An IRA CD's rate is set by the bank or credit union that issues it, in its IRA rate table. At four of the five institutions whose tables were compared for this page, checked on 27 September 2026, each IRA certificate paid exactly what the same certificate paid outside an IRA; at the fifth, some paid less. So compare an IRA CD as you would any certificate: against the FDIC's monthly national rate for its term, printed with its date on which banks have the best CD rates, and then against the IRA rate table, not the ordinary CD table, of each institution you are considering.
This page prints no rate and names no institution. It covers what those five institutions' IRA tables and terms showed, what to compare besides the yield, and how to move an IRA CD to a better offer without a tax bill. What an IRA CD is, and how it differs from a certificate held outside an IRA, are covered in what is an IRA CD and IRA CD vs CD.
Where the rate comes from, and what five IRA tables showed
The IRA decides how the interest is taxed; the institution decides what it is. Two large online banks and three credit unions had their IRA and ordinary certificate rates read side by side on 27 September 2026; three more institutions on the list could not be read that day and are not counted. All five say their offered rates may change, and at all five a maturing certificate renews by default at the rate the institution sets at renewal. Five is not a survey, but it shows how the two tables can differ:
- At four of the five, the rates matched. Every IRA certificate paid exactly what the same certificate paid outside an IRA, term for term, in every balance tier the IRA table offered. One credit union prints a single table for ordinary, IRA and education-savings certificates.
- At two of those four, both credit unions, the menus matched too. Every term, tier and special on offer outside the IRA was on offer inside it.
- At the other two, the IRA menu was shorter. One online bank offered no no-penalty certificate inside an IRA. One credit union had no jumbo tier for IRA certificates, so an IRA balance above its jumbo threshold would have earned the standard rate, where the same money in an ordinary jumbo certificate would have earned more.
- At the fifth, an online bank, the rates differed. Its IRA and ordinary tables, on separate pages, listed the same sixteen certificates. Nine matched to the hundredth of a point. Seven paid less inside the IRA than the same certificate outside it, all of them short or odd-length terms: the 6- and 9-month terms and the 13-, 14-, 15-, 16- and 19-month terms. Its ordinary table says its offers apply to "personal non-IRA accounts only".
So an institution's ordinary CD table, or an advertised CD rate, does not settle what its IRA certificates pay. The IRA table, read at your term and your balance, does.
The baseline, and using it for an IRA CD
The FDIC publishes a national rate for each standard CD term every month, eight terms from one month to 60 months: an average of the rates paid by "all insured depository institutions and credit unions for which data is available", weighted by each institution's share of domestic deposits. Nothing in its table is labelled IRA, so for an IRA certificate the CD row for the same term is the nearest baseline. Which banks have the best CD rates prints the table with its effective date and explains what the average does and does not measure.
Two refinements. The FDIC publishes only the maturities most commonly offered, which it calls "on-tenor", so a 13- or 19-month certificate, two of the terms where one bank's IRA rates fell short, has no row of its own. For its rate caps, the FDIC measures an off-tenor certificate against the next shorter standard term (a 26-month certificate against the 24-month rate), and a shopper can borrow the same yardstick. And compare yields, not interest rates: a rate table may print both, and only the APY is comparable across institutions, as APR vs APY explains.
Who sells IRA CDs
The IRS limits an IRA's trustee or custodian to "a bank, a federally insured credit union, a savings and loan association, or an entity approved by the IRS", and IRA certificates come from three kinds of institution.
Banks and savings institutions sell IRA CDs, insured by the FDIC. Credit unions sell IRA share certificates, insured by the NCUA rather than the FDIC and open to members; credit union CD rates covers membership and the NCUA check. Brokerages sell brokered CDs, issued by banks and bought through a brokerage account, and one large brokerage's CD page names an IRA among the accounts that can buy them; the SEC says they generally have no early-withdrawal penalty and can generally be sold on a secondary market instead, subject to market conditions, which makes them a separate comparison from this one.
What to compare besides the yield
These are the other terms to compare, with what the five institutions' own documents showed when checked on 27 September 2026: a snapshot of five, not a rule.
| Check | Why it matters in an IRA | What the five showed |
|---|---|---|
| The IRA rate table, at your term and balance | The ordinary table may not apply to IRA money | Matched the ordinary rate at four; seven of sixteen terms lower at one |
| The term menu | The certificate you want may not exist inside an IRA | Shorter at two: no no-penalty certificate at one, no jumbo tier at another |
| The minimum | A small contribution can fall below it | For the standard certificate, the same inside and outside the IRA at all five, from none to $1,000 |
| The early-withdrawal penalty | The institution's penalty is separate from any IRS tax | The ordinary schedule applied to IRA certificates at all five |
| The penalty waivers | Reaching 59½ ends the IRS's additional tax, but the institution's penalty only if its terms say so | The owner's death at all five; required minimum distributions at four; reaching 59½ at none |
| Renewal and the grace period | A missed grace period locks the money in for another term at the renewal rate | Renewal by default at all five, at the rate set at renewal; a grace period of 10 days at four, 21 at one |
| IRA account fees | A fee for transferring out comes off whatever a move gains | The two IRA custodial agreements read both reserve the right to charge transfer and closing fees |
| The transfer-in process | When the old institution releases the money decides whether its penalty applies | At the two whose documents spelled it out, the receiving institution starts it |
| Deposit insurance | All your IRA deposits at one institution share one limit | Set by the FDIC and the NCUA, not the institution: $250,000 across all of them at a bank; IRA and Roth IRA shares combined to $250,000 at a credit union |
Penalties and waivers
An early exit from an IRA CD can cost twice: the institution's penalty, a term of its contract, and, if the money leaves the IRA before 59½, the IRS's additional tax, whose exceptions are on IRA CD rules. Reaching 59½ ends the second. It does not end the first unless the institution's terms say so. Regulation D lists an IRA owner reaching 59½ or becoming disabled among the cases in which a time deposit may be paid early without the penalty that regulation specifies; it permits such a payout and requires none. Of the five waiver lists read on 27 September 2026, none named either. All five named the owner's death. Four named required minimum distributions, in wording that ran from "We'll waive" to "At our option", one of them only for traditional and SEP IRAs.
If you hold other traditional IRA money, the RMD need not come out of the certificate at all: the IRS lets you total the RMDs from your traditional IRAs and take the total from any one or more of them. RMDs start at 73 for most people reaching it now, and 75 if born in 1960 or later; the RMD page has the cohort detail.
Fees and insurance
The two IRA custodial agreements read for this page on 27 September 2026, one bank's and one credit union's, both reserve the right to charge fees at the IRA level: one names "transfer fees, closing fees", the other "a transfer, rollover, or termination fee". Ask for the IRA's own fee schedule and look for a fee for transferring out: it is what you would pay to leave for a better rate.
The FDIC adds together one person's IRA deposits at one bank, traditional, Roth, SEP and SIMPLE, with some other retirement deposits, and insures the total to $250,000, separately from that person's single and joint accounts there; naming beneficiaries does not raise it. At a credit union, the NCUA combines IRA and Roth IRA shares to $250,000 under its own rules. A large rollover into one institution can outrun the limit on its own, so add up what you already hold there first, and check the charter rather than the brand, as are CDs FDIC insured explains. Roth money counts in the same total; Roth IRA CD covers the Roth side.
What a better rate is worth inside an IRA (illustrative)
Interest inside a traditional IRA is not taxed until it is withdrawn, and qualified Roth distributions are not taxed at all, so the whole of a better rate compounds for the term. On round, illustrative numbers, 4.00% against 4.25%, held five years:
| Balance | Five years at 4.00% (illustrative) | Five years at 4.25% (illustrative) | The quarter-point is worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $12,166.53 | $12,313.47 | $146.94 |
| $50,000 | $60,832.65 | $61,567.33 | $734.68 |
| $100,000 | $121,665.29 | $123,134.66 | $1,469.37 |
Traditional IRA money is taxed when it comes out, so the last column is before that tax; what the deferral is worth against a certificate held outside an IRA is on IRA CD vs CD. Keep the $50,000 row in mind: it is almost exactly what the illustrative penalty below costs on the same balance.
Moving an IRA CD to a better offer
A transfer, not a rollover
In a trustee-to-trustee transfer, the money goes straight from the old institution to the new one. Publication 590-A says such a transfer "isn’t a rollover": nothing is paid to you, so it is tax free, and the once-a-year limit on rollovers does not apply; the IRS adds that no tax is withheld. At the two institutions of the five whose documents spelled out the process, checked on 27 September 2026, the paperwork starts at the receiving end: you open the IRA there, sign its transfer form, and it sends for the money. Transfers go like to like, traditional to traditional and Roth to Roth; moving traditional money into a Roth IRA is a conversion, with tax of its own, which Roth IRA CD covers. Money from an old workplace plan can come in by a direct rollover, on which the IRS says no tax is withheld; the 401(k) rollover page walks through the mechanics.
The 60-day rollover's once-a-year trap
The other route is to have the old institution pay you, and to deposit the money in the new IRA within 60 days. The payout is subject to withholding unless you elect out, and to roll over the full amount you must replace the withheld part from other money. Publication 590-A allows only one IRA-to-IRA rollover in any one-year period, starting on the day you receive the distribution; it counts all your IRAs together, the IRS cannot waive it, and transfers do not count toward it. A second distribution inside that year cannot be rolled over into an IRA: its previously untaxed amount is taxable, may bring the additional tax and, paid into an IRA anyway, may become an excess contribution taxed every year it stays in. IRA CD rules sets the two routes side by side.
Time it to maturity
A transfer before maturity can cost the old institution's penalty. One receiving bank's transfer form, which moves cash proceeds only, offers to move the money "Immediately" or "At maturity date of" a date you fill in, and warns that "penalties for early withdrawal may apply". The free exit is the grace period after maturity, which ran 10 days at four of the five institutions checked on 27 September 2026 and 21 at the fifth. So the request belongs at the new institution before the maturity date, timed for it. With several IRA CDs, a ladder can keep one maturity, and one penalty-free chance to move, a few months away.
Breaking early to move: the arithmetic (illustrative)
If the better offer will not wait, price the exit first. Every figure here is illustrative: $50,000 in an IRA CD at 3.00%, whose penalty is 180 days' simple interest on the amount withdrawn, $739.73, moved into a new IRA CD at 4.00% for the time the old one had left.
| Time left on the old CD | Stay at 3.00% (illustrative) | Pay the penalty, move at 4.00% (illustrative) | Moving gains | New rate needed to break even |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three years | $54,636.35 | $55,411.10 | $774.75 | 3.51% |
| Two years | $53,045.00 | $53,279.91 | $234.91 | 3.77% |
| One year | $51,500.00 | $51,230.68 | −$269.32 | 4.55% |
The penalty is a fixed cost and the better rate has to pay it back over the time left, so the less time left, the wider the gap has to be: about half a point with three years to go, a point and a half with one. A transfer-out fee raises the bar again. Under a schedule like this one the penalty on a given amount is the same in the last year as in the first, and the five schedules read for this page on 27 September 2026 differed widely; the penalty page sets out the shapes a penalty takes and prices them.
What to actually do
Read the IRA rate table, not the CD table, at your term and your balance.
Measure it against the FDIC row for the term, and for an odd term, against the next shorter standard one.
Read the waiver list and the IRA fee schedule before the rate. Death, required minimum distributions and 59½; then the fee for transferring out.
Time any move to maturity. A transfer requested at the new institution before the maturity date, and timed for it, can avoid the old penalty, and a transfer avoids the withholding and the once-a-year limit of a 60-day rollover.
Add up your IRA deposits at the institution first. One $250,000 limit covers all of them, Roth included.
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