Figuring out how much interest you will receive when investing in a Certificate of Deposit (CD) is easy with a CD Rate Calculator. One enters the CD Rate term, initial deposit and interest rate and the CD calculator automatically calculates the return.
Some calculators also allow you to enter criteria such as how interest is compounded, usually daily or monthly. After the CD criteria is entered and calculated the ending balance, including interest earned and Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is given.
The Annual Percentage Yield is the effective annual interest rate earned on a CD. The CD’s APY depends on the frequency of compounding and the interest rate. The best way to compare the rate of return on a CD is using the APY since it is the actual interest you will earn on your investment, use the APY to compare CD’s of different interest rates and compounding frequencies.
There are tons of CD Calculators out there to figure out the best CD Rate, we also use GMAC’s CD calculator since it has all the options we mention. GMAC CD Rate Calculator .
Author: Monitorbankrates.com
August 9th, 2008
