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View best CD Rates by APR and read customer reviews on each bank. All banks are in the US and FDIC insured.
Know a good CD Rate? Tell us and we'll post it below.
3 Month CD | 6 Month CD | 1 Year CD | 18 Month CD
2 Year CD | 3 Year CD | 4 Year CD | 5 Year CD
Bank* |
APY** |
Minimum Deposit |
Reviews |
IGoBanking.com
|
1.35% |
$1,000 |
Post/read reviews of this bank |
USAA Federal Savings Bank
|
0.95% |
$175,000 |
Post/read reviews of this bank |
TotalBank
|
0.85% |
$1,000 |
Post/read reviews of this bank |
Palladian Private Bank
|
0.80% |
$500 |
Post/read reviews of this bank |
New Dominion Direct
|
0.77% |
$3,000 |
Post/read reviews of this bank |
Country Bank for Savings
|
0.75% |
$50,000 |
Post/read reviews of this bank |
Ally Bank
|
0.74% |
$500 |
Post/read reviews of this bank |
|
|
0.70% |
$2,000 |
Post/read reviews of this bank |
Discover Bank
|
0.70% |
$2,500 |
Post/read reviews of this bank |
Acacia Federal Savings Bank
|
0.70% |
$500 |
Post/read reviews of this bank |
CD Advice and Pitfalls | Big Bank CD Rates | CD Laddering | Brokerage CDs
This chart does not include rates offered by Federal Credit Unions (FCUs). For a complete list of comparable FCU rates, please visit the BestCashCow.com FCU CD section.
Bauer Soundness Ratings. BauerFinancial
periodically assesses the health of the nation's banks and credit
unions using data reported to the government. An explanation of their star system can be read here.
* This chart includes banks that have certificate of deposit accounts that can be opened and monitored online as well as certificate of deposit accounts that are managed through mail correspondence. It, however, does not include certain regional or local banks that ordinarily require a personal appearance to open a certificate of deposit account.
** For a complete definition of Annual Percentage Yield (APY), please see the Financial Terminology section.
Although a Certificate of Deposit (CD) from one bank is virtually identical to a Certificate of Deposit from another bank, wide discrepencies in CD rates to exist. Banks have different sources of funding and also different deposits needs. Banks also have different costs structures. Big banks have big overhead from their branch networks, and often can't afford to offer the highest rates. Big banks also prefer to compete on convenience. They'll put a branch at the street corner and in exchange offer their customers lower rates.
Internet banks on the other hand, lack the convenience of a branch down the street, but make it up with higher CD rates. Credit Union CD rates and community banks CD rates are also frequently competitive. They spend less on technology and marketing and pass that savings along in the form of higher CD rates.
Distressed banks also often offer very competitive CD rates. Often banks that are in financial trouble will provide higher rates to attract deposit dollars. As long as a consumer opens a CD at an FDIC insured bank and remains under the insurance limits, the principal is not in jeopardy. But a bank that is closed or purchased does not have to honor its rate obligations. It can return your money or it can pay a lower rate. Generally, if the surviving banking entity pays a lower rate, it allows customers the option of withdrawing the money penalty-free. Still, if you had a 5% CD in the distressed bank, and the best cd rate is now only 3%, you've lost 2% of yield over the remaining life of the CD.
Getting the best CD rates requires consumers to consider many factors.
A Certificate of Deposit (CD) is a time deposit issued by a bank earning a specified interest rate over the period of time you select, based on available options. CDs are issued with varying maturities and rates by institutions such as state or national banks or state or federal savings and loan institutions. Certificates of Deposit require committing money to an account with a financial institution for a designated period of time and are ordinarily FDIC insured. The best cd rates are often available for sums as little as $500. CDs are one of the bedrocks of the banking world and come in many different sizes and shapes.
While most CD rates are nationally advertised, it may be possible to get higher CD rates by auctioned CDs. Zions Direct, for example, manages CD auctions on behalf of FDIC-insured banks.
Certificates of deposit come in various terms with the rate generally rising with the length of the CD term. As a result, a 5 year Certificate of Deposit will generally provide a higher rate than a 3 month CD.
3-month and 6-month Certificates of Deposit do not offer returns that dramatically exceed those in online savings and money market accounts and money market funds. 1-year certificates of deposit offer a significant rate premium over shorter term CDs and many other cash equivalents, and there are small incremental gains to 2-year and 3-year CDs. However, investors in higher tax states may find that the actual premium in these securities over state and local tax-free agency bonds or US Treasuries is small or non-existent.
While longer term CDs usually pay the highest cd rates, they also require investors lock their money up for an extended period of time. Longer term CDs therefore have significant risk of raising interest rates. If investing in longer term CD, you should review redemption conditions; some CDs can be redeemed before expiration with a significant penalty.
Investors can also build CD Ladders, which allow investors to diversify their portfolio with a range of cd maturities. This provides investors with a steady stream of guaranteed income and reduces interest rate risk.
A brokerage CD is a Certificate of Deposit sold through a brokerage like Fidelity, Charles Schwab, or TD Ameritrade. Banks issue large blocks of CDs to brokerages, who then break the blocks up to re-sell to their customers. Because the brokerages purchase the CDs in large blocks, they are able to negotiate higher CD rates than an individual customer can get from a bank. The brokerages generally re-sell the CDs to their customers without fees.
The Certificate of Deposit Account Registry Service allows CD depositors to receive up to $50,000,000 in FDIC insurance. It does this by breaking the deposit into smaller amounts that are under the FDIC limits and spreading it to other participating FDIC insured banks. CDARS can often provide competitive CD rates.
