[📌 Update February, 2022: Some of Synchrony Bank’s CD (certificate of deposit) rates rose this month. Mainly their mid-range CDs with terms 6 – 24 months. They also added a new 14 month promotional CD yielding 5.00% APY, which is now their highest rate. See all of Synchrony Bank’s CD rates below.]

Synchrony Bank is an ultra-convenient, online-only bank that you’ve probably seen advertised in various places online over the years.

More than just the result of good marketing, Synchrony has gained a great deal of recognition and praise for regularly having some of the best rates on the market across their product suite. The likes of Nerdwallet, MyBankTracker, and Bankrate have awarded this bank for having the best CD and savings accounts for multiple years.

This bank traces its history all the way back to 1932 when General Electric founded the GE Contracts Corporation for financing appliance purchases. This became the General Electric Capital Corporation or GE Capital in 1943. GE Capital remained in operation for more than a half century before being spun off and rebranded as Synchrony Bank on June 2, 2014.

Synchrony Bank’s current deposit products feature above average rates on a wide range of variable and fixed rate accounts. Synchrony Bank doesn’t offer a checking account at this time however, therefore may not meet all of your banking needs.

Synchrony Bank has a high yield savings account, CDs, IRA CDs, a money market account, and IRA money market accounts in its current lineup. These are all competitive, interest-bearing accounts that can be opened and managed digitally. This can be done online or with the highly-rated MySynchrony mobile app(s) for Apple or Android devices.

All of Synchrony Bank’s deposit products are federally insured by the FDIC up to $250,000 per depositor or $500,000 for joint accounts.

Below is our full review of Synchrony Bank’s deposit products.

Synchrony Bank CD Rates + Account Details

Synchrony Bank has plenty of CD terms to choose from with competitive rates across the board. All certificates of deposit at Synchrony Bank require a minimum opening deposit of $2,000. Like all other savings accounts with Synchrony, interest is compounded daily and credited monthly.

CD Rates

To put these offers in perspective the current national average for a 12 month CD and a 60 month CD sit at just 1.36% and 1.26% APY, respectively, according to recent FDIC data.

15 Day Best Rate Guarantee

A 15-day Best Rate Guarantee is applied to all Synchrony bank CDs. This means that if you open a CD and fund it sufficiently within 15 calendar days and the posted rate then becomes higher than what you locked into, the new higher rate will be applied to your account. Don’t underestimate the value of this free insurance during periods of high rate fluctuation.

📌 Please Note – APY GUY reader Richard reached out to us to clarify the 15 day rule. As per his experience, Synchrony Bank only applies the higher yield if the CD is unfunded when their rates change. Once funded the CD rate is locked-in. He noted that he had purchased a CD and funded it on the same day, then 6 days later Synchrony Bank raised their CD rates, however, his CD was not eligible for the new rate. We’ve reached out to Synchrony Bank for clarification and will post the response here.

Early Withdrawal Penalties & Grace Period

Early withdrawal penalties will be charged when you withdraw funds after opening an account but before it reaches maturity or after the 10 day grace period is up following maturity. This will be 90 days’ simple interest for terms of 12 months or less, 180 days’ simple interest for terms between 12 and 48 months, and 365 days’ simple interest for terms of 48 months or more.

CDs automatically renew at maturity and have a grace period of 10 days in which you can deposit or add funds freely.

Opening an Account

As is the case with many digital banks, just about anyone can open a deposit account with Synchrony Bank.

To open an account, you must be a U.S. citizen at or above the age of 18, have a valid Social Security number, phone number, and mailing address within the United States.

To get started, visit the Synchrony Bank website and select “Open Account.”

You will first be asked whether or not this is your first Synchrony Bank account, then you will be provided with a form to fill out.

The final step, after signing a couple of agreements and opting in to online access, will be to fund your account. This can be done in a few different ways.

Funding your Deposit Account

Fund your Synchrony Bank savings accounts via:

• ACH transfer from an external account,
• transfer from a Synchrony account,
• mobile check deposit,
• direct deposit from a third party,
• wire transfer, or
• personal check mailed to: Synchrony Bank, PO Box 105972, Atlanta, GA 30348-5972