45 Matched Deposit Rates Hold Steady; 5.00% Savings Promotion Still Leads

Publication date: Wednesday, October 28, 2026 | Collection: completed 5 AM Central first-party refresh | Coverage: partial; 9 of 271 previously registered source URLs rechecked

Executive Summary

OnlineBankRates expanded from 139 to 141 Bank Verified institutions, adding 230 first-party rate observations. An exact-comparable audit found 0 increases, 45 unchanged APYs and 0 cuts; the measured panel is too small and selective to establish a nationwide trend. Two newly verified credit unions contributed additional options, but their notable 5.00% 12-month new-money certificate and 4.75% premium five-year certificate have aging (not fresh) effective dates and do not qualify for today's fresh-rate leaderboard. A conditional 5.00% APY savings promotion remains the strongest fresh liquid-cash offer; the highest fresh standard certificate is 4.87% APY on a five-year jumbo term requiring $50,000.

1. Rate Environment

Deposit pricing was stable within the 45 exact-comparable observations: 0.0% increased, 100.0% were unchanged and 0.0% declined. The panel is nonrandom and covers only a fraction of tracked sources, so it does not establish nationwide stability. Borrowing benchmarks are mixed: the two-year Treasury rose 2 basis points Tuesday, while the five- and ten-year yields slipped 2 and 1 basis points; the latest weekly 30-year mortgage average fell 8 basis points.

2. Today's Numbers

Benchmark sources: U.S. Treasury October curve, New York Fed SOFR API, New York Fed EFFR, Federal Reserve H.15, and Freddie Mac PMMS. EFFR and prime are labeled with the latest independently corroborated observations rather than assumed current-day prints. The October 27-28 FOMC meeting was not complete at publication cutoff.

3. Biggest Verified Moves

Today's matched panel: 0 increases, 45 unchanged, 0 cuts. The 45 independently dated comparisons comprise 24 Advancial, 11 Bank5 Connect, 9 Marcus and 1 Ally products. Product, maturity, balance tier and material eligibility were matched. Another 185 appended records did not qualify, including first observations, repeated effective dates, undated rates and inexact eligibility descriptions. In particular, 19 Northpointe and one Apple Starter Certificate possible matches were excluded because the refreshed geographic language was less specific than earlier disclosures.

Seven calendar days, October 22-28: 5 verified increase events, 364 unchanged comparison events and 0 cuts across the daily published audits. These are events, not unique nationwide products. The largest increase was Bank5 Connect's three-month CD, 3.20% to 4.30% (+110 basis points), captured October 23. Other increases were America First Credit Union's five-year certificate (+10 bp, October 22) and three Ally savings/money-market/IRA savings observations (+10 bp each, October 25). No verified rate cut qualified during the window.

4. Where Savers Are Winning

Apple Federal Credit Union's 5.00% 12-month Starter Certificate is a capped special (maximum $5,000, one per membership), not a standard uncapped CD. The newly captured Truliant 5.00% 12-month new-money certificate is dated October 2, and Stanford FCU's 4.75% premium five-year certificate is dated October 1; both are aging under the consistent 8-30-day rule (Stanford 27 days, Truliant 26 days). Both are excluded from the fresh leaderboard. Truliant separately offers a freshly dated 3.80% promotional money market, below Bank5's 4.00% leader.

5. Borrower Watch

Freddie Mac's latest 30-year fixed mortgage average is 7.32% (October 22), down 8 basis points week over week; the 15-year average is 6.68%, down 3 basis points. The indicative 30-year mortgage minus 10-year Treasury spread is 233 basis points, using non-synchronous October 22 mortgage and October 27 Treasury observations. Prime is 7.00%; SOFR is 3.95%, up 2 basis points from October 26. The prime-minus-EFFR difference is 312 basis points. Mortgage quotes vary with borrower characteristics, points, loan type and lender margins.

6. Yield Curve / CD Strategy

The Treasury curve is upward sloping (10-year minus 2-year = +29 bp). The highest observed three-month CD and five-year jumbo certificate modestly exceed matched-maturity Treasury par yields, while the Treasury has the nominal advantage at six months, one year, two years and ten years. Liquid savings yields can change; CDs lock a term but may impose withdrawal penalties. Treasury securities have distinct state-tax treatment and market-price risk if sold before maturity. This is general educational information, not individualized advice.

7. Bank Behavior

The credit-union savings panel includes low-yield basic share accounts, and some online offers have promotions or activity requirements. These are nonrandom sample averages, not national bank-category averages. No institution group recorded a verified move in today's panel, so the data do not identify a fastest repricer. Across the seven-day event panel, four increases involved online-oriented banks and one involved a credit union; coverage differences prevent a valid speed ranking.

8. OnlineBankRates Takeaway

Today's first-party refresh found no verified rate increases or cuts among 45 strictly matched deposit products. Two credit unions joined the database, but their newly captured certificate rates carry aging effective dates and do not qualify for today's fresh-rate rankings. The highest fresh savings APY remains 5.00% at Axos, subject to a six-month promotion, checking activity and balance restrictions. A 4.20% introductory savings offer and 4.00% money-market account provide other options. For CDs, a 4.45% one-year special and a 4.87% five-year jumbo certificate stand out, although the latter requires $50,000. Treasury yields remain competitive across most maturities, and the latest 30-year mortgage average is 7.32%. The OnlineBankRates indexes were unchanged, reflecting a stable eligible panel rather than proof of nationwide stability. Always compare effective dates, eligibility, taxes and withdrawal penalties.

9. Proprietary Metrics

Consistent v2.2 methodology: The Savings Index is the unweighted average of the highest fresh adult consumer savings APY at each eligible institution; youth, IRA, business and education-only accounts are excluded, while conditional consumer offers are retained with disclosures. The 12-Month CD Index uses the highest eligible fresh standard exact-12-month certificate per institution, excluding capped Starter/EasyStart, youth, IRA and business specials; jumbo deposits remain eligible with minimums disclosed. Best Cash Yield is the highest fresh consumer savings or money-market APY, including conditional promotions. Bank Rate Breadth is the count and share of strictly comparable increases, unchanged observations and cuts. A Fed Pass-Through Score would measure the percentage of a verified policy move transmitted to a fixed matched deposit cohort over 30 days. The online premium would be the basis-point difference between comparable online-bank and national-bank savings cohorts. Neither is published without adequate matching evidence.

10. Data Coverage

New institutions: Truliant Federal Credit Union and Stanford Federal Credit Union. Three source attempts failed to yield numerical capture (including dynamic pages at Dupaco); no third-party APYs were substituted. Only 9 of 271 previously registered URLs were checked, so this report is a partial first-party refresh, not a census.

Freshness reconciliation: The collector marks rates STALE after 21 days, while the editorial historical standard defines AGING as 8-30 days and STALE as 31+ days. Recomputing directly from the source-effective dates gives 537 fresh, 2,085 aging, 730 stale and 584 undated, exactly reconciling to 3,936 production rows. The raw collector's 1,532 stale includes 802 observations aged 22-30 days and is retained separately for audit, not used as the comparable editorial count.

Disclosure: All institution-level APYs are from the October 28 completed OnlineBankRates first-party dataset and preserve original official effective dates. Bank Verified indicates institution-owned source provenance, not unrestricted current availability. Historical observations are append-only. Proprietary indexes are partial, nonrandom panel measures, not national averages. Product APYs, membership, balance caps, fees and withdrawal terms can change without notice. The rate-comparison audit and metrics history accompany this publication.

Official Institution Rate Sources

Bank5 Connect · Marcus · Advancial · Axos · First National Bank of America · Apple FCU · Truliant FCU · Stanford FCU · OMB Bank