Fixed terms are products in which you deposit your money and cannot withdraw it until after a certain period of time established when you open the account, which can range from a few months to several years. Normally the bank pays more for this type of deposit because you do not have daily availability of your money and the interest rate contracted at the beginning of the period remains constant for the duration of the period. If you need to withdraw the money before the deadline, you will be subject to a fine.
A fixed-term deposit would not be the ideal place for an emergency fund, unless you could have monthly availability of the deposited money. Or perhaps you could opt to have several fixed terms with maturity dates at one-month intervals, which is possible at a couple of the banks listed below, but I don’t know if all the hassle is worth it for a little more interest, since the fixed terms don’t give much either. Visit my other post to find out how much interest banks pay in the Netherlands.
What interest rates does a fixed-term deposit offer?
Checking the big banks again I found that ING is not offering fixed terms at this time (March 2021). ABN Amro offers 10-year fixed terms only with an interest rate of 0.05% per annum, ABN pays the interest every year. Rabobank offers fixed terms from 6 to 20 years, the interest rate is not attractive at all in my opinion, 0.01% for terms up to 10 years, from 10 to 12 years 0.05%, from there it goes up to 0.15%, 0.2%, 0.25% and 0.3% for an 18 year deposit.
In the case of online banks, interest rates are again more attractive than those of traditional banks. Not all of the banks mentioned above offer time deposits. Lloyds bank and Openbank do not offer these products.
Bigbank again offers the most attractive rates, with terms ranging from 1 to 10 years, the minimum deposit amount is 1,000 euros and interest is paid annually. More information here https://www.bigbank.nl/depositocontracten/
| Duration (years) | Interest rate | Duration (years) | Interest rate |
| 1 | 0.45% | 5 | 1.1% |
| 2 | 0.70% | 6 | 1.1% |
| 3 | 0.90% | 7 | 1.1% |
| 4 | 1.0% | 10 | 1.5% |
LeasePlan bank offers terms from 3 months to 5 years, the minimum amount is also 1000 euros and the interest is paid every year and/or at the end of the term. More information here https://www.leaseplanbank.nl/deposito-sparen
| Duration | Interest rate | Duration | Interest rate |
| 3 months | 0.05% | 2 years | 0.40% |
| 6 months | 0.15% | 3 years | 0.55% |
| 9 months | 0.20% | 4 years | 0.65% |
| 1 year | 0.30% | 5 years | 0.75% |
NIBC Direct offers a couple of fixed term products, a quarterly fixed term where they give the base interest of 0.10% and a bonus of 0.05% to have a total rate of 0.15%. The other product is a fixed term ranging from 3 months to 10 years, where interest is paid annually and/or at the end of the term. The minimum opening amount is 250 euros. More information here https://www.nibcdirect.nl/sparen/termijndeposito/
| Duration | Interest rate | Duration | Interest rate |
| 3 months | 0.05% | 5 years | 0.50% |
| 6 months | 0.10% | 6 years | 0.50% |
| 9 months | 0.10% | 7 years | 0.50% |
| 1 year | 0.25% | 8 years | 0.50% |
| 2 years | 0.35% | 9 years | 0.50% |
| 3 years | 0.40% | 10 years | 0.50% |
| 4 years | 0.45% |
As you can see, fixed-term savings do not offer such attractive rates, but it could be interesting to secure at least a little interest in case interest rates turn negative.
