Top CD Rates Today: New 18-Month Leader

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For anyone wanting to stretch one of today’s record CD rates almost all the way to 2025, you’re in luck. That’s because the 18-month term gained a new national leader today, paying 5.75% APY. For the last week, the top 18-month rate was 5.66% APY.

Today’s newcomer is First Harvest Credit Union, whose 5.75% APY offer is available for a 15-month term. That would lock your rate until December of next year, if opened this month. But if you want to extend your rate guarantee all the way to 2025, the runner-up is Alabama Credit Union, which is paying 5.66% APY on a full 18-month term.

Key Takeaways

  • A new CD has taken the top spot in the 18-month term, offering 5.75% APY for 15 months.
  • The top rate in our daily ranking of the best nationwide CDs continues to be 6.00% APY on a 1-year certificate—the first nationally available CD to reach that threshold since the Fed began raising interest rates last year.
  • Today’s count of nationally available CDs paying 5.50% APY or higher climbed by one to 47. That’s a gain of six in the past week.
  • The best longer-term option offering at least 5.00% is a 3-year CD paying 5.23% APY.
  • It’s overwhelmingly expected the Fed will hold rates steady when it meets Sept. 19-20, but odds of a Fed hike in November are currently running about 45%.

The leading nationwide rate across all terms continues to be 6.00% APY from American 1 Credit Union, available for 12 months. Lucky CD shoppers in select markets can also choose from one of these additional 6.00% APY offers.

Looking to secure a record rate for a longer term? You can score 5.23% APY from the leader of our best 3-year CDs ranking, or at least 5.00% from five other contenders in that term. The current top rates in the 4-year and 5-year terms, meanwhile, are 4.81% APY and 4.86% APY, respectively.

To view the top 15–20 nationwide rates in any term, click on the desired term length in the left column above.

If you have a jumbo-sized deposit, you can earn a bit more than the standard rates in some terms. The top jumbo rate is currently 5.85% APY—available on a 6-month certificate requiring at least a $100,000 deposit—with additional options paying a close 5.80% APY in the 1-year and 18-month terms.

*Indicates the highest APY offered in each term. To view our lists of the top-paying CDs across terms for bank, credit union, and jumbo certificates, click on the column headers above.

Despite the suggestion that a larger deposit entitles you to a higher return, that’s not always the case for jumbo certificate rates, which often pay less than standard CDs. Though today’s best jumbo offers, which typically require a deposit of $100,000 or more, beat the best standard rates in five CD terms, you can do just as well or better in the other three terms with a standard CD. So always be sure to shop every certificate type before making a final decision.

Will CD Rates Go Up This Year?

The Fed has been aggressively combating decades-high inflation since March of last year, with fast-and-furious 2022 hikes to the federal funds rate, and then easing to more moderate increases in 2023. On July 26, the Fed bumped rates for the 11th time in 12 meetings, taking the cumulative increase to 5.25%. That raises the benchmark rate to its highest level since 2001. In turn, it’s created record 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 meeting will conclude Sept. 20, and markets are betting on near-certainty that the central bank will hold its benchmark rate steady this time. But the probability of the Fed hiking rates at its November meeting is currently pegged at about 45% odds.

In an Aug. 25 speech, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said further rate increases were on the table if inflation doesn’t come down enough in the coming months. Other Fed Board members have since echoed the sentiment that future rate hikes are still a possibility.

If the Fed does increase rates in the future, it would certainly nudge CD rates a bit higher. But September’s expected hold will leave markets—and CD shoppers—guessing if the pause is temporary or permanent. Once the end of the Fed’s campaign is more confidently in sight, that will signal that CD rates have likely peaked.

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.

Correction—Sep. 2, 2023: This article has been updated to state the prior day’s top rate for a 3-year CD and the current top rate for a 4-year jumbo CD.

Investopedia / Alice Morgan & Sabrina Jiang


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