Anyone here uses Treasury direct accounts to buy I-bonds, and bills and notes?
Have you ever been locked out of your account or not have the OTP sent to you email? The phone line is taking an eternity to get answered.
Is this a temporary situation or it always has been that way?
tj
Well, for what itâs worth, I just logged into my account without any problem.
Sorry but I have no idea what you need to do.
Current memos on the sign-in page (bolding mine):
The TreasuryDirect application will be unavailable from approximately 8:00 AM ET to approximately 2:00 PM ET on Sunday, August 28, 2022 for system maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Heavy volume is slowing our normal response time to calls on the phone and cases sent through the mail. We apologize for the delay. You can call us from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. Please expect long wait times if you need an agent. Cases you send by mail may take us as long as 13 weeks to process. Processing of FS Form 5444, for account authorization, currently takes about 8 weeks.
If youâve had trouble accessing your account, please try again. Recent changes we made may enable you to log in now.
HTH
âsutton
Over at the bogleheads forum people have been complaining about treasury direct for years.
Iâve had an account for many years and never have had any problems although I rarely buy bonds. I use it to check on a few bonds I bought there ~20 years ago and one I bond purchase more recently.
I-bonds you have to purchase there, other treasury bonds/bills youâd be better off buying from a brokerage since many (most? all?) donât charge any fees. Iâve done that via Schwab, Fidelity and TD without any issues.
I have not had the particular problem you describe; however, it did make me grab another OTP even though I thought I had already registered my computer by checking the little box.
I will give you a tip, though. If you donât want to click out your password on the silly little keyboard graphic, right-click on the text box and select âInspect.â Then delete readonly=âreadonlyâ from the code and proceed as usual.
Some password managers can get around it without that step, but mine does not.
I have not yet Used Treasury Direct to buy I-bonds, and I do have a couple of questions.
For sake of an example:
if the rate of 9.62% per annum stayed the same for a while,
and I held a $10K bond for 12 months at that rate, and then cashed it.
would that return be $10,721 ?
would that be returned to the bank/credit union I have linked ?
Thank you
if the rate of 9.62% per annum stayed the same for a while,
and I held a $10K bond for 12 months at that rate, and then cashed it.
would that return be $10,721 ?
It would probably be a bit more, since I-bonds are compounded every 6 months, and you would lose the last 3 months of interest. Roughly you should get $10,773 when you account for that compounding. That said - I-bonds earn interest starting on the first of the month they were purchased, even if you donât purchase them until the last day of the month. So, if you are going to cash it during September, 2023, you would get the same amount whether you purchased on Aug 1, 2022 or Aug 31, 2022 - so your â12 monthâ holding period needs to define the actual purchase and sale dates to determine what you will actually get.
I would also point out that if inflation continues to decrease, that the rate for the 2nd 6 months is likely to be lower than the 9.62 for the first 6 months.
would that be returned to the bank/credit union I have linked ?
Yes.
AJ
if the rate of 9.62% per annum stayed the same for a while,
and I held a $10K bond for 12 months at that rate, and then cashed it.
would that return be $10,721 ?
I-bond interest explained here:
https://tipswatch.com/2022/08/09/dont-go-ballistic-over-the-âŚ
DT