Treasury Direct Lesson learned

[dex]

I lost 1 week of interest on $105K because I had the matured bond deposited into my Zero Percent C of I instead of directly into my bank!

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You can schedule redemption of the balance of your Zero Percent C of I if it has been held in your TreasuryDirect account for longer than five business days as follows:

Redeem C of I

* Access your account with your TreasuryDirect account number and password.

* Click the Manage Direct tab at the top of the page.

* Under the heading “Manage My Securities,” click Redeem securities.

* On the “Redemption” page, select the button beside Zero Percent C of I and click Submit. You may redeem all or part of your Zero Percent C of I. Your payment destination must be selected from the list of financial institutions. You can also add a bank account at this time without interrupting your transaction. The payment destination you select will be credited within one business day.

* Click Submit to go to the Review Page. If any information needs to be changed, click Edit and make the changes. Otherwise, click Submit.

* A “Redemption Confirmation” page will be displayed to signify completion of the request. You may wish to print a copy of this page for your records.

* Scroll down to the bottom of the "Redemption Confirmation" page and click Submit.


As noted above the payment destination you select will be credited within one business day.

 

[Wizard]

Yes, I have done that too.

I understand treasury direct is starting all sorts of fees.

I have not looked into it yet. But over at the moringstar boards they are talking about $35 annual fees and $45 fees to sell bonds. Once again just throwing that out there. That is my weekend research project.

 

[jondoh]

But over at the moringstar boards they are talking about $35 annual fees and $45 fees to sell bonds.

I tried the (crappy) Morningstar forum search engine to try to find something on that, and came up empty (or, maybe I don't know how to properly frame search terms).

Can you tell me on what forum TD fees are being discussed?

Thanks.

 

[Wizard]

Yes it is here:

http://socialize.morningstar.com/NewSocialize/asp/FullConv.asp?forumId=F100000009&convId=168222

I did not know the rule on posting other blog web sites here.

They have a poster named "Mel" that has written about a dozen financial planning books and has been a great help to me and many others.

BTW: Let me know of the new fees.

 

[jondoh]

Let me know of the new fees.

Thanks for the link.

No new fees that I can see. The "account maintenance fee" of $25 was originally, I believe, mandated by Congress some years ago, and applies only to accounts of over $100,000 in the program that is now called "Legacy Direct."

You can get around that fee, if you wish, by using multiple accounts, each containing less than 100k of Treasury bills, notes and bonds.

Bills, notes and bonds, as well as savings bonds, can also be purchased through the new Treasury Direct program, for which there are no account maintenance fees of any kind.

If you decide to sell a note or bond prior to maturity, LD or TD will solicit bids from three brokerage houses, and then sell to whomever makes the best offer. The $45 fee that you pay defrays the brokerage cost of the transaction.

TD assesses no fees for redeeming savings bonds.

All of the preceding is off of the top of my head, and I think it's correct, but if you want definitive and absolutely accurate information, you might try the TD website: http://www.treasurydirect.gov

 

[Wizard]

Thanks for the info.

This is not a good place for emergency money if you have to sell early especially if you only get 1K bonds at a time. $45 fee per bond. That is a stiff penalty on $1K.

 

[Andre1969]

In my case, I just bought one $5,000 I-bond through TreasuryDirect back in August, and don't plan on touching it until final maturity. So I guess I shouldn't have anything to worry about, with respect to fees and such?