Best 10-Year CD Rates

Certificates of deposit, or CDs, are a type of savings account that offers a fixed interest rate and requires the customer to keep money in the account until a certain length of time has passed. These "maturity" dates could be anywhere from three months to ten years from the time the account is opened.

CDs are considered safe investments because the interest rate is guaranteed for the duration of the certificate. In addition, virtually all of them are offered by federally insured banks and credit unions. Consequently, your deposit is fully protected, up to $250,000 per account holder, even if the financial institution experiences liquidity issues.

Depository institutions set their own CD rates, so it's important to compare different banks and credit unions and find one that offers a competitive yield.

Each certificate has its own maturity date, for which the interest rate is locked in. Once the CD becomes effective, you generally cannot add funds to the account.

For each CD term, the bank or credit union will publish the annual percentage yield, or APY, which reflects the actual return you generate after compounding. If the institution uses daily compound interest, for example, it will calculate the accrued interest each day by multiplying the existing balance by the daily interest rate (the annual rate divided by 365).

This accrued interest is then added to the balance when calculating interest the next day. Therefore, you're earning "interest on interest," not just on your principal amount. The more frequent the compounding period, the greater the interest that accrues on your CD. In most cases, interest is actually credited to the account on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Banks and credit unions set their own interest rates, which vary from one institution to the next. The rates they're willing to offer reflect the current cost of borrowing, their economic outlook, and their need for deposit funds over different time periods.

Yields on short-term CDs tend to be positively correlated with the federal funds rate, which is set by the Federal Reserve. However, the interest rate on products with longer maturities, such as a 10-year CD, also reflects the bank's long-term economic forecasts.

Most of the time, longer-duration CDs offer higher rates of return as an incentive for depositors to keep their money locked away for an extended period of time. However, that becomes less true at the 10-year CD term, as it is difficult to predit what the economy and the Fed will do over a 10-year timespan. In such cases, it's possible to see yields "invert," with shorter-term CDs actually paying out more.

Some investors may be willing to live with skimpier long-term yields, in exchange for locking in a rate today that can't go down for 10 years. However, it's a factor worth carefully considering before agreeing to a 10-year CD.

By opening a CD, you're agreeing to keep your money untouched until the certificate reaches maturity. Should you pull out funds early, you'll typically lose some or all of the interest that has accumulated in your account. On a 10-year CD, for instance, you could forfeit anywhere from six months' to 24 months' worth of interest.

That's a pretty good reason to leave your account alone until the maturity date. Some banks and credit unions offer penalty-free CDs, but they tend to offer lower yields than other certificates and usually short- to mid-term durations. In addition, many of these no-penalty CDs have an "all or nothing" rule when it comes to early withdrawals—in other words, you'd have to take out the entire balance and close the account if you haven't reached the maturity date.

Whenever purchasing a CD, it's important to look at the institution's fee schedule to see what the consequences for are for changing your mind. That's especially true of 10-year certificates, which require a long-term financial commitment.

For investors whose primary concern is preserving their principal, CDs are one of several options you can weigh. Online savings accounts typically offer yields that are much better than traditional banks, but slightly lower than certificates. They also are not locked or guaranteed; they can change at any time. The upside is that you can add and withdraw money whenever you need to.

To add a little more growth potential to your investment, diversified bond funds are another idea. While there's always a risk that bond returns could be negative from one year to the next, history suggests it's highly unlikely you'd lose principal over an entire decade—especially if you avoid high-yield, or "junk," bonds. With bonds, there's usually a trade-off between risk and reward; the higher the quality of the note (Treasury bonds being the most conservative), the less return you'll typically receive.

The stakes are always higher when you invest money over a long period of time, so it's worth considering your options and choosing one with which you feel comfortable.

If you aren't looking to lock your money up for a period of time and want easier access to it, you could look at opening a high-yield savings account as an alternative. Below are some savings account options from our partners which can be competitive with the rates you can earn on CDs. It should be noted that unlike a CD, where your rate is locked in, with a savings account the bank or credit union can change your rate at any time.