All three of these are insured deposit accounts. None of them can lose your money the way an investment can. So the comparison isn’t really about safety — it’s about what you’re willing to give up to get a better rate, and the answer depends almost entirely on when you need the cash back.
Here’s the short version: savings for money you might need, CDs for money you won’t touch, money market accounts when you want a decent rate and a debit card.
What each one actually is
A high-yield savings account pays a variable rate and lets you withdraw whenever. The bank can change the rate tomorrow, with no notice and no recourse. If you’re fuzzy on how these work, the HYSA basics covers the mechanics.
A CD (certificate of deposit) pays a fixed rate for a fixed term: three months, a year, five years. Break it early and you pay a penalty, usually measured in months of interest. In exchange you get the one thing savings can’t offer: a rate in writing.
A money market account is a savings account with cheque-writing or a debit card bolted on. Same insurance, same variable rate, slightly better rate than plain savings on average, sometimes a higher minimum balance.
What the averages say
| Product | National average | Rate cap |
|---|---|---|
| Savings | 0.38% | 4.38% |
| Money market | 0.65% | 4.38% |
| 6-month CD | 1.38% | 5.56% |
| 12-month CD | 1.68% | 5.53% |
| 24-month CD | 1.56% | 5.72% |
| 36-month CD | 1.34% | 5.73% |
| 60-month CD | 1.36% | 5.78% |
Read that table with one caveat firmly in mind: these are averages weighted by deposits, so they’re pulled down hard by the enormous branch banks where most American money sits. They tell you what the typical dollar earns, not what’s available. A competitive online savings account will beat the average CD in that table without locking up a cent.
Which is the first real conclusion: the category doesn’t decide the winner, the specific account does. “CDs pay more than savings” is true on average and frequently false in practice.
The CD curve is trying to tell you something
Look at the CD column again, in order: 1.38% at six months, 1.68% at twelve, then down to 1.56%, 1.34%, and 1.36% as the term stretches to five years.
View the data
| 6mo | 1.38% |
|---|---|
| 12mo | 1.68% |
| 24mo | 1.56% |
| 36mo | 1.34% |
| 48mo | 1.26% |
| 60mo | 1.36% |
Source: FDIC — National Rates and Rate Caps, effective 20 July 2026, accessed .
Normally you’re paid more for lending money longer. Here you’re paid less. That inversion is banks pricing in an expectation that rates will be lower a few years from now — they won’t promise you 1.68% for five years if they think they’ll be paying half that by year three.
Two practical takeaways. First, the sweet spot on that curve is around twelve months, and stretching to five years for a lower rate makes no sense unless you specifically want the certainty. Second, the fact that banks expect lower rates later is an argument for locking something in now rather than sitting entirely in a variable-rate account — but only for money you were never going to touch anyway.
Which one wins, by timeline
| You need the money… | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| This month, or you’re not sure | High-yield savings | The rate gap is small and a penalty would wipe it out |
| In 6–18 months, date known | CD matching that term | Best point on the curve, and the rate is guaranteed |
| Spending from it regularly | Money market | Card and cheque access without dropping to checking-account rates |
| In 5+ years | None of these | Cash loses to inflation over that horizon |
The single biggest mistake in this category is putting an emergency fund in a CD. The whole point of an emergency fund is that emergencies don’t check your maturity date, and the penalty for being wrong is several months of interest.
The penalty is the number that decides it
Before any CD, find one figure in the terms: the early withdrawal penalty. It’s usually expressed as a number of months’ interest: three months on a one-year CD, six or twelve on longer terms.
Run the arithmetic on the downside, not just the upside. On a $10,000 12-month CD at 1.68%, a three-month interest penalty is roughly $42. That’s survivable. On a five-year CD with a twelve-month penalty, breaking it in year one doesn’t just cost your gains — you can come out behind where a savings account would have left you. The penalty, not the rate, is what makes a CD the right or wrong product for you.
A note on laddering, without the jargon
If you like the certainty of a CD but hate the idea of locking everything away, split the money across several terms: some at six months, some at twelve, some at twenty-four. As each one matures you decide again: spend it, or roll it into a new term at whatever rates have become.
You give up a little rate for a lot of flexibility, and in a market where nobody agrees on the direction of the next move (the Fed held at 3.50–3.75% in July 2026, with three of its own members voting to raise instead), spreading your bets is a reasonable response to genuine uncertainty rather than a clever trick.
Whichever you pick, the protection is identical: $250,000 per depositor, per bank, per ownership category. Rate is the only variable actually worth shopping for, and the rest of these products, cash ISAs and term deposits included, are laid out in the savings accounts guide.