Bread Savings Review: Savings and CDs

Chanelle Bessette
By Chanelle Bessette 
Edited by Yuliya Goldshteyn

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Bread Savings
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at Bread Savings, Member FDIC

  • Savings
  • Certificates of deposit
  • Customer experience

Overall institution rating

4.5

NerdWallet rating 
The bottom line:

Bread Savings (formerly Comenity Direct) offers a high-yield savings account and certificates of deposit but no checking accounts. The high-yield savings account offers an excellent 5.15% APY and no monthly fees, and the account requires a $100 minimum deposit to open. Bread Savings™️ CDs also offer good APYs, with a minimum opening balance of $1,500. There are no monthly fees for CDs, but an early withdrawal penalty will apply if a customer withdraws funds before the term length of the CD is up.

Bread Savings is an online-only bank, so it doesn’t have any branches, but its customer service phone line is available seven days a week. Since the high-yield savings account isn’t designed with frequent withdrawals in mind, the only way customers can withdraw cash is by transferring to a linked account.

Best if: You want an online-only account with a top APY.

Pros

  • No monthly fees on savings accounts.
  • Competitive rates on savings accounts and CDs.
  • Low minimum opening deposits on savings accounts.

Cons

  • High minimum opening deposit for CDs.
  • No branch access.
  • No checking account offered.

Full review

Savings

Bread Savings™️ High-Yield Savings Account

Savings

Member FDIC

4.5

/5
 NerdWallet rating 
APY
5.15%
With $100 min. balance for APY
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at Bread Savings

The online bank’s high-yield savings option offers a competitive rate of 5.15% APY. You need only $100 to open, and there’s no monthly fee or minimum balance to worry about. The mobile app lets you deposit checks, but unlike some online banks, Bread Savings doesn’t have goal-setting or budgeting features to help you save.

» Want to see more options? Check out NerdWallet’s best high-yield online savings accounts

Certificates of deposit

Bread Savings™️ CD

CD

Member FDIC

5.0

/5
 NerdWallet rating 
1-year APY
5.25%
3-year APY
4.25%
5-year APY
4.15%
Minimum deposit
$1,500
Learn more

at Bread Savings

Bread Savings offers a stellar combination of strong rates and a wide range of CD terms from one to five years, including a 2-year rate of 4.65% and a 4-year yield of 4.15%.

The minimum deposit of $1,500 is somewhat higher than some online banks, and the early withdrawal penalty ranges from three to 12 months' worth of interest, depending on the CD term.

» COMPARE: NerdWallet’s best CD rates

Full list of Bread Savings™️ CD rates:

  • 1-year CD: 5.25% APY.

  • 2-year CD: 4.65% APY.

  • 3-year CD: 4.25% APY.

  • 4-year CD: 4.15% APY.

  • 5-year CD: 4.15% APY.

Customer experience

4.0

NerdWallet rating 

Bread Savings provides customer service by phone daily from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. CT on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT on weekends and most holidays. The bank also responds to customers on X (Twitter) and offers secure messaging on the Bread Savings site, too. Its mobile app gets high ratings from iOS users but less favorable ratings from Android users.

Methodology

NerdWallet’s overall ratings for banks and credit unions are weighted averages of several categories: checking, savings, certificates of deposit or credit union share certificates, banking experience and overdraft fees. Factors we consider, depending on the category, include rates and fees, ATM and branch access, account features and limits, user-facing technology, customer service and innovation. The stars represent ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars). Ratings are rounded to the nearest half-star.