To appear on this list, the account must be nationally available. Accounts with daily compounding interest schedules were scored higher than those with monthly or quarterly schedules. Minimum deposit requirements of $10,000 or higher affected scores negatively. The following is the weighting assigned to each category:ĬD accounts with higher APYs rose to the top of the list. We also analyzed and ranked each account by individual term. For the star rating, we ranked each account on 11 data points within the categories of APY, minimums, compound interest schedule, customer experience, digital experience, available terms and overall availability. To create this list, Forbes Advisor analyzed 142 CD and share certificate accounts across 84 financial institutions, including a mix of traditional brick-and-mortar banks, online banks and credit unions.