If you have cash you will not touch for a year, your own bank is probably the worst place to put it. The average one-year CD pays 1.96%. The best one pays 4.10%. Same federally insured deposit, same one-year wait, more than double the return.
A CD, or certificate of deposit, locks your money for a set term in exchange for a fixed rate. The catch is the early-withdrawal penalty: pull the money out before the term ends and you forfeit some interest. That is the trade. In return, you get a guaranteed rate that does not drift down the way a savings account does.
Here is what the banks are counting on. Bankrate's survey puts the national average one-year CD at 1.96%, the three-year at 1.66%, and the five-year at 1.71%. Those averages are dragged down by big branch banks paying next to nothing, because they know most people open a CD where they already bank. Meanwhile online banks are advertising 4.10% on a one-year, 4.15% on a five-year. The gap is not a reward for risk. It is a reward for shopping.
Top one-year CDs pay about 4.10% APY. The national average pays 1.96%. The difference is just which bank you pick.
Run it on $25,000. At the 1.96% average, you earn about $490 in a year. At 4.10%, you earn about $1,025. That is roughly $535 a year for the work of opening an account somewhere better. Real money.
Now the part most CD coverage skips: do not reach for the longest term to chase the highest number. Right now the yield curve is inverted, which means shorter CDs are paying more than longer ones, and have been since February 2023. A one-year CD often beats a five-year. So locking five years does not buy you a higher rate, it just buys you a longer bet. The Fed cut three times in late 2025, then held all year, and futures markets expect it to keep holding through 2026. There is no cut on the calendar to race ahead of.
So here is the move. If this is cash you genuinely will not need for a year or more, open a top-rate one-year CD, not the one your checking bank offers. Compare current rates on our best savings accounts list first. If you might need some of it sooner, keep that slice in a high-yield savings account instead, where there is no penalty, and run the numbers through our savings calculator. If you want both certainty and access, split the money into CDs that mature at different dates, a ladder, so a piece frees up every few months.
Ranking
Our top-rated CDs right now
Top certificate of deposit rates across terms.
| Rank | Company | Best for | Key stat | Score | Apply |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marcus by Goldman SachsMarcus High-Yield CD | Best CD overall | Up to 4.10% APY on 14-month CD (July 2026) | 8.7/10 | |
| 2 |  DiscoverDiscover CD | Existing customers only | Not accepting new applications (July 2026) | 8.5/10 | |
| 3 | SynchronySynchrony Bank CD | Best no-minimum CD | 3.70% APY 12-month, up to 4.00% APY across terms (July 2026) | 8.4/10 |
One honest caveat: inflation ran 3.8% in April. A 4% CD barely clears that. This is a tool for safety and certainty, not for getting rich. But a guaranteed 4% beats a guaranteed 1.96% every time, and beats your bank betting you will not look.
How Candid Yak makes money. Some of the products we write about pay us if you apply or sign up through our links. That never changes our verdict, our rankings, or the numbers in this article. We call a bad deal a bad deal whether it pays us or not. Some brands shown in our comparison tools are placeholder examples while we finalize partner agreements, and we label them as such.