Certificates of deposit (CDs) usually have a major flaw: If you withdraw your funds before the term is done, you get charged early withdrawal penalties. But with no-penalty CDs, you can waive goodbye to those annoying fees. We’ve gathered the best no-penalty CDs on the market with high APYs and reasonable deposit requirements.
Also an exclusive offer through Raisin, Sallie Mae has a No Penalty CD with a 14-month term and a high 4% APY. There's just a minimum $1 opening deposit. You can withdraw funds after 30 days of account opening, and you'll get one full no-penalty withdrawal during the term.
CIT Bank has a no-penalty 11-month CD with a 3.5% APY, requiring a $1,000 minimum deposit. There are no penalties for accessing your funds before maturity, and you can withdraw funds and earned interest starting seven days after opening.
Freedom Bank is offering a no-penalty CD with a 4.4% APY for 12 months. The cherry on top is the extremely low minimum deposit requirement of just $1. Withdrawals can be made 30 days after opening, and you're allowed a one-time full withdrawal with no penalties. This is an exclusive offer through the savings marketplace Raisin.
A well-established bank, Marcus by Goldman Sachs offers a competitive No-Penalty 7-, 11- and 13-month CD with up to 4.7% APY. There's a $500 minimum deposit requirement. You can withdraw all your funds after just seven days of opening, with no early withdrawal penalties and without losing earned interest.
Also a front-runner with fixed-rate CDs, online bank Ally offers a No Penalty CD with a high 4% APY for 11 months. The best part is Ally doesn't have any minimum deposit requirements for its CDs, including its no-penalty option. You can withdraw your full balance starting six days after opening, without any penalties.
Finder’s experts compare hundreds of CD offers and terms to narrow down the best no-penalty CD options. We only consider CDs that meet these requirements:
No early withdrawal penalties
Deposit requirements below $1,001
APY above 2.00%
What is a no-penalty CD?
If you want to avoid early withdrawal penalties, earn interest on your cash and still have access to said cash, no-penalty CDs could be just what you’re looking for.
Typical CDs are deposit accounts with a set term where your funds are “locked away” until maturity, with terms ranging from 30 days to 10 years. If you withdraw your funds before your term is over, you almost always get hit with early withdrawal penalties, often around 30 to 180 days of earned interest depending on the bank and the CD’s term.
In short, most typical CDs penalize you for withdrawing funds before maturity — but not with no-penalty CDs.
No-penalty CDs let you withdraw your entire balance without forfeiting earned interest, with the ability to withdraw funds typically starting one week after opening. In most cases, you’re allowed one full withdrawal before maturity without paying penalties or sacrificing earned interest.
How to compare no-penalty CDs
No-penalty CDs are a little different from typical fixed-rate CDs, so here’s what to know before opening one:
Rates. The main factor when evaluating CDs is their rates. The average rate on a 12-month CD is
1.84% APY, according to the FDIC. But as a general rule, if you find a CD with a rate over 2.00%, you’re getting a decent rate.
Deposit requirements. Most CDs require a minimum opening deposit starting at $1,000. However, a few banks, like Ally and Marcus, have more lenient deposit requirements.
CD term. CDs have a term during which the funds are held in the deposit account and earn interest. Withdrawing all your funds early closes the account, so choose a CD term you can commit to so you can earn the most interest.
Are no-penalty CDs a good idea?
Fixed-rate and no-penalty CDs are generally considered a very safe way to earn passive interest. CDs are deposit accounts, which means they’re protected by FDIC or NCUA insurance, typically up to $250,000 per depositor.
Most CDs lock rates for the entire term — they don’t have variable rates like a savings account. For example, if you open a 5% APY CD for a 12-month term, you’ll earn 5% on your balance throughout those 12 months. If you were to open a 5% APY savings account with a variable rate, the bank could adjust your interest rate at any time, so you’re not guaranteed to get that 5% APY for any set period.
What is the catch to a no-penalty CD?
The downside with no-penalty CDs is that they normally have lower rates than fixed-rate CDs, though this depends on the bank and the term. You’re also likely to have fewer term options than with regular CDs. No-penalty CDs are relatively rare, and not all banks offer this type of CD.
Bottom line
If your main gripe with CDs is having to pay penalties for withdrawing your own cash, then a no-penalty CD could be the perfect choice. However, they’re not as abundant as other CD options, and most no-penalty CDs only allow one withdrawal. Compare more savings options here.
Bethany Hickey is the banking editor and personal finance expert at Finder, specializing in banking, lending, insurance, and crypto.
Bethany’s expertise in personal finance has garnered recognition from esteemed media outlets, such as Nasdaq, MSN, Yahoo Finance, GOBankingRates, SuperMoney, AOL and Newsweek. Her articles offer practical financial strategies to Americans, empowering them to make decisions that meet their financial goals. Her past work includes articles on generational spending and saving habits, lending, budgeting and managing debt.
Before joining Finder, she was a content manager where she wrote hundreds of articles and news pieces on auto financing and credit repair for CarsDirect, Auto Credit Express and The Car Connection, among others.
Bethany holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan-Flint, and was poetry editor for the university’s Qua Literary and Fine Arts Magazine. See full bio
Bethany's expertise
Bethany has written 448 Finder guides across topics including:
See what the average interest rate was in the US for 3-month, 60-month, 1-year, 3-year and 5-year CDs since 2009 and learn how the economy affects rates.
How likely would you be to recommend Finder to a friend or colleague?
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Very UnlikelyExtremely Likely
Required
Thank you for your feedback.
Our goal is to create the best possible product, and your thoughts, ideas and suggestions play a major role in helping us identify opportunities to improve.
Advertiser disclosure
Finder.com is an independent comparison platform and information service that aims to provide you with the tools you need to make better decisions. While we are independent, the offers that appear on this site are from companies from which Finder receives compensation. We may receive compensation from our partners for placement of their products or services. We may also receive compensation if you click on certain links posted on our site. While compensation arrangements may affect the order, position or placement of product information, it doesn't influence our assessment of those products. Please don't interpret the order in which products appear on our Site as any endorsement or recommendation from us. Finder compares a wide range of products, providers and services but we don't provide information on all available products, providers or services. Please appreciate that there may be other options available to you than the products, providers or services covered by our service.
We update our data regularly, but information can change between updates. Confirm details with the provider you're interested in before making a decision.
