Looking at my treasury direct account online I see that I have bonds purchased 10-1-2003 that show an "interest rate" of 6.83%. Is that the current rate? Other bonds I purchased on 12-1-2004 show interest rate of 2.01% (why so low?). Bonds purchased 10-1-2005 show 6.93%. What the heck is going on here? Is the web site wrong? Why are the rates so variable? If I understand it correctly the interest rate on an I-bond is the sum of a fixed part and a variable part. The fixed part on these bonds is about 1 percent. The variable part, I thought, is the same for all I-bonds and changes every 6 months based on inflation. So what's going on with these bond rates? Why are they so wildly different? Are the rates shown on the web site current rates or the rate on each bond at the time of purchase? The web site shows that I-bonds purchased today have a rate of 2.41%. Who would want those? Has inflation dropped that much?