Locked out of my TreasuryDirect (TD) Account

[prototype]

I created a TD account about 3 weeks ago so I could electronically register a bunch of old (2001-2003) paper I bonds I had electronically.

After setting things up and figuring how to do things, I printed out a "Manifest" for two of the $5K bonds and sent them off to Minneapolis certified mail. While the mail was still in transit I logged in at least one more time to switch primary bank accounts. The day after USPS tracking showed my letter had arrived, I went to log back into TD to see what, if anything, was happening. I received the message below (screen shot just taken now for this post):

So I called the 844 number, eventually talked to real person, they looked at whatever they looked at for a minute or two (I had given them my TD account number and other info to verify my ID) and said there wasn't anything they could do. They also would not or maybe could not answer my my questions. I was finally told that someone would call me in a day or two. It's been two days now.

Anybody ever ever had this issue? Are Treasury Agents headed to my house in Black Suburbans?

PS - This wasn't a too many failed logins issue, or failure to answer "secret questions" type issue. I never got past entering my TD ID.

 

[Sunset]

Maybe switching bank accounts would do it ?

Let us know what the cause was, as this is interesting.

 

[prototype]

Maybe switching bank accounts would do it ?

Let us know what the cause was, as this is interesting.

Will do, maybe a day or two of Treasury Dept. time equates to a week or two of actual calendar time


Strange thing was I didn't want to redeem the bonds (and I think that's the form I sent wit the Bonds), I just wanted them in my Manifest or whatever it is called (it has it's own number). I can't see what anything is called because I can not log in. I'm glad I didn't send all my bonds at once, this was just a test run to see how well the conversion process worked.

 

[LOL!]

I was once locked out. I didn't call back until about 5 years later. Those were some of the best 5 years of my relationship with Treasury Direct ever.

 

[Luvdogs]

Funny that this was brought up today. Just yesterday I tried to get into the Treasury Direct account that I haven't accessed in ten years. (I have the dated printout)

These are savings bonds for my 27 yr old son that were bought when he was born, for birthdays, etc. I have a list of the numbers/amounts/dates/type of bond, etc. He's been bugging me forever to get them transferred from paper to electronic because I have nothing else to do...

They were initially (I think) held as custodian or something then I transferred them officially to him.

So yesterday I wanted to see how much they were worth. They had a one time password sent to gmail address (well his or mine??) Emailed him and he gave me the code. But it's an old-fashioned way of entering it (Thanks, gov't).

Then it asked for his pw-again emailed him and got it. Thought, great, I'm in.

Then it asked for his SSN--dug up an old tax return and great, I'm in, right?

Then it had a list of TEN security questions. But you only are initially asked for three--BUT if you don't remember which three you chose, well you can fill out all TEN--hmm--was it my answers or his?? Example-first car, best friend, etc. (mine or his?)

I tried twice and got them wrong. It says three times and you're out so I didn't want to risk whatever I would need to do to get in.

Told my son and he said this is why the gov should pay more for their software developers.

Sorry it's long but it was so frustrating! Terrible site! ETA--And look at the Yelp reviews--they agree.

 

[Onward]

And the grand irony is that after every session, the Treasury Direct website asks you to rate the quality of your experience, and shows you stats on all these other users who supposedly gave it the highest possible rating.

What a joke.

 

[Bongleur]

Are you even still allowed to do it by paper anymore?

 

[big-papa]

Are you even still allowed to do it by paper anymore?

For directly purchased Ibonds, no. Electronic only. But for some reason that completely escapes me, if you purchase Ibonds using your tax refund they only do paper bonds. Then you can do as the OP did, print out the manifest, and mail then back in and they'll be converted to electronic form at TD. Reminds me - sending in the Ibonds I purchased with this year's tax refund is still on my to-do list.

 

[euro]

I have to say upfront that my “conversion” from paper bonds to electronic actually worked fine (I had paper bonds for myself as well as two children (then minors), and ultimately, everything ended up in the right place. Mind you, the site design is so convoluted that it took me a long time to figure out how to access each set of electronic Bonds in their various sub-sub accounts, etc.
I have dealt with many government websites, and without exception, they are always clunky, non-intuitive, needlessly complicated and frustrating to use. Compared to real business websites, they are in a separate category of “bad”. But even amongst the government sites, TD is at the bottom, in my opinion/experience. This was sort of ok as long as the option to just deal with paper bonds was available, but now that we HAVE to use the TD site, it is more than annoying. Worst of all, I bet the government spends as much or more on their webpage designs and maintenance as many of the business sites.

Rant over.....back to the lawn chair...... you HAD to get me worked up for a second there...

 

[prototype]

I have to say upfront that my “conversion” from paper bonds to electronic actually worked fine (I had paper bonds for myself as well as two children (then minors), and ultimately, everything ended up in the right place. Mind you, the site design is so convoluted that it took me a long time to figure out how to access each set of electronic Bonds in their various sub-sub accounts, etc.
I have dealt with many government websites, and without exception, they are always clunky, non-intuitive, needlessly complicated and frustrating to use. Compared to real business websites, they are in a separate category of “bad”. But even amongst the government sites, TD is at the bottom, in my opinion/experience. This was sort of ok as long as the option to just deal with paper bonds was available, but now that we HAVE to use the TD site, it is more than annoying. Worst of all, I bet the government spends as much or more on their webpage designs and maintenance as many of the business sites.

Rant over.....back to the lawn chair...... you HAD to get me worked up for a second there...

[FONT=&quot]Glad to hear you had a successful conversion. I have to agree TD is a poorly designed/built website (almost certainly built buy the lowest bidder based on poorly written ambiguous requirements IMHO). [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]When I recently/finally set up my TD account, I looked around a bit looking for info on how to convert paper to electronic. Gave up on that and sent a “contact us” message asking the question. It took almost a week, but a finally got a short response that was the links to go through to get to the 5 pages of somewhat ambiguous (to me anyway) instructions on how to convert, make different “linked accounts”, putting stuff in your cart (Geez…I am not shopping on Amazon) , etc. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I created what I guess was the main account and three (I think) of what I guess are sub-accounts. One acct. for me as individual owner, second acct. for some “or” bonds I bought for DS for college but never used. He had no bank branches to redeem them at near his school. (My calls from him were “need a check ASAP, make it out to ABC University” ), and a third account for a “or” Bond with my now deceased Mom. Thankfully, the several paper I bonds purchased for my DD, I was just able to give to her since she went to a local University. She redeemed them at her bank and avoided Fed taxes I believe.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I have minimal hope right now I will hear back from TD and I am not a very patient person when large sums of money (amplified by a Govt. bureaucracy) are involved so I’ll probably be spending next week beating my head against the wall (calling the 844-whatever number, going through it’s endless levels of voice prompts,) until I get of a real person…and then probably repeating process several times until either brain blows up or I get someone who can tell me what is happening and what (if anything) I need to do to rectify things (e.g. have your co-owner send us a form?) and/or have my account unlocked. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Lessons Learned (things I should have done, but didn’t):[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]1. Take screenshot(s) of off all the accounts/linked accounts and whatever I entered.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2. Make a copy of the “Manifest” before sticking it in an envelope with I bonds and mailing it off to Dept of Treasury in Minneapolis.[/FONT]

 

[big-papa]

Definitely one of the most odd-ball websites I've ever seen. Takes a bit of getting used to, for sure.

BTW a lot of questions regarding how to navigate TD have been asked and answered over on the bogleheads site. Certainly helped me quite a bit.

 

[prototype]

Maybe switching bank accounts would do it ?

Let us know what the cause was, as this is interesting.

Called TD again yesterday and the rep I got this time transferred me to someone who could, and did unlock my account after answering a bunch of "secret" questions.

I asked why locked, and she said it was because of bank account changes as you mentioned. Seems strange that it took 3 days for them to decide to lock account after setting up and changing bank accounts. (see history screenshot below)

Still waiting for the paper bonds I mailed in with Manifest to show up on TD...forgot to ask how long that takes.

Total time of phone call - 12+ minutes, not bad

Definitely one of the most odd-ball websites I've ever seen. Takes a bit of getting used to, for sure.

BTW a lot of questions regarding how to navigate TD have been asked and answered over on the bogleheads site. Certainly helped me quite a bit.

I found three threads on bogleheads. Skimmed very quickly through the older two, and spent a little more time (not too much) on the most recent thread. Yes, definitely some useful "how to" info, along with a fair amount of "weeping and gnashing of teeth" when it comes to TD.