Bank of America has a wide variety of options available for CD accounts. In this post we will look into the specific Bank of America CD accounts to determine which offers the best CD account rate. The fundamental question is, are Bank of America CD accounts the best bang for your buck?

Bank of America CD account terms

One of the positives for Bank of America CD accounts is that they offer almost any term that you could wish for. You can open a 1 month cd online and even specify if you want the term to be 28 or 29 days. As would be expected,  the rate of return on a one month CD account from Bank of America is not as high as a cd with a longer term, but we will discuss that more in detail in the rates section.  Bank of America does offer terms from one month to ten years, and yes you can agree to odd terms such as, 26 months instead of a 2 years.

Account minimums and set up

All CD accounts offered by Bank of America require a minimum deposit of $1,000 and are FDIC insured. You can fund your Bank of America CD account from a Bank of America checking or savings account or you can use funds from an external account. Applying to open a CD account is easy and straight forward with Bank of America’s online banking services.  The average processing time for applications is two days. The rate that is available on the day you submit your application is the rate you will receive.

Features and Fees for a Bank of America CD account

Bank of America will allow you to withdraw the interest that you earn monthly without a penalty. Be aware, that should you take advantage of this feature, you will earn less than the quoted APY rate. Standard term, online CD accounts will automatically renew.  If this feature causes you concern, know that Bank of America will send you notification prior to your cds maturity and any changes they are making to your CD account will be in that notice.

There are early withdrawal fees but they are very hard to find on the site.  Strangely enough they are not detailed even on the personal schedule of fees. They do state that there are fees for early withdrawal but obviously they really do not want to tell you what they are! This is where the Bank of America website chat option is helpful.  The amount of the penalty depends on the length of the CD term and the breakdown is as follows:

• 90 days to 12 months, amount equal to 90 calendar days of interest
• 12 to 60 months, amount equal to 180 calendar days of interest
• 60 months or longer, you will forfeit 365 days of interest

Best CD Rates offered by Bank of America

The rates for Bank of America CD accounts are not tiered. No matter what your deposit amount you will earn the same APY rate. This news is fine for novice investors but it is not good news for investors with large deposit amounts. Please see below how longer terms equate to better high yield cd account rates. The best cd rate offered by Bank of America for their standard cd accounts is 2.25% APY on a five year CD.

Terms and Rates of Bank of America CDs

Other options by Bank of America

If the idea of penalties for withdrawing funds in an emergency causes you stress, Bank of America does offer what they term a Risk Free CD®. This account allows you to access your money a anytime during the term without a penalty, but it does require a minimum deposit of $5,000.

You also have the option of choosing a single maturity cd. If you select a single maturity CD, then your account will not automatically renew and it also will not earn interest after the maturity date.
Are you an investor with $10,000 or more? You can open what Bank of America calls a high yield cd. These high yield cd accounts from Bank of America are 12 month cds and have a rate return of .7% APY.

If you read the fine print, you will find that you can open a CD with a term as short as 7 days, but you must have an initial deposit of $15,000 in order to do this.

For those who have been leery of high rate cd accounts due to the fact that usually you are locked into a certain rate of return, Bank of America offers a CD where you can bump up your rate once. These are called Opt-Up CDs. You can only raise the rate once during the term. This is beneficial only if the rates of return rise in general. Here again, to qualify for this option you have to have a minimum deposit of much more than a standard cd account, $10,000, in fact.

Summary of Bank of America’s online cd accounts

Bank of America is one of the best banks when it comes to offering a large amount of choices to their customers; however, they do not have the best cd rates. This is especially important to consider with cd accounts since usually you are locked into the rate of return that is available when you apply for the account. Bank of America is definitely not the best “bang for your buck”. To compare cd rates you can look at Bank Truth’s Bank rate charts and their CD rates chart. Just one example would be that Ally Bank offers a rate of return on their 6 month high yield cd account that is more than triple what Bank of America offers on their standard cd accounts.

If the locked in rate does not fit with your financial goals, consider reviewing our articles on savings accounts and money market accounts to see if those options fit better for you.

If you are interested in finding out what other products and services are offered by Bank of America, please see our detailed review of Bank of America.