There's an important hiccup that many people might not realize about taking a partial early withdrawal from a CD (I didn't realize it at first either).
Say you have a $55k CD and you need to take out $8k of that $55k. Not all places allow partial early withdrawals (and will force you to close the entire CD if you want anything early) -- but a majority of FIs will let you take out part of the amount early (with penalty), and not force you to close the whole CD.
So if the FI allows partial early withdrawals and you only need $8k of your $55k early, you'd think you could take it out without being forced to close the entire CD, right? Not so fast.
The hiccup comes if your CD was opened up at a "tiered" rate level. For instance:
$500 min: 4.00%
$50,000 min: 4.05%
$100,000 min: 4.10%
If you opened up a $55k CD, the FI would give you the 4.05% rate. But even if they "allow" partial early withdrawals, many FIs will "allow" it ONLY if your remaining balance is still above the min for the rate it was opened at.
If you only need to take out $3k from that $55k CD (leaving you with $52k) that would be okay. But if you need to take out $8k, that would bring the remaining balance down to $47k -- below the $50k min required for the rate (4.05%) the CD was opened at. I thought if this happened, the FI would simply lower the rate to the appropriate rate for under-$50k, but nope. At the very large regional CU I belong to, they indeed allow early withdrawals -- but only as long as your remaining balance is still above the threshhold for your original rate. If not you're forced to close the entire CD. And I only know this now because on a lark after all these years I decided to ask what would happen.
Knowing this now, when I opened a CD with them recently I decided to split the amount into two smaller CDs instead, taking a slightly lower (.05% less) rate so there would be plenty of leeway for a partial early withdrawal if needed (as the full amount barely hit the amount to get the higher rate). They were offering good rates (so it'd hurt if I had to take out everything), and the CD was large and long-term (five years), so I thought it was worth it to take just a slightly lower rate to be able to take a partial early withdrawal if needed.
I don't know how it is at other FIs... but if you ask an FI if they allow partial early withdrawals, if you're planning on opening a jumbo (or mini-jumbo -- anything higher than the basic rate), be sure to ask what their policy is if your early withdrawal takes it below the minimum of the tier level you open it at. Will they simply lower the rate to that level, or will they force you to close the entire CD? This is important, but I never thought to ask it before.