When saving, should you choose to receive interest at the beginning or end of the term to get a higher interest rate?

For both counter and online savings, banks offer two forms of interest payment to customers, which are interest payment at the beginning and end of the period. What is the difference between these two interest payment times?

In fact, the interest rate for end-of-term deposits is always higher than the interest rate for customers who choose to receive interest at the beginning of the period. In addition, banks also list quarterly interest rates (for long-term periods of 6 months or more). The quarterly interest rate is usually higher than the interest rate at the beginning of the period, but lower than the interest rate for end-of-term deposits.

Some banks such asACB and ABBank even classify 4 interest rates for each type of deposit: interest rate for receiving interest at the beginning of the period, interest rate for receiving interest monthly, interest rate for receiving interest quarterly and interest rate for receiving interest at the end of the period.

For example, the highest online interest rate for a 6-month term is listed by ABBank at 5%/year. Also for a 6-month online deposit, the interest rate will gradually decrease depending on the time of interest payment. Specifically, the quarterly interest rate is 4.97%/year, monthly interest is 4.95%/year and pre-paid interest is 4.88%/year.

According to a survey, with the current interest rate schedule of banks, the interest rate at the end of the term is often 0.02-0.2%/year higher than the interest rate at the beginning of the term.

Even the interest rate difference at banks listing high interest rates, such as BVBank, is up to 0.65% for long terms.

Specifically, BVBank is listing online deposit interest rates for 18- and 24-month terms at up to 6%/year (interest received at the end of the term), but the interest rates for customers receiving interest at the beginning of the term are 5.5%/year and 5.35%/year, respectively, the difference is 0.5% and 0.65%/year.

Even the biggest difference in interest rates at the beginning and end of the term at LPBank is up to 1.35%/year when this bank is listing the highest interest rate of 5.9%/year for online deposits with interest paid at the end of the term, term of 18-60 months. However, the interest rate for interest paid at the beginning of the term for these terms is only from 4.55%-5.42%/year, the highest difference is up to 1.35%/year for term of 60 months.

At the bank with the highest listed interest rate today, NCB, the difference between the interest rate at the beginning and end of the period is up to 1.41% when depositing at the counter for a 60-month term.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ONLINE DEPOSITS INTEREST RATES AT THE END OF THE TERM - BEGINNING OF THE TERM/MONTH OF SOME BANKS (%/YEAR)
BANK	3 MONTHS	6 MONTHS	12 MONTHS
ABBANK	3.7	3.67	5	4.88	5.6	5.3
BAC A BANK *	4.1	4.05	5.25	5.15	5.7	5.55
BAOVIET BANK *	4	3.98	5.2	5.12	5.8	5.6
BVBANK	4	3.96	5.2	5.06	5.8	5.48
EXIMBANK *	4.3	4.1	5.2	5	5.2	5
LPBANK	4.1	4.05	5.3	5.06	5.6	5.3
MSB	3.7	2.75	4.6	3.6	5.4	4
NCB *	4.1	4.08	5.45	5.38	5.8	5.65
PGBANK *	3.8	3.79	5	4.95	5.5	5.37
PVCOMBANK	3.6	3.56	4.5	4.4	5.1	4.85
SACOMBANK *	3.6	3.59	4.9	4.85	5.4	5.27
SCB	1.9	1.88	2.9	2.85	3.7	3.56
VIET A BANK *	3.7	3.68	4.8	4.75	5.4	5.27
The () is a comparison of online interest rates at the end of the term and by month.*