CD Valet is a digital marketplace that connects consumers with the best CD rates and terms nationwide. The company today shared its October APY Checkpoint, a real-time tool that helps consumers instantly see how their Certificate of Deposit (CD) rate stacks up against the market. The October analysis revealed that as of 10/16/2025, rates of 4.00%+ APY are among the top 10 percent of highest yielding CDs for 12-month terms.
“Savers settling for anything less than 4.00% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on new 12-month CDs are leaving money on the table,” said Mary Grace Roske, Head of Marketing & Communications at CD Valet. “It’s easy to find higher rates by using digital marketplaces to shop and compare. Banks hungry for deposits are offering 4.40% APY in some markets, while there are even a few credit unions rewarding their members with yields of 5.00% APY and higher. The lesson? It pays to shop around.”
In particular, customers of the largest banks should closely evaluate rates before they renew or open a CD. While JP Morgan/Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup hold nearly 35 percent of the nation’s deposits, their CD rates fall far short of delivering competitive returns. As of October 16, the highest 12-month CD offered by any of these four institutions is 3.00% APY, or 29 basis points lower than the median APY across all 12-month term CDs tracked on CD Valet. The average APY across any CD term from these banks is less than 2.00% (1.78% average APY).
CD Valet is the most comprehensive source of CD rates available today, offering an online marketplace connecting savers to financial institutions to compare and open CDs with the best rates and terms nationwide. To create the monthly APY Checkpoint, CD Valet analyzes its digital marketplace, which includes all CDs offered by financial institutions that publish their CD rates online, representing over 38,000 retail CD rates from nearly 5,000 banks and credit unions.
With the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) preparing to convene at month’s end, savers with cash to deploy in conservative, fixed-rate investments are watching and comparing interest rates. CD Valet’s October APY Checkpoint revealed the following for standard term CDs:
| APY Checkpoint Category | 12-month CD | 24-month CD | 36-month CD | 48-month CD | 60-month CD |
| Top 10% APY | 4.00 % | 3.75 % | 3.65 % | 3.65 % | 3.70 % |
| Top 25% APY | 3.75 % | 3.45 % | 3.30 % | 3.30 % | 3.40 % |
| Median APY | 3.29 % | 3.00 % | 2.99 % | 3.00 % | 3.00 % |
Source: CD Valet 10/16/2025
Roske added, “Taking the time to compare CD rates can lead to surprising and valuable discoveries. For example, this month we found that top-end yields for a 60-month CD outpace 36- and 48-month CD products in the same categories. While this might be standard in a normal yield curve, the curve has been inverted for quite a while.”