moves are small by design.

A routing number is the number that identifies the bank a payment is going to or coming from. It is assigned by an agent of the American Bankers Association, and it appears on a paper check in two different forms.

A safe deposit box is locked storage space a bank rents to a customer inside its vault. Despite the name it is not a deposit account: the bank neither knows nor insures what is inside, and federal deposit insurance does not reach the contents.

A sales tax is a tax on a retail transaction, added to the price at checkout and collected by the seller. It is imposed by states and localities rather than by the federal government, so the rate and what it applies to change from one address to the next.

A savings account is a deposit account at a bank or credit union that pays interest on money you are holding rather than spending. It is federally insured, and the interest rate is the one feature that varies enough between institutions to matter.

Savings automation is the practice of setting up a standing instruction that moves money to savings, investments, or debt payoff without anyone deciding again each month. There are four rails it can run on, and they differ in how hard they are to undo.

Final maturity is the date a savings bond stops earning interest for good. It matters twice: the bond earns nothing after it, and under IRS rules the accrued interest becomes reportable in that year even if the bond has not been cashed.

A security deposit is money a tenant gives a landlord at the start of a tenancy to stand behind the tenant's obligations under the lease, refundable to the extent it is not used. What the lease says the money is for matters more than what it is called, because a sum contracted to be used as the final payment of rent is not a deposit at all.

Separating business and personal finances means keeping a business's money, accounts, and records entirely apart from the owner's own. It is not just tidy bookkeeping: commingling the two can erode the liability protection of an LLC or corporation and undermine the records that support tax deductions.

A Series EE savings bond is a non-marketable U.S. Treasury savings bond that earns a fixed interest rate and carries a guarantee that its value will at least double if held for 20 years.

A Series I savings bond is a US Treasury savings bond whose interest rate has two parts, a fixed rate set for the life of the bond and an inflation component that resets every six months. It is built to track inflation rather than be eroded by it, and its nominal value cannot fall.

Simple interest is interest calculated on the original principal only, with no interest charged on interest. The same phrase also names a lending structure, in which interest accrues on the balance you actually owe from day to day rather than being computed in advance and written into the note.

A sinking fund is money set aside a little at a time for a specific, predictable future expense (like insurance premiums, holiday gifts, or car repairs), so the bill arrives already paid for.

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to hold a fixed value against a reference asset, almost always one U.S. dollar, so it can be used for payments and trading without the wild price swings of other crypto.

A stop payment is an instruction to your bank not to pay an item you have already written. It has to arrive in time to act on, it lapses on a schedule, and it is not the same thing as getting your money back.

A teaser rate is a starting rate set below the rate that will actually apply, designed to expire. It is a marketing label rather than one legal category, and it turns up on credit cards, adjustable-rate mortgages and promotional savings accounts, each governed by a different rule with different protections.

A teen checking account is a checking account marketed for a minor, opened jointly with a parent or guardian and carrying a debit card. The joint titling is not a marketing choice: a minor generally cannot enter an enforceable deposit contract alone, and federal banking guidance says a minor with a custodial account should not be given a debit card.

A Treasury bill is a short-term debt security issued by the United States Treasury that pays no coupon. You buy it for less than its face value, or occasionally at face value, and the return is the difference you receive at maturity. It is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States rather than by deposit insurance.

TreasuryDirect is the US Treasury's official website, TreasuryDirect.gov, where individuals can buy Treasury securities and savings bonds directly from the government with no broker or fee.

A UGMA account holds property for a child under a state's enactment of the Uniform Gifts to Minors Act, the older of two model acts written for that purpose. The later Uniform Transfers to Minors Act was drafted to replace it and states have been repealing their gifts acts in its favor, so the live question about a UGMA account is no longer how to open one but which statute governs the one that already exists.

Unbanked describes a household or a person with no account at a bank or credit union. There are two official definitions and they do not match: the statute asks whether an individual has rarely or never held an account, while the FDIC survey everyone quotes asks whether anyone in the household has one right now.

Unclaimed property is money or assets a business has lost contact with the owner of, such as a forgotten bank account, uncashed check, or old security deposit, which the holder must eventually turn over to a state. The state holds it as custodian, and the rightful owner can claim it back for free.

Underbanked describes a household that has a bank or credit union account and still pays a nonbank provider for services the account could perform. It is a composite of eight specific services rather than a judgment about anyone, and the FDIC's own footnote says the 2023 figure cannot be compared with the 2021 one.

A utility deposit is money an electric, gas, water or telephone company requires before it will start or continue service for a customer whose payment record or credit file it treats as a risk. It is refundable, it usually earns interest, and how much it can be and when it comes back are set by the state commission that regulates the utility rather than by federal law.

A UTMA account is an account an adult holds and manages for a child under a state's enactment of the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act. The transfer is an irrevocable gift, the property is vested in the child from the start, and it is handed over outright at an age the state's own statute sets.

Wire fraud is the federal crime of using an interstate wire communication to carry out a scheme to defraud. What has to cross the wire is a communication, not money, which is why an ordinary email is enough.

A wire transfer is a payment sent individually and in near real time between financial institutions. Commercial law calls the whole sequence a funds transfer, and it is completed only when the beneficiary's bank accepts the order, which is the moment almost every consequence turns on.

A yield is income expressed as a percentage of what the investment costs or is currently worth. One word covers several different measures across deposits, bonds, stocks and funds, and two investments quoting the same yield are rarely making the same claim.

Zelle is a bank-to-bank payment network operated by Early Warning Services, LLC, a company owned and controlled by several of the largest banks in the United States. Money moves directly between existing bank accounts with no balance held at the app, which is what makes it fast and what makes it hard to undo.