Methodology — how this calculator is built

Who maintains the dataset

The dataset is maintained by the fdbreakcalculator.com research desk. It is compiled from each bank's published deposit terms and card-rate pages, cross-checked against the bank's premature-withdrawal clause where one is published separately. It is an independent reference tool: we are not a bank, an adviser or a distributor, and no bank pays for placement or for a particular penalty figure.

If you want to know who to hold responsible for an error, that is the research desk, reachable at contact@fdbreakcalculator.com. Corrections are published to the dataset rather than quietly applied.

What we source, and from where

• Penalty percentage. From each bank's term deposit terms and conditions — usually a clause titled "premature withdrawal" or "pre-closure".
• Minimum holding period. From the same clause. Seven days is the norm; Post Office Time Deposits are six months; NBFCs are commonly 90 days.
• Card rates by tenure. From the bank's published retail domestic term deposit rate card for the period the dataset claims to represent.
• US penalty schedules. From each bank's deposit account agreement or fee schedule, expressed as days of interest forfeited by CD term.
• Tax thresholds. From the Income Tax Department (Section 194A, and the Finance Act 2025 for the ₹50,000 / ₹1,00,000 limits).

The regulator does not publish a penalty figure. The Reserve Bank of India's Master Direction on interest rates on deposits leaves the penalty to each bank's board-approved policy, so every figure in the India table is a bank-level decision, not a statutory one.

The Indian formula we apply

Two steps, in this order, for every Indian bank:

1. Downgrade the rate. Find the card rate for the number of days the deposit actually ran. The holding period maps to the highest tenure bucket it does not exceed.
2. Deduct the penalty. Subtract the bank's penalty percentage from that card rate. The floor is zero — a penalised rate never goes negative.
3. Pay simple interest. Interest = principal × penalised rate × days held ÷ 365. Quarterly compounding stops at closure.
4. Compare with maturity. The loss is the maturity value at the booked rate (quarterly compounded) minus the early-closure payout. It therefore includes forgone future interest, not just the penalty.

Two banks are handled specially. Post Office Time Deposits follow India Post's tiered rule: no closure in the first 6 months, the 4.00% savings rate between 6 and 12 months, and the completed-period TD rate minus 2.00% after a year. Senior citizens receive +0.50% on the card rate at most banks, but the penalty percentage is unchanged.

The US formula we apply

US banks forfeit a number of days of interest instead of cutting the rate. We convert the APY to a daily effective rate, accrue interest for the days held, then deduct penalty days × balance × daily rate. Penalty days come from the bank's schedule, keyed on the CD's original term. Where the penalty exceeds the interest earned, the payout falls below the principal and the calculator flags it.

Verification cadence

The dataset is re-checked quarterly and whenever a bank publicly revises its card rates. The "last verified" date shown above and at the foot of every page reflects the most recent full pass, not the date the page was last edited for a spelling fix. Individual rows carry a link to the bank's official terms so you can check a single figure without trusting ours.

Where the model is approximate

Deliberate limitations, so you know when to distrust the output:

• Card rates are indicative. We publish one representative rate per tenure bucket, not the historical table for every booking date. If rates moved after you booked, your downgrade will differ.
• Promotional and special-tenure rates are not modelled. A 444-day "special" FD or a festive premium is repriced using the ordinary bucket in our table.
• Day-count convention. We use actual/365. A bank using actual/actual in a leap year will differ by a few rupees.
• Rounding. Banks round at each stage; we round at the end.
• Partial withdrawal. Some banks allow partial closure at the same rate; the calculator models full closure only.
• Tax. The freelancer estimator models the FY 2025-26 slabs, Section 87A rebate and 4% cess, but not surcharge above ₹50 lakh or marginal relief at the rebate thresholds.

Corrections

If a figure is wrong, email contact@fdbreakcalculator.com with the bank, the deposit type and a link or screenshot of the current terms. Corrections are applied to the dataset and the verification date is updated. We do not accept payment to change a penalty figure.