CD Rates & Certificate of Deposit Bonuses

Notable certificate of deposit rates and opening bonuses, with the early-withdrawal penalty, minimum deposit, and term structure documented up front.

A certificate of deposit is a time deposit: you commit funds for a fixed term in exchange for a fixed rate, with a penalty for taking the money out early. The product is simpler than most retail banking — and the comparison shopping reduces to three numbers (rate, term, early-withdrawal penalty) plus one detail (minimum deposit). What looks like a small rate advantage on the surface can be erased by a punitive penalty if rates rise and you'd prefer to break the CD.

Term length is the central tradeoff. Short terms (three to twelve months) give you flexibility and a clean exit if better opportunities appear, at the cost of giving up the term premium longer maturities sometimes offer. Long terms (three to five years) lock in a rate against future declines, at the cost of giving up flexibility if rates rise. The market doesn't always price the curve in the direction intuition suggests; inverted curves are common.

Early-withdrawal penalties vary widely — commonly a number of months of interest (three, six, twelve, or eighteen, depending on term) and sometimes a principal-eating penalty if accrued interest is insufficient. Read the penalty clause before you commit. Callable CDs (the bank can redeem early) compensate with a higher headline rate but transfer rate-fall risk to you and should be evaluated separately.

Live offers

How we evaluate CD offers

We compare CDs on yield-to-maturity at the stated term, on penalty-adjusted yield if broken at the midpoint, and on FDIC coverage relative to the deposit amount. The penalty-adjusted scenario matters because some CDs that look attractive at maturity become unattractive the moment you want to redeploy capital before the term ends. A five-year CD with a twelve-month interest penalty broken at year two delivers a much lower effective yield than the headline.

FDIC coverage on CDs follows the standard rules — $250,000 per depositor, per insured bank, per ownership category. Brokered CDs sold through a brokerage are typically FDIC-insured by the underlying issuing bank, with coverage that aggregates with any other deposits you hold at the same bank. Our FDIC explainer and the FDIC's EDIE estimator are the resources for confirming coverage in your specific case.

Interest on CDs is taxable annually as it accrues, even if you don't take it out until maturity — a point of friction for multi-year CDs held in taxable accounts. CDs held inside IRAs avoid this surface-level issue.

What makes a CD offer worth pursuing

The right CD is one whose term aligns with money you genuinely won't need before maturity, at a rate that beats both a competitive high-yield savings account and Treasury yields of similar duration. If a HYSA pays close to the CD rate and the term is more than a few months, the CD's lock-up is paying for very little. If Treasuries of similar duration yield more — and they sometimes do — the CD's FDIC backstop is the only real differentiator, and you can debate whether you need it under the $250,000 limit.

For CDs with sign-up bonuses, calculate the bonus as basis points of additional yield over the term and add it to the APY for a complete picture. A $200 bonus on a $10,000 24-month CD is roughly 100 basis points of extra annualized yield — meaningful, but only if the underlying rate is competitive in the first place.

A ladder structure is worth considering if you want to balance term commitment with periodic access to maturing rungs — see our CD laddering guide for the mechanics and tradeoffs.