TotalBank’s 3-Month CD Rates Reign Again

TotalBank tops our rankings of the best 3-month CD rates for the fifth straight month.

The small Florida bank has 16 branches in the Miami area and is owned by Banco Popular Espanol SA, Spain’s third largest bank.

Although TotalBank’s current rate of 1.65% APY is substantially lower than the 2.55% APY it was offering in June, it’s still a quarter-point higher than the next best nationally available deal.

It’s also four times more than the average return of 0.41% APY on 3-month certificates of deposit. (For most of November that average was down to a record low 0.40% APY.)

Although TotalBank still allows anyone with a $1,000 or more to buy one of its top-paying CDs, we’re seeing a disturbing trend toward much higher minimum payments.

A year ago it was unusual to find banks demanding investments of $10,000 or more to qualify for the best rates. Today it’s not.

The other top nationally available rates for 3-month CDs are:
1.40% APY with a $50,000 minimum deposit from MetLife Bank, an online bank owned by the insurance giant. Or you can earn 1.30% with a $25,000 minimum deposit.

1.22% APY with a $8,000 minimum from UFBDirect.com. CDs sold at this Web site actually come from Waterfield Bank, which has a couple of full-service offices in Carmel, Ind., and Germantown, Md.

Click here to compare these rates with the best CD rates from dozens of other banks in our extensive database.