You need to assess what your personal need is as far as liquidity goes. How long are you able to be without the cash? Can you handle being without it for a year or maybe a few years? Or perhaps you can only be without it for a few months? Before you begin to look for a high interest CD you need to determine how long you can lock the money away for without needing it for your life purposes.
You must choose the term for the certificate of deposit before you sign up for it and go ahead and make the purchase. As you prepare to do this bear in mind that interest rates change all of the time. They can go up or go down. For this very reason it may not be the wisest move in the world to lock your money into a CD for longer than 12 months if the interest rates are low. An example of this would be if interest rates were less than three to four percent.
In looking for a bank that can offer you a high interest CD it is best to choose no penalty CDs as opposed to regular CDs whenever you can. If you have never heard of no penalty CDs then this is a brief explanation of what they are. They are similar in nature to savings accounts. The interest rate is locked in and you do not pay a penalty if you make the decision to withdraw money from it before the maturation date arrives. In this instance the term of the CD does not matter as much.
When interest rates are good you can lock your money in for however many years is good for you. If one year is right for your life then choose a one-year CD. If a five-year CD is right for you then choose a five-year one. A high interest CD is not as difficult to come upon as you may think!