Best CD Rates March 2026

Look, the easy-money era for CDs is behind us. The Fed cut rates in September, October, and December of 2025, and the market's been grinding lower ever since. But "lower" is relative. You can still pull 4%+ from the right institution if you know where to look — and the gap between what the big banks pay vs. what the online banks pay is embarrassing. Chase is sitting at 0.01% on some terms. Online banks are sitting at 4.05%. Same FDIC insurance. Same $250K limit. Just completely different outcomes.

The top of the market right now is around 4.10-4.30% APY depending on term, with a handful of credit unions pushing into the high 4s if you qualify for membership. The national average for a 1-year CD is still stuck somewhere around 1.8% — which tells you most people are getting absolutely robbed by inertia.

Three Fed cuts in four months moved things. Short-term rates compressed harder than long-term ones, which is the normal pattern. If you locked in a 5% CD back in mid-2024, good for you — genuinely. That ship has sailed. But 4% guaranteed is still a solid number when stocks are doing whatever they're doing right now and savings accounts are drifting toward 4.5% anyway.

Here's what the real market looks like, sorted roughly by competitiveness. Rates as of mid-March 2026.

Apple Federal Credit Union — 1-year at 5.00% APY. Minimum $500. This is the outlier at the top of the board. Credit union membership required, but it's relatively open. If you're rate-chasing and willing to deal with credit union account setup, this is your number.

Lafayette Federal Credit Union — 1-year at 4.28% APY. Minimum $500. Another credit union playing offense. Lafayette has been consistently near the top for about two years running. Worth the membership friction.

Mountain America Credit Union — 1-year at 4.20% APY. Solid option especially if you're in a state where Mountain America operates with physical branches.

E*TRADE (Morgan Stanley Private Bank) — 1-year at 4.10% APY. Zero minimum. This one's underrated. No minimum deposit, solid backing, and easy if you already have an E*TRADE brokerage account. Just note this is a brokered CD, which matters if you ever need to exit early.

Popular Direct — 1-year at 4.05% APY. Minimum $10,000. Higher minimum than most but competitive rate. Popular Direct is the online arm of Popular Bank.

Bread Savings — 9-month at 4.15% APY, minimum $1,500. They've been aggressive on shorter terms. Good for people who want yield but don't want to lock for a full year. The $1,500 minimum is annoying but manageable.

Bask Bank — 9-month at 4.15% APY. A subsidiary of Texas Capital Bank. They've been consistently competitive, especially on short and mid-length terms. No frills, just the rate.

Marcus by Goldman Sachs — 1-year at 4.00% APY, minimum $500. Marcus is boring in a good way. Reliable, well-capitalized, solid mobile app, zero surprises. If you want a household name with a real rate, Marcus is the play.

Newtek Bank — 1-year at 4.00% APY. Smaller name but FDIC insured. Worth a look if you're spreading across multiple institutions anyway.

Synchrony Bank — 1-year at 3.90-4.00% APY depending on promotion. Synchrony runs occasional bump-up promos. Check their current page, the rate moves around.

Most of these have $500-$1,500 minimums. None are at big banks. That's not a coincidence — the big banks don't need your deposits the same way online institutions do.

Short-term (3-6 months): This is where the compression has hit hardest. A year ago you could get 5%+ on a 6-month CD. Now you're looking at 3.75-4.25% from top institutions. Best current option: Bread Savings or Bask Bank on their 9-month products. For pure 6-month, Climate First Bank is around 4.07% and Everbank has been running a 7-month promotional at competitive rates.

1-year CDs: The sweet spot right now. Most of the best rates are clustered here. Apple Federal at 5.00% is the headline but frankly inaccessible to most people who don't have a connection to the credit union. For accessible 1-year rates: Marcus at 4.00%, E*TRADE at 4.10%, Popular Direct at 4.05%. This term has the best rate-to-commitment ratio.

2-year CDs: Getting thinner. You're generally looking at 3.75-4.00% from the best online banks. The yield pickup over 1-year is minimal right now — maybe 10-20 basis points in most cases. Hard to justify the extra year of lock-up for that. If the yield curve steepens, this changes. It hasn't yet.

3-5 year CDs: Honestly, the case gets harder here. You're locking in a rate based on Fed expectations 3-5 years out. Current best 5-year rates hover around 3.75-4.00% from places like Bread Savings and Marcus. That's fine money. But if the Fed cuts another 2-3 times and then reverses course, you're either stuck or paying penalties. Most people building a ladder should cap individual rungs at 2 years right now unless they have specific duration goals.

This is the question everyone's dodging with careful language. I'll be direct.

If you think the Fed cuts again in 2026 — lock. CD rates follow the Fed funds rate with a lag. Lock in 4%+ now before the next cut compresses rates another 25-50 basis points. Even one more 25-basis-point cut would likely push 1-year CD rates down toward 3.75%. Locking now at 4.00-4.10% looks smart in that scenario.

If you think rates stay flat or tick up — float in a high-yield savings account. Best HYSA rates are around 4.3-4.5% right now. You're not giving up much yield vs. a 1-year CD, and you keep your flexibility entirely. This is the right call if you're genuinely uncertain when you'll need the money.

If you need the money in under 6 months — don't use a CD at all. You'll either pay an early withdrawal penalty or end up in a situation where a short-term CD barely beats HYSA returns after the hassle factor.

Personally? The rate environment feels more "one more cut" than "rates surging." Fed's been cautious. Inflation isn't accelerating. Locking some portion into 1-year CDs at 4.00-4.10% makes sense as part of a broader short-duration ladder. Not all of it — keep some in HYSA for flexibility — but some of it, yes.

The worst outcome isn't locking and watching rates stay flat. The worst outcome is keeping everything in a big bank savings account at 0.5% while online options are at 4%. Don't let the decision paralysis send you to the bottom of the market.

A ladder staggers maturities so you always have money coming due and never have all your cash locked at once. Classic setup splits funds across 3-month, 6-month, 1-year, 18-month, and 2-year CDs. As each rung matures, you either spend it or roll it into a new 2-year (the longest rung), keeping the ladder running indefinitely.

Right now, given the flat-to-inverted short end of the curve, a condensed ladder makes more sense than a 5-rung spread to 5 years. Something like: 25% in a 6-month CD, 50% in a 1-year, 25% in a 2-year. This gives you liquidity at 6 months and 1 year, captures the sweet spot of current rates, and doesn't over-commit to the distant future when the rate picture is genuinely uncertain.

For the math: $50,000 split across Marcus 6-month (3.75%), 1-year (4.00%), and 2-year (3.95%) would earn roughly $2,075 annualized in blended interest vs. maybe $2,150-2,250 if you went all-in on the top-rate 1-year. The ladder costs you maybe $150/year in yield for substantially more flexibility. That's usually worth it.

Don't ladder into brokered CDs if you're not familiar with them. Brokered CDs (like E*TRADE's offerings) trade on secondary markets but at prices that can be below par if rates moved against you. They're fine instruments but they behave differently than direct bank CDs on early exit.

Chase's best current 1-year CD rate: around 1.50%. On promotional terms. Marcus's current 1-year CD rate: 4.00%.

On $25,000 over one year, that's $375 at Chase vs. $1,000 at Marcus. A $625 difference. For the exact same product with the exact same federal insurance and the exact same risk. There's no reason for this gap to exist except that Chase is counting on you not looking.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi — all in the same boat. Their CD rates are embarrassing relative to what the online-only banks and credit unions are offering. The big banks have massive branch networks and marketing budgets that they're effectively funding with the interest they're not paying you.

The one case where a big bank CD makes sense is if you have a large relationship and they offer a relationship rate bump. Citigold members sometimes get better rates. But even with a relationship bump, you're probably not beating 4.00% from an online bank. It's just not the math.