Vanguard sells certificates of deposit only in brokered form: CDs issued by banks, held in a Vanguard Brokerage Account, and bought and sold through a dealer network of more than 100 dealers, with a $1,000 minimum and $1,000 steps above it. Online, a new issue carries no commission, a secondary-market purchase costs $1 per $1,000 of face amount up to $250, and a sale before maturity is commission-free; by phone, the secondary purchase and the sale each cost $25 more for clients with under $1 million of qualifying assets. There is no early-withdrawal penalty: the usual way out before maturity is a sale, at whatever price a buyer will pay, and a sale is not assured.
This page prints no Vanguard rate. Vanguard summarises its current offerings in a yield table on its CD page, with an "As of" line, and the figures change as offerings and prices do. Vanguard's terms below come from its own pages, its commission and fee schedule effective 10 July 2026 and its CD Disclosure Statement, a 2023 document. The general mechanics are in what a brokered CD is; the comparison with a bank's own CD is brokered CD vs bank CD.
What Vanguard sells, and whose obligation it is
Every CD on the shelf is brokered: if a CD is not, Vanguard's CD page says, Vanguard Brokerage "can't purchase or hold the security". The CD Disclosure Statement describes each CD as a deposit of the issuing bank and "not, either directly or indirectly, an obligation of" Vanguard. The CD page says every brokered CD Vanguard offers "passes a credit-quality test and is FDIC insured"; the fine print on the same page adds that Vanguard Brokerage "makes no judgment as to the creditworthiness of the issuing institution and does not recommend or endorse CDs in any way".
Vanguard is paid differently on the two ways in:
- New issues are bought directly from banks, the CD page says. Vanguard acts as principal on them, charges no commission online and generally receives a fee concession from the issuer.
- Secondary-market CDs are bought from another market participant. Vanguard acts as agent, "executing the trade at the price you've chosen and charging a commission", and adds: "There is no markup or markdown."
You receive no certificate. The bank issues master certificates, held by a securities depository as subcustodian, and your Vanguard statement reflects your ownership.
How Vanguard shows CD rates, and what the figure means
The table on the CD page has two columns, maturity term and yield, and Vanguard defines its contents: "Yield table results indicate the highest yield to worst for a given security's maturity and rating." Some of those yields, it warns, may be on callable CDs, and its detailed CD rates show "the possible yield differences between callable and noncallable CDs".
In FINRA's bond definitions, yield to maturity is the overall rate earned by someone who buys at the market price and holds to maturity, yield to call runs the same calculation to a call date and call price, and yield to worst is "whichever of a bond's YTM and YTC is lower" (FINRA's explainer). On a CD that cannot be called, yield to worst is simply the yield to maturity; on a callable one, it is the lower of the two.
A new issue's price is disclosed up front. Vanguard's primary-market list says so ("Price for all investors disclosed up front") and adds "No bid-ask spread" and "No price flexibility"; a fixed-rate CD then pays the same rate for its whole life.
A secondary-market CD's yield comes from its price. On a fixed-rate CD the coupon, in Vanguard's words the rate "stated on the CD", does not change. The price does: "If interest rates rise, the price of outstanding CDs will generally decline." Prices are quoted against par, 100.00 being the face amount, and price and yield move in opposite directions. On an illustrative CD with a 4.00% coupon, three years left and annual payments, the yield to maturity is 4.00% at 100.00, about 3.64% at 101.00 and about 4.36% at 99.00.
The fee schedule adds that CD prices "are price indications only" and that online secondary-market prices "are before commissions". For an official yardstick, the FDIC's national CD averages and same-term Treasury yields are on which banks have the best CD rates.
The fees
The figures are from the schedule effective 10 July 2026. QA, qualifying assets, is generally the value of what you own at Vanguard plus, where applicable, assets associated with your residential address.
| Transaction | Commission |
|---|---|
| Buy a new issue online | $0 |
| Buy on the secondary market, online | $1 per $1,000 of face amount, $250 maximum |
| Buy on the secondary market, by phone | The same, plus a $25 broker-assisted commission if your QA is under $1 million |
| Sell before maturity, online | $0 |
| Sell before maturity, by phone | $25 broker-assisted commission if your QA is under $1 million |
The $1 per $1,000 reaches its $250 cap at $250,000 of face amount. The broker-assisted commission comes "in addition to other applicable fees or commissions" and does not apply if online trading is unavailable and you have to call. The CD table attaches it to secondary-market trades and phone sales but is silent on a new issue ordered by phone; the schedule's general paragraph says only that one "may apply" to a transaction completed by phone.
Two account charges sit outside the table: a $25 annual account service fee Vanguard may charge, waived among other cases for clients who have chosen electronic delivery of account documents or have QA of $1 million or more; and a $100 processing fee it may charge "for each account closure and full transfer of account assets to another firm", with listed exemptions.
A worked example: $10,000 of face, bought and sold
Every price and rate here is illustrative; the fees are Vanguard's. You buy $10,000 of face amount of a secondary-market CD with three years left and an illustrative 4.00% coupon paid annually, at 101.00. A year later yields have risen and the best bid is 99.50. Both trades fall on an interest-payment date, so no accrued interest changes hands.
| Illustrative | Online | By phone, QA under $1 million |
|---|---|---|
| Price: 101.00 on $10,000 of face | $10,100.00 | $10,100.00 |
| Commission, $1 per $1,000 of face | $10.00 | $10.00 |
| Broker-assisted commission | — | $25.00 |
| All-in cost | $10,110.00 | $10,135.00 |
| Interest for the year at the 4.00% coupon | $400.00 | $400.00 |
| Sale: 99.50 on $10,000 of face | $9,950.00 | $9,950.00 |
| Broker-assisted commission on the sale | — | $25.00 |
| Net sale proceeds | $9,950.00 | $9,925.00 |
| Result for the year | +$240.00 | +$190.00 |
- The commission is the small number. $10 lowers the illustrative yield to maturity from about 3.64% to about 3.61%; the price you accept matters far more.
- A lower price means a higher yield. At 99.50, a buyer of the remaining two years of 4.00% coupons earns about 4.27% a year before commission, in this illustration. Brokered CD vs bank CD prices the effect of a rate rise against a bank CD's penalty.
- Held to maturity, the purchase returns $1,200 of interest and $10,000 of face for $10,110: $1,090 over three years. The $100 paid above par is not repaid at maturity.
- The $100 premium is not insured, the disclosure says.
Interest and maturity
A new issue earns interest from its settlement date, the day the money leaves your settlement fund for the issuing bank. The bank sets the payment schedule: a CD of a year or less generally pays at maturity, longer ones may pay monthly, quarterly, semiannually or, the disclosure adds, annually, and each CD's description shows which. Interest is simple ("Interest on CDs is not compounded"), and each payment goes to the settlement fund of the account that bought the CD. Vanguard's explainer calls the destination a Vanguard money market fund, and the FDIC does not insure money market mutual funds, so check what yours is.
Nothing renews: "The CDs will not be automatically renewed or rolled over." At maturity, principal and interest land in the settlement fund as cash and the CD leaves your holdings. Maturities run from one to three months up to ten years and more, and Vanguard Brokerage "doesn't offer pre-built CD ladders", so a ladder here is one you assemble rung by rung, as the CD ladder guide sets out.
Getting out before maturity
Vanguard's CD page: "Brokered CDs don't have early withdrawal penalties like bank CDs. To get out of a brokered CD early, you have to sell it." Vanguard's documents describe the sale:
- No market of Vanguard's own. Vanguard "does not make a market in brokered CDs". At your request it may try to sell your CD in a secondary market maintained by another broker-dealer; it cannot assure you a sale, and that market can be discontinued without notice.
- A price, not a formula. The price will likely turn on rate movements, time to maturity and other market conditions. Proceeds may be less than par or than the estimated price on your statement, which is "not based on actual market prices".
- Accrued interest goes to the seller, Vanguard's explainer says.
- Tax: the disclosure's tax summary, which covers original purchasers only, says a sale realises a gain or loss; what a brokered CD is covers how the interest is taxed in a taxable account and where the IRS text on early sales runs short.
The route back to the bank is narrow. On the owner's death or adjudicated incompetence, early withdrawal of the whole CD "will generally be permitted without penalty", usually against written verification the bank accepts; a partial withdrawal is not permitted. Beyond those limited rights, the disclosure says, "You do not have the right to redeem the CDs". A bank CD's exit is a penalty disclosed in advance, priced on the penalty page; this one is a market price, set on the day you sell.
Callable and non-callable CDs
Vanguard sells both. A callable CD lets the issuing bank "terminate the CD on a date prior to maturity", paying your principal plus interest up to, but not including, the call date; a non-callable CD cannot be called before maturity. The disclosure says the bank "is most likely to call the CDs when interest rates on comparable deposit obligations are lower than the interest rate paid on the CDs", warns that you may then be unable to reinvest at the same rate, and adds: "If you purchase a callable CD in the secondary market at a premium, you will receive only the par amount if the CD is called." Had the worked example's CD been callable and called after a year, it would have paid $400 of interest and $10,000 of par for $10,110: $290, with the premium and the commission lost.
FDIC insurance, in Vanguard's words
Vanguard's CD page gives coverage of "up to $250,000 in brokered CD purchases from each bank" and adds: "You're responsible for monitoring the total assets you hold at each bank for FDIC coverage and limitations." The disclosure explains:
- Pass-through. CDs held in the name of an agent or nominee, as in a Vanguard account, are not treated as Vanguard's; they are added to your other deposits in the same ownership category at that bank, held directly or through any other intermediary, and principal and accrued interest are insured to $250,000 in total. The FDIC's conditions, and what happens when they fail, are on are CDs FDIC insured.
- IRAs share one limit. One bank's deposits held through traditional, Roth, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, section 457 plans and self-directed Keogh and 401(k) plans are insured to $250,000 in total. The FDIC insures each ownership category separately, so that limit sits apart from your single-owner deposits at the same bank.
- Premiums are not insured, including any premium in the estimated value on your statement.
The brokerage failing is a different event. Vanguard Brokerage Services is a division of Vanguard Marketing Corporation, member FINRA and SIPC. SIPC treats CDs held at a member firm as securities, within its $500,000 limit rather than its $250,000 cash limit, and protects their custody, not their value; FDIC insurance does not protect against a broker's failure.
The death-of-holder feature
Vanguard's CD explainer says all CDs offered by Vanguard Brokerage carry a "Conditional Put–Death of Holder" feature, also called the Survivor Option: if a client dies while holding the CD, the heirs can put it back to the bank "at full face value with no penalty", with interest to the date of death. The 2023 disclosure is more guarded ("will generally be permitted without penalty"), and the explainer is undated, so check the CD's own description before counting on it.
CDs and IRAs at Vanguard
At Vanguard, brokered CDs can be held only in a Vanguard Brokerage Account. Vanguard also offers an IRA in brokerage form, the Vanguard Brokerage IRA, with Vanguard Fiduciary Trust Company as custodian; its IRA investment-options page lists CDs among "other choices to consider for your IRA", and the disclosure has passages written for CDs held in an IRA. The key one: a CD in an IRA is "not eligible for early withdrawal simply because" required minimum distributions must begin, and the disclosure suggests maturities that line up with the withdrawals, or the secondary market.
The disclosure still shows an older starting age for those distributions. The current one is 73 for most people reaching it now and 75 for anyone born in 1960 or later; the RMD calculation page has the cohorts. Where someone owns several traditional IRAs, their RMDs can be totalled and taken from any one or more of them, so the distribution need not come out of the CD, as IRA CD rules explains; what an IRA CD is covers the IRA as the wrapper around the deposit.
Moving CDs to or from Vanguard
Brokered CDs held at another firm can move to Vanguard in kind; bank CDs cannot, and an asset that is not eligible, Vanguard says, "usually needs to be sold and transferred as cash instead". Outward, the disclosure lets you transfer a CD to another agent that is a member of the same securities depository, and the $100 charge may apply to a full account transfer.
What to check before you place an order
- The issuing bank, and your total there in each ownership category, whoever holds it.
- Callable or not, and the first call date.
- New issue or secondary market. On the secondary market: the price against 100.00, the commission on top and any accrued interest.
- The payment schedule, and what your settlement fund holds.
- The maturity date. Nothing renews.
- For an IRA, that the account appears as eligible on the order, and a maturity that fits your withdrawals.
- For an estate, the death-of-holder terms on the CD's description.
- Online or phone. Below $1 million of QA, a phone trade adds $25 to a secondary purchase and to a sale.
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