You have a fleeting opportunity today to get a Certificate of Deposit (CD) with a market-leading 5.50% APY, but it will unfortunately evaporate by the end of the working day. INOVA Federal Credit Union has a promotional 20-month certificate paying this rate, but it withdraws the offer at 5:30 p.m. EST.
Former rate leader Langley Federal Credit Union is still offering 5.35% APY on a 22-month term.
INOVA has a second special CD, paying 5.25% over 11 months, which also expires today. Adding these two certificates brings our total number of CDs paying at least 5.25% APY to 10.
Key points to remember
- Today’s nationally highest rate across all CD terms has risen to 5.50% APY, available on a 20-month certificate, but the limited-time offer expires at 5:30 p.m. EST .
- You can now earn at least 5.25% APY on 10 different CDs on our leaderboard, up from eight yesterday.
- A rate of at least 5.00% APY continues to be available for each term from 3 months to 3 years.
- The maximum you can earn on giant CDs has remained stable for over two weeks.
- The Federal Reserve could raise interest rates again in less than two weeks, but it’s still a good time to lock in record CD rates.
INOVA and Langley, along with all credit unions in our rankings, are open to online customers nationwide. Most included credit unions make it easy to join as a bank, and all are covered by the same $250,000 federal deposit insurance as banks. The only difference is that coverage is provided by the National Credit Union Association (NCUA), which is the credit union equivalent of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
| CD duration | Yesterday’s National Best Rate | Best domestic rate of the day | Daily change (percentage points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months | 5.00% APY | 5.00% APY | No change |
| 6 months | 5.25% APY | 5.25% APY | No change |
| 1 year | 5.25% APY | 5.25% APY | No change |
| 18 months | 5.25% APY | 5.50% APY | +0.25 |
| 2 years | 5.35% APY | 5.35% APY | No change |
| 3 years | 5.00% APY | 5.00% APY | No change |
| 4 years | 4.73% ABS | 4.73% ABS | No change |
| 5 years | 4.68% ABS | 4.68% ABS | No change |
| 10 years | 4.30% APY | 4.30% APY | No change |
Dozens of the best CD rates still beat March’s 5% inflation rate, released last week. This is a relatively rare occurrence, at least in recent years. No one knows what April’s inflation figure will be, but now might be a good time to lock in an inflation-busting CD rate.
| CD duration | National Bank’s best interest rate today | Today’s Best National Credit Union Rate | Today’s Best Domestic Jumbo Fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 months | 5.00% APY | 4.50% APY | 3.91% ABS |
| 6 months | 5.25% APY | 5.01% APY | 5.25% APY |
| 1 year | 5.25% APY | 5.25% APY | 5.15% APY |
| 18 months | 5.10% APY | 5.50% APY | 5.25% APY |
| 2 years | 5.28% ABS | 5.35% APY | 5.04% ABS |
| 3 years | 4.60% APY | 5.00% APY | 4.99% APY |
| 4 years | 4.55% APY | 4.73% ABS | 4.89% ABS |
| 5 years | 4.50% APY | 4.68% ABS | 4.84% ABS |
| 10 years | 4.10% APY | 4.30% APY | None |
The highest rate for a jumbo certificate remains at 5.25%, offered in two terms. It’s always a good idea to keep your search open to standard CDs, even when you have a jumbo-sized deposit, because you can usually find better rates among regular certificates. But right now, the best 4- and 5-year-old jumbo APYs are better than other market leaders in these terms.
Will CD prices go up or down?
CD rates soared following the Federal Reserve’s aggressive hike in the federal funds rate to fight inflation. Although the Fed has raised the fed funds rate twice this year, both times by 0.25%, that’s well below the cumulative 4.25% increases it implemented last year. . As a result, rates on deposit accounts jumped in 2022, then rose only slightly this year.
We are less than two weeks away from the next Federal Reserve rate-setting meeting, which ends on May 3. Current market forecasts indicate an 89% chance that the Fed will raise rates by at least a quarter point. But after that, fed funds futures traders generally expect rates to plateau and eventually decline. So while rates may eventually rise slightly, they are already at their highest levels since 2007, now is a good time to consider locking in CDs that will pay attractive dividends for months or years to come.
Note that the “highest rates” quoted here are the highest rates available nationwide that Investopedia has identified in its daily search of rates from hundreds of banks and credit unions. This is very different from the national average, which includes all banks offering a CD with this term, including many large banks that pay paltry interest. Thus, the national averages are always quite low, while the highest rates you can find while shopping are often five, 10, or even 15 times higher.
Disclosure of rate collection methodology
Each business day, Investopedia tracks rate data from more than 200 banks and credit unions that offer CDs to customers nationwide and determines the daily ranking of the highest-paying certificates for each major term. To qualify for our listings, the institution must be federally insured (FDIC for banks, NCUA for credit unions) and the minimum initial CD 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 do not hold a certain type of employment), we exclude credit unions with a donation requirement of $40 or more. To learn more about how we choose the best rates, read our full methodology.