After a two-week reign at the top of our CD rate charts, the 6.00% APY nationwide leader was taken off the market today. Arriving in our rankings on Aug. 30, the former industry leader was the first (and so far only) nationally available CD to offer that record rate since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in 2022.
Fortunately, you still have great options to lock in a stellar rate, with these five institutions offering CDs paying 5.75% APY: BluPeak Credit Union (9 months), Abound Credit Union (10 months), All In Credit Union (12 months), MapleMark Bank (12 months), and First Harvest Credit Union (15 months).
Key Takeaways
- The top rate in our daily ranking of the best nationwide CDs dropped today from 6.00% APY to 5.75% APY, offered by five institutions on various terms.
- Today’s count of nationally available CDs paying 5.50% APY or higher keeps climbing, tacking on another three today to reach 53. That’s a gain of 12 since the start of September.
- Anyone with a large deposit can earn up to 5.85% APY with the leading jumbo CD.
- It’s overwhelmingly expected the Fed will hold rates steady when it meets next week. But odds of a Fed hike later this year are currently pegged at 40-45%.
For CD shoppers wanting to extend one of today’s record rates further into the future than the 15 months available from the current market leaders, you can score 5.55% APY with the best 2-year CD, or 5.23% with the best 3-year CD. For terms of 4 years and 5 years, the leading rates are 4.82% and 4.89% APY, respectively.
If you have a jumbo-sized deposit, you can earn more than the leading standard rate. 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.
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 six CD terms, you can do just as well or better in the other two 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 traders are pricing in a greater than 90% chance that rates will remain stable, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. But the probability of the Fed hiking rates at its November meeting currently stands at 40-45% 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.
Investopedia / Alice Morgan & Sabrina Jiang
