Promotional CD rate (Bonus CD rate)

Back in olden days (the '90s), when some car windows still had cranks, or when it seemed cool to wear parachute pants, there was a thing called a CD club. You would buy 10 music CDs for a penny each, but then you started getting more CDs in the mail each month...ones you had to pay full price for. That's one kind of promotional CD rate. Honestly, that bit of nostalgia really doesn't have anything to do with this particular term. But it was nice of you to let us old folks rattle on.

CD stand for "certificate of deposit." It's a short-term investment vehicle that gives a better interest rate than a typical bank account. The main downside is that you have to tie up your money for some period of time.

The promotional rate provides a higher return than usual. So if a bank's typical one-year CD offers a rate of 1.5%, the promotional rate might be 1.7%. It's a little extra juice the bank uses to get you to put money into its CDs.