Merrill Lynch CD rates review: can you buy brokered CDs today? Best Merrill Edge CD rates: 6-months, 1-year, 3-years, 5-years.
Merrill Edge CD Rates: Key Points
• Merrill Edge offers certificates of deposit (CDs) with some attractive yields.
• New issues of brokered CDs at Merrill Edge can be traded commission-free.
• The Merrill Edge website has a user-friendly search engine to find brokered CDs.
Besides stocks and funds, Merrill Edge offers a moderate selection of fixed-income vehicles, some of which are brokered CDs. Read on for the details.
Overview of Brokered CDs on Merrill Edge
Merrill Edge offers a range of certificates of deposit that are issued from a variety of banks. These are new issues of CDs available for trading in brokerage accounts at Merrill Edge. These brokered CDs, as they are called, come with competitive interest rates and can be purchased inside both taxable and tax-sheltered accounts at Merrill.
With this service, there’s no need to open multiple accounts at multiple banks. Several CDs can be traded in a single brokerage account at Merrill, which is a major advantage. And the brokered CDs at Merrill Edge have FDIC insurance, which is another plus.
Finding Brokered CDs at Merrill Edge
Thanks to Merrill Edge’s intuitive software, it’s really easy to find brokered CDs available for purchase. Simply log into the website (the mobile app can’t be used for this) and hover over the Research tab in the top menu. A drop-down window will appear; click on the link for fixed income.
Now you’ll have the fixed-income hub. Here, there is a link for the screener that can scan for different classes of fixed-income securities. With the screener launched, be sure to click on the tile for New Issue CDs. There is no need to specify any search criteria; all available CDs will automatically show up. On the day we performed our research, we received 81 results. The yield range was from 5.20% to 3.85%.
Results from a search can be filtered by a variety of criteria. Examples include:
- Coupon rate
- Call date
- Maturity date
- Yield
- Coupon frequency
It’s also possible to sort by these issues and available quantity and minimum purchase quantity. The available quantity on a particular CD can vary widely. For example, one CD from the Bank of Hope had an available quantity of $1,000 (just one CD), while Truist Bank had an available quantity of $62,710,000 (62,710 CDs). Here are some examples of CDs that we found:
| Bank | Maturity date | Yield |
|---|---|---|
| JPMorgan Chase | 3/13/2025 | 5.20% |
| Charles Schwab | 9/16/2025 | 5.15% |
| BMO Harris Bank | 3/8/2025 | 5.15% |
| Bank of China | 9/6/2025 | 5.03% |
| First Republic Bank | 9/11/2025 | 4.91% |
Researching CDs at Merrill Lynch
Each CD has a hyperlinked title. Click on this to pull up a small window with more details, such as coupon frequency and maturity date. Inside this window are Research and Trade buttons. Clicking on the Research button produces a new page will more data points. Examples include call status, insurance status, and the amount of money Merrill Edge makes off of the CD. During our investigation, a CD from Bank of India would pay Merrill 0.10% of principal for selling the CD on its platform.
How to Buy CDs at Merrill Lynch
A trade can be started straight from the search engine. The pop-up window mentioned above has a Trade button that can be used. Alternatively, there is a Trade button on every CD’s profile, and the search results have a trade link in each CD row (click on the three vertical dots to find it).
Every trade link/button produces the same CD order form. The CUSIP of the product will automatically populate in the order ticket, which will repeat some of the same data points already presented on the site. Simply enter the quantity in dollars (typically in multiples of a thousand dollars) and preview the order. If everything looks okay, submit the order.
Merrill Lynch CDs Fees and Minimums
All brokered CDs at Merrill Edge have a face value of $100 with a minimum purchase quantity of $1,000. Because the face value is always $100, the coupon rate and yield on a brokered CD at Merrill will be the same. There is no commission on trades of brokered CDs at Merrill Edge.
Schwab as a Replacement
During our probing on the Merrill Edge site, we could only find new issues of CDs (these are new certificates of deposit coming directly from the bank). If you’re interested in secondary CDs (which are previously-issued CDs trading on the secondary market among investors), Schwab is worth considering. The brokerage house offers both primary and secondary CDs. We found over a hundred new issues and several hundred secondary CDs.
It’s not difficult to find either type of brokered CD on Schwab’s website. Once again, only the website can be used for this type of search. In the main menu, click on the Research tab and select the link in the drop-down window for CDs and fixed income.
On the next page, you’ll see a matrix of fixed-income yields with brokered CDs in the top row. The columns are for maturity lengths, such as 9 months and 4 years. Click on any maturity length you want and you’ll get a list of certificates of deposit with a variety of details, some of which can be sorted (such as coupon rate and maturity date).
The fixed-income hub we have already seen has another tab that contains a different search method. Select the tab for Find Bonds & Fixed Income and you’ll get a search engine to find securities by specified criteria. On this search wizard, click on the link for CDs that appears directly underneath the tab to Find Bonds & Fixed Income.
On this CD page, it’s possible to view CDs or a CD rate table (look for the drop-down menu for View). When selecting the first option (for CDs), you’ll get a search wizard that can be used to scan specifically for new issues or secondary issues (look for the section that says “Include Only”).
Like Merrill Edge, Charles Schwab charges no commissions on trades of new issue CDs. However, there is a commission on secondary CDs. The fee is $1 per bond with a $10 minimum per trade and a $250 maximum.
Learn more about Charles Schwab CDs or read detailed Charles Schwab Review
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Updated on 4/18/2024.
About the Author
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
