What is a certificate of deposit?

Designed as a safe and secure place to hold your money, a Certificate of Deposit (CD) allows you to hold money for a specific amount of time whilst earning interest regardless of what the market does. They are a useful tool for building your savings plan and it’s possible to find CDs that offer competitive rates, allowing you to grow your money faster than you might with a traditional savings or money market account.  

How do CD’s work?

Opening a CD account is similar to opening a savings account. You’ll probably need a minimal initial deposit, (though this can vary from bank to bank), the difference is that you’ll have to choose a CD term which is the length of time your money will be kept in the CD.  

Terms can range from as little as 28-30 days, or as long as 10 years. As a general rule of thumb, the longer the CD term, the higher the interest rate, but there are exceptions. Bump-up and step-up CDs offer the opportunity to raise your rate once or twice during the CD term.  

Climate First Bank Top Three Reasons to Open a CD.

One: Safe and guaranteed returns

CDs are some of the safest places to keep your money as the money held in a CD is insured. As long as you purchase your CD account through an FDIC-insured bank (like Climate First Bank!), you’re covered and your money will be safe.  

CDs are a useful tool for financial planning as they offer predictable results and it’s easy to determine how much interest you’ll earn over time, since rates are typically fixed for the entire term. So, if you’re saving for a long-term goal, CDs offer a safe and reliable platform.  

Two: No monthly maintenance fees

Some savings accounts or money market accounts charge a monthly maintenance fee to use the account, which can quickly eat into your interest earnings. CDs typically don’t charge a monthly maintenance fee, so you can keep all of the interest you earn. Assuming you don’t need to withdraw money from a CD before it matures, CDs can be a fee-friendly way to grow savings.  

Three: With Climate First Bank, your deposits will be used as a force for good

Climate First Bank is the world’s first FDIC-insured community bank founded to combat the climate crisis. Unlike most banks, Climate First Bank uses customers’ deposits to fund solar loans for both commercial and personal customers. To date, we’ve approved $17.8M of solar loans since we started the program in May 2022. By opening an account with us, you can be sure that we’re not investing your dollars into the fossil fuel industry, instead we’re empowering businesses and individuals to tackle the climate crisis through renewable energy.  

Climate First Bank partners with select organizations to ensure our mission is achieved through measurable impact:  

• B Corp, Climate First Bank is a pending B Corp meaning we are preparing for the full verification with B Lab. We intend to become a fully certified B Corp in 2023.
• 1% For the Planet, we give an equivalent of 1% of gross sales directly to grassroots and environmental nonprofits.  
• U.S. Green Building Council, we join local and international, big and small, and mission and market-driven organizations determined to transform buildings to help build a sustainable future for all.

So, not only will you benefit from a fixed interest rate, guaranteed results, and peace of mind that your money is insured, you’ll also be proactively protecting our planet. And you can do everything online, there’s no need to step foot into a branch.  

For more information, take a look at our personal and business banking products, or contact our Florida-based team at info@climatefirstbank.com.  

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