CD interest rates are nothing to write home about right now at least you have different types of certificates of deposits that work in different ways. With a traditional CD account you place your money in the account until maturity, now some banks are offering CD accounts that allow you to withdraw your money before maturity without incurring a penalty.

Other banks are advertising CD accounts that allow you to increase CD rates during the CD term. In fact, Ally Bank allows you to increase the CD rates on the Raise Your Rate CD once during the term. Ally Bank is also offering longer term Raise Your Rate CD account that allows you to increase the CD rates twice during the term. Now only if market CD rates at banks will go higher.

The no penalty CD accounts allow you to open the account and take money out if you need access to it but if you open a regular CD account find out what is the penalty if you withdraw part or your entire principal.

Some banks or credit unions have account features that may allow you get CD rates that are higher than what they are offering to regular customers, usually with these CD accounts you have to have a loan with the bank or credit union.

Yet other CD accounts are offered by a brokerage firms but these CD accounts have different CD rates and the accounts act differently, the accounts come with extra risks and costs. Therefore you need to understand how the CD rates on these accounts are and how these accounts differ from traditional CD accounts.

Speaking of traditional CD accounts the old standby, FDIC-insured CD accounts, are insured for up to $250,000 per depositor, per account. When you open a CD account you agree to keep the money in an account for a set term, maybe a day or several years. For your money the financial institution pays you interest in the form of CD rates.

The best place to get higher CD rates is online, all you need to do is search and compare bank CD rates and credit union CD rates, there are several websites that aggregate CD rates from many sources.