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It’s now been two weeks since our 6.50% rate leader came on the market. It’s a bit of a surprising offer, given it outpays the next-best nationwide CD by a whopping half percentage point. Available from Financial Partners Credit Union, it’s also is a bit unusual in that it can only be opened with a maximum deposit of $5,000. Its term is 8 months.
That means anyone wanting to sock away more than $5,000—or preferring to lock in a historic rate for longer than 8 months—will need another option. Credit Human has been offering its record 1-year rate of 6.00% APY since the end of September, and you can even choose to extend the term to anything between 12 and 17 months.
Alternatively, Sandia Area Federal Credit Union is paying the same 6.00% rate on a 13-month certificate. One of its selling points is that it allows you to make an early withdrawal of up to half of your funds with no penalty.
Key Takeaways
- The leader in our daily ranking of the best nationwide CDs offers 6.50% APY on an 8-month term but with a maximum deposit of $5,000.
- For larger deposits, the top rate is 6.00% APY, available from two different credit unions on terms of 12-17 months.
- A total of 16 CDs are paying 5.75% or better, up from nine at the start of October.
- Shoppers in five states can earn 6.25% APY with a top regional CD.
- You can earn at least 5.00% APY in every single CD term.
- The Fed is widely expected to hold interest rates steady at its meeting on Wednesday, but another rate hike remains possible in December or January.
Below you’ll find featured rates available from our partners, followed by details from our complete ranking of the best CDs available nationwide.
Looking to lock in a great rate for a longer term? The top 2-year CD is paying 5.60% APY. If that’s still not long enough, you can secure 5.37% APY for 30 months down the road, or 5.25% APY for 36 or 40 months. All three of those can be found in our daily ranking of the best 3-year CDs.
If you have the option to make a jumbo deposit of at least $100,000, you can boost your 2-year rate to 5.68% APY or your 30-month rate to 5.52% APY.
Note
When asked where they would put an unexpected $10,000 windfall, almost 1 in 5 recently surveyed Investopedia readers said they would choose a CD. Selected by 18% of readers, CDs were the most popular response, outpacing stocks, money market funds, and index funds.
Nationwide CDs aren’t your only option. Leading rates are sometimes offered by banks and credit unions that serve select regions. While sometimes these territories are small, one particularly competitive CD—paying 6.25% APY—is available to anyone living in one of five lucky states.
Note that jumbo CDs don’t always pay a higher return than standard certificates. Sometimes you can do just as well—or better—with a standard CD. That’s currently the case in six of the eight terms above, so it’s smart to shop both certificate types before making a final decision.
How High Will CD Rates Go This Year?
The Federal Reserve has been aggressively combating decades-high inflation since March of last year, raising the federal funds rate with fast and furious hikes in 2022 and then more moderate increases in 2023. With its most recent hike on July 26, the Fed has implemented 11 increases in 13 meetings, for a cumulative increase of 5.25%. This has created favorable rate conditions for CD shoppers, as well as for anyone holding cash in a high-yield savings or money market account.
The Fed’s next two-day meeting will conclude Nov. 1, and financial markets overwhelmingly expect the Fed to hold interest rates steady again. One possibility is that that this hold will turn out to be permanent, as several Fed members have signaled in recent weeks that they feel the committee’s rate-hike campaign has reached its end, with another Fed member echoing that sentiment on Oct. 16.
But in comments made last week, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell reiterated the central bank’s commitment to bringing inflation back down to its target of 2%, signaling that the door is still open to a future rate increase. Powell said that the latest inflation rate of 3.5% is still too high and that the committee would therefore be taking a cautious approach, carefully monitoring new economic data as it becomes available.
As a result, the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool shows that markets are currently pricing in roughly 20-30% odds that one more hike will be announced at the Fed’s December or January meeting.
As we always caution, it’s unwise to rely too heavily on Fed rate predictions several weeks or months down the road, since the economic landscape can change quickly—and alter the Fed’s course along with it. So while rates may seem to be stabilizing right now, only time will tell whether a future rate hike is still on the horizon. And that, in turn, will determine whether CD rates have reached their peak or may still inch a bit higher.
Note that the “top rates” quoted here are the highest nationally available rates Investopedia has identified in its daily rate research on hundreds of banks and credit unions. This is much different than the national average, which includes all banks offering a CD with that term, including many large banks that pay a pittance in interest. Thus, the national averages are always quite low, while the top rates you can unearth by shopping around are often five, 10, or even 15 times higher.
Rate Collection Methodology Disclosure
Every business day, Investopedia tracks the rate data of more than 200 banks and credit unions that offer CDs to customers nationwide and determines daily rankings of the top-paying certificates in every major term. To qualify for our lists, the institution must be federally insured (FDIC for banks, NCUA for credit unions), and the CD’s minimum initial deposit must not exceed $25,000.
Banks must be available in at least 40 states. And while some credit unions require you to donate to a specific charity or association to become a member if you don’t meet other eligibility criteria (e.g., you don’t live in a certain area or work in a certain kind of job), we exclude credit unions whose donation requirement is $40 or more. For more about how we choose the best rates, read our full methodology.
Investopedia / Alice Morgan