Best 10-year CD rates of November 2023

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On Fiona's Website

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While you’d be lucky to get a 1.00% APY on 120-month CD terms from most banks, this Fairfax, VA.-based credit union offers 4.00% on its 10-year CD. Its interest rates on other CDs aren’t bad either. It has terms ranging from five to 84 months (with IRA CDs to match) and yields up to 5.30% APY, all of which may be tempting if you’re thinking of making a CD ladder.

Whatever term you choose, be sure you can commit. The early withdrawal penalty is steep. For CD terms over 60 months, the penalty is either all of your dividends or 1,095 days’ (or 35.5 months) worth of interest, whichever is smaller. Yet, your grace period when the CD matures is slightly longer than normal, 10 days instead of seven.

Anyone can join the credit union by paying $20 to join one of two nonprofits (both of which have long names): The Northern Virginia Athletic Directors and Coaches Association, which provides college scholarships, and the Friends of the Washington and Old Dominion Trail, which works to protect and maintain the woodland path.

Pros and cons

Pros

High yield.
Low minimum balance requirement.
Highly-rated mobile app.

Cons

Membership hoops.
Steep early withdrawal penalty.

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On Discover's Website

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Well-known for its credit cards, Discover’s 3.80% APY on a 10-year CD isn’t drastically lower than the top market rate and, as it’s a bank rather than a credit union, you don’t have to jump through any membership requirements.

You do, however, need to meet a relatively large minimum deposit requirement of $2,500.

This is true for all of its CD terms, which range from three months to 10 years. And while the yields on its shorter-term CDs aren’t the most competitive currently, the APY on its longer terms may be enough to pique your interest.

In case you need to cash out before the CD’s maturity date, its early withdrawal penalty is expensive (though not the most costly that we’ve seen), potentially costing you 24 months of simple interest on a 10-year CD.

You can also take advantage of the bank’s positive customer service reputation, which comes from services such as 24/7 customer service available by phone and chat.

If all of this sounds good, there are multiple ways you can open and fund your Discover CD: online through a web browser, via the Discover mobile app, by phone or by mailing a check.

Pros and cons

Pros

High yield.
24/7 customer service.
Huge range of CD terms.

Cons

High minimum deposit required.
App isn’t rated highly.

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Vio Bank doesn’t have the highest rate on the market, but it’s still well above what you’ll find from most other financial institutions.

The bank does offer partial early withdrawals, though you’ll have to pay 3% of the amount withdrawn, plus a $25 fee each time.

You also don’t have to worry about funding the CD quickly to secure the rate. When you apply for an account, the CD interest rate is locked in for 15 days.

This applies to all of its CDs, which have terms as short as six months.

If you love apps and you’re an Android user, however, you may want to reconsider going with Vio. While its app is well-rated in the Apple App Store (4.6 stars with over 2,500 reviews), the Google Play rating leaves people a little wanting (3.1 stars with over 500 reviews).

If you don’t plan to use the Android app extensively, you can open a CD online or by phone during its extensive business and weekend hours.

Pros and cons

Pros

Competitive yield.
$500 minimum balance requirement.
“A+” grade from the Better Business Bureau.

Cons

Early withdrawal fee is 3% of the amount withdrawn, plus a $25 fee.
Poor Android app rating.

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EmigrantDirect’s 10-year CD yields are a tier below the top of the market, but still come in at a strong 2.75%

And, true to the “direct” part of its name, you’ll find a very basic website and straightforward rules with not a lot of room for variation. For example, CDs with terms of 16 to 120 months all earn 2.75% APY. Only the six-month term earns a different rate, 2.50% APY. All interest is compounded daily and credited monthly.

The early withdrawal penalty is simple as well. On a CD term of 12 months or more, the penalty is 180 days (about six months) worth of interest, period. If you haven’t earned the interest yet, the amount is taken from your principal. This is a less expensive early withdrawal penalty than others on this list, but you still want to be sure that you’ll have your ten-year CD tucked away for at least half a year.

You’ll also need to be comfortable with accessing your account through a web browser (like Google Chrome or Firefox) rather than a mobile app or in-person branches. To save on costs, the bank doesn’t offer physical branches or a smartphone app.

Pros and cons

Pros

Strong yield.
Lots of CD term options available.
Daily compounding interest.

Cons

You can find higher yields.
No mobile apps.

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On Fiona's Website

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This CD rate isn’t amazing compared to the APYs above. It doesn’t even match the yield that its sister company offers (it’s also a division of Emigrant Bank). In fact, many high-yield savings accounts even feature higher interest rates.

But, if you’re already a customer and you’re comfortable with the online bank; and you don’t want to go through the hassle of opening a new account at another institution, reading new disclosures and learning how to navigate a different system, then taking a smaller yield may be worth it to you.

Everything else about the MySavingsDirect CDs falls in the industry norms. Interest is compounded daily and credited to the CD or to your MySavingsAccount each month without penalty.

If you need to make an early withdrawal, the penalty on CDs with terms of at least one year is 180 days of interest. When the CD matures naturally, you have a ten day grace period to make any changes before it automatically renews.

Pros and cons

Pros

You can withdraw monthly earned interest.
Simple interface.
Six-to-120-month CD terms available.

Cons

Not the most competitive yield.
No mobile apps.

Compare the best 10-year CD rates

Institution	Star rating	APY	Min. deposit
Apple Federal Credit Union	5.0	4.00%	$500
Discover	4.76	3.80%	$2,500
Vio Bank	3.98	2.75%	$500
EmigrantDirect	3.91	2.75%	$1,000
MySavingsDirect	2.83	2.00%	$1,000

Methodology

APY 60%

Given that 10 years is longer than most celebrity marriages, you should be rewarded for your commitment. You don’t want to collect on your CD after a decade and see that it only earned a few hundred dollars. We weighed the yields that banks offered on their CDs as the strongest factor in our considerations.

Customer service 10%

It’s nice to know that you’ll be able to interact with your account whenever and however you want. We looked at customer service availability, industry rankings from institutions including the Better Business Bureau, J. D. Power and TrustPilot.

For customer service availability, we looked specifically on whether you could contact the bank 24/7 or just during normal business hours; and whether you had the option to call, email or chat. We figured this was important as many people have a preference on whether they’d like to talk with a person directly.

Digital experience 10%

As many Americans rely on mobile apps, we also reviewed customer ratings on the banks’ mobile apps, looking at reviews on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. The more positive the ratings, the more points the bank earned and the more likely it was to make our list.

Minimum deposit 8%

Putting money into a CD isn’t a priority for most Americans. Paying for housing, food, transportation and more for yourself and your family during a period of rising inflation is often hard enough.

If you do want to stash away funds into a CD, however, it should be affordable. CDs with low minimum deposits were rewarded.

Available terms 5%

It’s much easier to open another CD at the same place, rather than going through the process of opening another account at another institution. And, if you’re interested in a long-term CD, you’re most likely interested in other, shorter-term CDs as well.

In that vein of thought, we rewarded banks that offer multiple CD terms.

Availability 5%

We also judged the financial institutions on whether its services are widely available to Americans. Credit unions with super strict membership requirements and banks without national reach lost points in this category.

Compound interest schedule 2%

The industry standard is daily compound interest that’s credited to the account monthly. Interest that compounds less often, such as monthly or quarterly, doesn’t make a huge difference in the total yield you can earn (in most cases), but it does make a difference.

Why some banks weren’t chosen

Some of the most popular banks in the country aren’t on this list for the best no-penalty CDs.

The largest financial institutions typically offer yields that are too low to merit consideration. As these big banks already have plenty of customers and assets, they tend to offer lower rates; whereas smaller banks typically offer better yields to catch your eye.

Choosing the best 10-year CD rate

Choosing the highest rate is pretty much a no-brainer in most cases. For example, here’s the difference APY can make on your bottom line if you invested $5,000 in a 10-year CD with monthly compounding interest.

Interest earned on 10-year CDs

APY	Interest earned at maturity
2.00%	$1,095
3.00%	$1,720
4.00%	$2,400
4.20%	$2,545
4.50%	$2,765

Yet, when picking the best 10-year CD, consider more than the interest rate.

“Weigh factors such as minimum deposit requirements, fees and early withdrawal penalties,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, chief investor officer at Running Point. “Fees and penalties can easily water down the interest you earn.”

What about brokered CDs?

Normally, people open CDs at banks or credit unions. However, you may find the highest CD rate at an investment firm or offered by an independent sales professional.

A “brokered CD” may pay an attractive interest rate, but CD brokers aren’t licensed, certified or regulated the same way that banks and credit unions are. Before you open one, be sure you understand how it’s insured (if at all) and any risks involved.

How to open a 10-year CD

Opening a 10-year CD is a lot like opening a savings or checking account. Here are the steps.

Hunt for an institution where your money will be federally insured. Check on the website of whatever financial institution you’re considering to see if they’re federally insured. You can also use the FDIC’s BankFind tool and the National Credit Union Administration’s Research a Credit Union tool to double check.
Choose the kind of CD you want. Numerous types of CDs are available, including traditional CDs, which pay a fixed interest rate; bump-up CDs, which allow you to move to higher APY if the rate goes up before a CD matures; and jumbo CDs, which normally demand that you make a big deposit.
Pick the method for getting interest payments. Interest payments may be available on a monthly, quarterly, semiannual or annual basis. You could also choose to reinvest your interest and only take the payout at the CD’s maturity.
Open the account. If you’re not already a member or a customer of the financial institution, it will ask for personal details such as your name, address, date of birth and Social Security number when you apply to open a CD. Methods for opening a CD depend on the bank, but can be done online, through a mobile app, at a branch or over the phone.
Fund the CD. You can deposit the money online, with an over-the-phone transfer or with cash or a check. The CD may have a minimum deposit amount, which you could exceed if you wish.

Are long-term CD rates rising?

Yes, CD rates have been on the rise. For example, FDIC data shows that the average 5-year CD rate more than quadrupled over the past year, rising from 0.32% in April 2022 to 1.38% just 18 months later.

CD rates, along with rates for mortgages, savings and credit cards, have all shot up, keeping pace with the Fed’s benchmark interest rate.

This benchmark, known as the federal funds rate, is what banks charge each other for short-term loans. When the federal funds rate changes, interest rates across the board follow suit, whether it’s up or down.

And the wild card in all of this is whether a recession will hit the U.S. sometime in 2023. If it does, the Fed may lower the federal funds rate in an effort to boost the economy. A fall in CD rates likely would follow.

Fortunately, you lock in a fixed interest rate when you set up a traditional CD.

Therefore, if you opened a 10-year CD before the Fed cuts the benchmark interest rate, your initial APY would remain in effect until the CD matures. In other words, your 10-year CD would escape any seesawing of interest rates for years to come.

Is a 10-year CD worth it?

Among finance professionals, opinions of 10-year CDs are mixed.

“Choosing a 10-year CD may not be the best investment for everyone,” said Krisstin Petersmarck, investment advisor at Bridgeriver Advisors in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. ‘While investing in a CD is considered low risk with a guaranteed interest rate, tying up your money for 10 years can be a major commitment. In the current environment, there are better interest rates available for CDs with a shorter duration.”

Ben McLaughlin, president of SaveBetter, agrees.

“A 10-year CD may not be the best for your bottom line,” he said. “With this type of product, your money is locked up for quite a long period of time, and you may miss out on more attractive interest rates.”

Learn more: When a CD makes sense for you.

However, better rates of return typically come with more risk; managing that can require you to actively work and pay attention to your investments or pay someone else to do so. CDs allow you to invest your cash and leave it without worrying.

Because a 10-year CD has such a long term, you’ll earn more interest on it even if the rate is lower. For example, if you invested $10,000 in a CD that compounds monthly, here’s what you’d earn over different periods.

APY	Term	Interest earned at maturity
5%	1 year	$500
4%	5 years	$2,170
3%	10 years	$3,430

Other CD terms to consider

If you aren’t sold on sticking money in a CD for 10 years, you can pick from an assortment of other terms. Most financial institutions offer CD terms ranging from six to 60 months, though you can find terms as short as 28 days.

Here are the best rates on some of the most popular CD terms:

You could also combine multiple CD terms in an investment strategy called CD laddering. For example, imagine you purchase five: a two-year, four-year, six-year, eight-year and 10-year CD. As each matures, you reinvest it into a 10-year CD. This way, all of your funds are eventually in long-term investments, but you’re never more than two years away from being able to access some of your funds.

Here are some of the most well-known CD providers:

To decide which CD is right for you, answer these questions:

Is it reasonable to say that you won’t need to use the money for the whole CD term? If a big purchase comes up, such as a car or a house, you may regret the investment.
What are the early withdrawal penalties? If something were to happen and you needed to cash it out, what fees would you incur? A penalty could take most of the interest you earned. A high-yield savings account may be more attractive.
Which CD term has the most attractive rates? Typically, the higher the rate and the shorter the term, the better.
Could a CD help diversify your portfolio? A long-term, conservative investment could help stabilize your portfolio against sudden market movements.
Would you forget about or lose track of the CD? While CDs typically have a grace period of seven days once they mature, if you don’t do anything, they automatically renew.

Is a CD right for your savings goal?

Typically, a CD is the highest-yielding savings option available to most folks. But the problem is liquidity.

For instance, Bread Savings currently offers 5.60% on its one-year CD. That’s higher than pretty much any high-yield savings account you’ll find.

The downside, though, is that you can’t access your money in a CD until it matures, whereas a savings account is almost always available to you at any moment.

Therefore you need to be careful about what money you choose to save in which type of account.

Your best bet is to put money you’ll need in an emergency into a savings account. Use a CD for any remaining savings in order to earn the extra yield.

Which CD maturity to choose is another question. One trick is to pick a term that corresponds to when you’ll need the money. If you are looking to buy a car in a year, say, then put your down payment into a one-year CD.

If you don’t have a particular purpose for the savings, and just want the higher yield, consider a CD ladder. Divide your savings equally among a series of CD matures, and then reinvest your principal and interest into the longer-term CD once the shortest one matures.

For example, you could divide $6,000 among CDs with maturities of one, two and three years. After a year, you’d take $2,000 (plus any interest) from the one-year CD and then put it into another three-year CD. This allows you to capture higher rates while also having certainty about when the money is coming in.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

A 10-year CD may or may not be a good investment, depending on your financial goals and needs. Eddie Ambrose, co-founder of Sound View Wealth Advisors in Savannah, Georgia, said a 10-year CD can help diversify your portfolio. Yet, it shouldn’t be your main savings fund or primary investment. It can lock in a relatively high interest rate for a decade, but you can’t touch the principal without paying an early withdrawal penalty.

A long-term CD is best for someone who’s able to take a “set it and forget it” approach to saving money. You don’t want to regret your lack of access to the money before the CD matures, particularly if a financial opportunity or emergency comes up.

If you withdraw funds early from a 10-year CD, you’ll likely end up paying an early withdrawal penalty. Federal law demands that institutions clearly disclose early withdrawal penalties so consumers know what they are before investing. The penalty normally equals the amount of interest earned over a certain period of time, such as 180 days.

It all depends on your needs and goals. If you’re considering a 10-year CD, then you’re looking for certainty and little risk. Therefore, stocks and bonds (which may earn more over a 10-year period than CDs) are too rich for your blood. Consider instead crafting a CD ladder, or simply keeping your funds in a high-yield savings account or money market account.

Assuming that your funds are protected by FDIC insurance, then, in a sense, yes: You will receive your principal and interest at the end of the decade. However, there’s no free lunch. One risk you run with a 10-year CD, for instance, is that inflation will grow faster during your CD maturity, thereby reducing your real return. Similarly, you won’t be able to take advantage of rising interest rates because your cash is stuck in place.

There is no universal interest rate for a given CD, but the best options typically range between 2% and 4%. You’ll notice that’s a lot less than short-term rates, in large part because the Fed jacked up borrowing costs to stymie inflation, while the bond market believes growth will slow (and therefore rates will decline) over the long haul.