Best CD (Certificate of Deposit) Rates
| by Jim Wang |  Print Article
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(Updated 7/3) Here is a list of the nationally available best CD rates, updated regularly. I looked at the best rates available for CDs of less than 18 months and listed the one with the highest rate. Typically the longer the term, the higher the rate, but for many online banks the best rates were for periods of shorter than 18 months. For simplicity’s sake, I put the cutoff at 18 months (some banks offer higher rates for longer terms). If you want shorter term CD rates, I have also compiled a list of highest short-term CD rates (less than 12 month maturities).
BookmarkCertificates of deposit are great safe investments right now because your principal is protected by FDIC insurance and you are guaranteed a positive rate of return for the term of the CD. Certificates of deposit can be opened at your local bank but the best rates are found at online banks because they have so much lower overhead costs. If you don’t have to pay rent for a branch (or pay employees to staff it, power bills to keep it lit, and everything else), you have more to pass on to customers as interest.
Best CD Rates
| Bank | Effective Date |
CD Rate (APY) |
CD Term (Months) |
Minimum Deposit |
| Everbank | ||||
| Discover Bank | ||||
| Ally Bank (GMAC Bank) | ||||
| Dollar Savings Direct | ||||
| HSBC Direct | ||||
| FNBO Direct | ||||
| Bank of Internet | ||||
| ING Direct | ||||
| E*Trade Bank | ||||
| Citibank | ||||
| Corus Bank | ||||
| Imperial Capital Bank | ||||
| E-LOAN | ||||
| Virtual Bank | ||||
| Bank of America | ||||
| Penfed Credit Union | ||||
| Capital One Direct Banking |
FDIC Insurance: Each bank is FDIC insured up to $250,000 through the end of the year. You can confirm this by checking the FDIC’s Bank Find tool.
Finally, as a reference, the current Federal Funds target rate range is 0.25% (New York Fed).
Lending Club
If you’re in the mood to try something a little different, you might want to give Lending Club a try. Lending Club is a social lending network where you can invest in three-year “notes” with a fixed interest rate. You can diversify your investment across many of these notes and the current average return is over 9%. These are investments, so there is a risk that you could lose your investment, but the returns are very good. They are slightly more liquid that certificates of deposit because you can buy and sell notes in the Lending Club marketplace. If you want to learn more, here’s my Lending Club review.
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Does it seem weird to anyone else that FNBO and E-Trade offer more on a savings account then a CD?
Yeah, it is kind of weird but if you think we’re in an environment of falling rates, banks wouldn’t want to lock things in. I suppose that’s the logical explanation for this.
Dime Direct looks like a bad phishing site. I’m not saying it is it just looks like one.
Dime Direct has quite a few special conditions for their CD which pretty much make it a terrible deal IMHO, including:
1. Have to have an active checking account with them
2. The rate can change at ANY time and they DO NOT have to tell you about it.
Interestingly when you go to the Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburg (which Dime Direct states it is a part of) they do not list any such CD rate and furthermore do not have any link to “Dime Direct.” Sort of weird.
MPR: Hmmm good point, I think the rate changing doesn’t apply to people who have opened an account though and requiring a checking account isn’t all too uncommon but there are some hoops.
I like the ING CDs because they’ve got no minimum. I have monthly $380 car payments with a 0% interest loan. I’ve got about $6000 set aside in an ING account for paying off the loan, but since the loan has 0% interest and there are no benefits to paying it off early, I’m setting up a CD ladder.
I’ll have a $400 CD maturing every month. Once I reach the 18 month CDs, I’ll be making $27.77 of interest with each CD. And I know exactly where my car payments are coming from.
Good list. Hope you keep it updated. Happy New Year.
I update it ever couple of days whenever I hear about rate changes.