CD Early Withdrawal Penalty by Bank
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Certificates of deposit, unlike regular savings accounts, keep your funds under lock and key for a specified term. And banks give a good incentive not to tinker with the lock: Withdrawing before the CD term's end usually costs you.
What is an early withdrawal penalty?
A CD's early withdrawal penalty is the interest that a CD earned (or would have earned) over a specified number of days or months. (The penalty’s equivalent at credit unions is the dividends that a certificate earned or would have earned.) This charge is trickier to figure out than other bank fees because it’s not typically written as a fixed dollar amount or percentage of a transaction.
This penalty varies by bank and even by the term of a CD at the same bank. A longer-term CD, such as a five-year CD, might have a higher penalty than a short-term CD, such as for one or two years. And, if you withdraw early enough, a penalty might include part of the money you put in, meaning you can lose money on a CD.
See what an early withdrawal can cost using our calculator, with help from a list of penalties at some banks and credit unions below.
CD early withdrawal penalty calculator
» Withdrawing early to find a better CD rate? See the best CD rates for this month
No-penalty CDs: the big exception
Early withdrawal penalties are standard, but some CDs let you withdraw at almost any time for free. These no-penalty CDs don't have the highest rates, but you can find yields comparable to high-yield savings accounts. (Check out NerdWallet's best savings accounts.)
No-penalty CDs have a big plus over savings accounts: Your rate is locked in. (See more details about the best no-penalty CDs.)
Tips for understanding penalties
Banks and credit unions have different vocabularies but the same type of accounts. Banks call them CDs, while credit unions call them certificates or share certificates. Banks say interest, while credit unions say dividends.
Convert the penalty to months (or years). Most banks and credit unions have penalties in terms of days, which don’t precisely translate to months. Here’s a rough guide of some penalties in days converted to months:
60 days = 2 months.
90 days = 3 months.
120 days = 4 months.
180 days = 6 months.
270 days = 9 months.
540 days = 18 months.
CD early withdrawal penalties
Financial institution | Penalty | |
|---|---|---|
Alliant Credit Union* | For 12-month to 17-month certificates: Up to 90 days of dividends. For 18-month to 23-month certificates: Up to 120 days* of dividends. For 2-year to 5-year certificates: Up to 180* days of dividends. | |
For 3-month to 2-year CDs: 60 days of interest. For 3-year CDs: 90 days of interest. For 4-year CDs: 120 days of interest. For 5-year CDs: 150 days of interest. | ||
American Express Bank | For 6-month CDs: 90 days of interest. For 1-year to 3-year CDs: 270 days of interest. For 4-year CDs: 1 year of interest. For 5-year CDs: 540 days of interest. | |
Bank5 Connect | For 6-month CDs: 3 months of interest. For 1-year to 3-year CDs: 6 months of interest. | |
For 1-month to 2-month CDs: All interest or 7 days of interest, whichever is greater. For 3-month to 11-month CDs: 90 days of interest. For 1-year to 59-month CDs: 180 days of interest. For 5-year to 10-year CDs: 1 year of interest. | ||
Barclays | For 3-month to 2-year CDs: 90 days of interest. For 3-year to 5-year CDs: 180 days of interest. | |
Bread Financial | For 1-year to 3-year CDs: 180 days of interest. For 4-year to 5-year CDs: 1 year of interest. | |
For 6-month to 1-year CDs: 3 months of interest. For 18-month to 5-year CDs: 6 months of interest. | ||
For 1-month to 5-month CDs: 90 days of interest. For 6-month to 23-month CDs: 180 days of interest. For 2-year to 10-year CDs: 1 year of interest. | ||
CIT | For 6-month to 1-year CDs: 3 months of interest. For 13-month to 3-year CDs: 6 months of interest. For 3-year to 5-year CDs: 1 year of interest. | |
Citibank | For 3-month to 1-year CDs: 90 days of interest. For 13-month to 5-year CDs: 180 days of interest. | |
Connexus Credit Union | For 1-year certificates: 90 days of dividends. For 2-year to 3-year certificates: 180 days of dividends. For 5-year CDs: 1 year of dividends. | |
For 3-month to 9-month CDs: 3 months of interest. For 1-year to 3-year CDs: 6 months of interest. For 4-year CDs: 9 months of interest. For 5-year CDs: 18 months of interest. For 7-year to 10-year CDs: 2 years of interest. | ||
Live Oak Bank | For 6-month to 18-month CDs: 90 days of interest. For 2-year to 5-year CDs: 180 days of interest. | |
For 6-month to 1-year CDs: 90 days of interest. For 1-year to 5-year CDs: 180 days of interest. For 6-year CDs: 270 days of interest. | ||
Navy Federal Credit Union* | For 3-month to 1-year certificates: Up to 90 days of dividends. For 1-year to 5-year certificates: Up to 180 days of dividends. For 6-year to 7-year certificates: Up to 1 year of dividends. | |
Pentagon Federal Credit Union** | For 6-month certificates: Most recent 90 days of dividends. For 1-year to 7-year certificates: If withdrawn before the first year ends, the penalty is one year of expected dividends. If withdrawn after the first year, the penalty is 30% of total expected dividends for the full term of the certificate. | |
Popular Direct | For 3-month CDs: 89 days of interest. For 6-month CDs: 120 days of interest. For 1-year to 2-year CDs: 270 days of interest. For 3-year to 4-year CDs: 1 year of interest. For 5-year CDs: 730 days of interest. | |
PurePoint | For all CDs: 181 days of interest. | |
Quontic Bank | For 6-month CDs: All interest. For 1-year CDs: 1 year of interest. For 2-year to 5-year CDs: 2 years of interest. | |
Synchrony | For 3-month to 1-year CDs: 90 days of interest. For 13-month to 3-year CDs: 180 days of interest. For 4-year to 5-year CDs: 1 year of interest. | |
TIAA Bank | For 3-month CDs: 22 days of interest. For 6-month CDs: 45 days of interest. For 9-month CDs: 68 days of interest. For 1-year CDs: 91 days of interest. For 18-month CDs: 136 days of interest. For 2-year CDs: 182 days of interest. For 30-month CDs: 228 days of interest. For 3-year CDs: 273 days of interest. For 4-year CDs: 1 year of interest. For 5-year CDs: 456 days of interest. | |
For 3-month to 1-year CDs: 3 months of interest. For 2-year CDs: 6 months of interest. For CDs longer than 2 years: 1 year of interest. | ||
*Alliant and Navy Federal CU's penalties **PenFed's unusual penalty | ||
» Learn more about how to avoid a CD early withdrawal penalty
Calculator assumptions
The CD early withdrawal penalty calculator assumes three things:
The penalty is in terms of simple interest. This means that the penalty doesn’t factor in compounding, and that aligns with many banks’ approach to penalties.
CD interest, outside the penalty, is compounded daily, which is typical for online high-yield CDs. If your CD is compounded monthly, results may differ slightly. For example, the result may be off by several dollars for six-figure deposits.
There are no partial withdrawals for CDs. Although some banks allow this, many don’t, so our calculator follows suit. If your bank lets you withdraw part of your CD early, the penalty tends to be for the withdrawn amount instead of the full CD balance at the time of withdrawal.
