Why Aren't I-Bonds Getting More Attention?

[Eucerin]

Back to April, I purchased I-bond in TD for myself, spouse and gifts to each other for the next couple of years. But I made a mistake when I went through the process which led to over paying 40k. I did get an email from the Fed that they will return the money in 16weeks (4month). It has been 6weeks, still no money yet. Maybe for once, they will keep their words They took the money the day after the purchase, but return the money in 4month, it seems a bit of unbalanced

 

[Happyras]

Back to April, I purchased I-bond in TD for myself, spouse and gifts to each other for the next couple of years. But I made a mistake when I went through the process which led to over paying 40k. I did get an email from the Fed that they will return the money in 16weeks (4month). It has been 6weeks, still no money yet. Maybe for once, they will keep their words They took the money the day after the purchase, but return the money in 4month, it seems a bit of unbalanced

I am really interested in what the exact mistake was that you made. Did you not register it correctly as a gift? Or was there something else we should all be careful not to do?

 

[Eucerin]

I am really interested in what the exact mistake was that you made. Did you not register it correctly as a gift? Or was there something else we should all be careful not to do?

Your guess is correct that it was the gift part of it. There was a drop down to select who you would like to gift to, I didn't select it so it went to the default which is myself. I didn't know what I did wrong at that time until I came to the other I-bond thread, people provided different ideas and possibilities, that helped and I was able to sent in more money to do it correctly.

 

[sengsational]

If you want to connect a new Treasury Direct account to Fidelity, do you need to have a "cash management account" set-up there, or can you just use the default brokerage cash "core position"?

ETA: I asked the chatbot on Fidelity and got the routing number and the account number, so I presume that will work, but we know Treasury Direct is persnickety. Fidelity gives two account numbers to try, one shorter one with a letter, and one longer one with only numbers. I wonder if anyone has experience with which to use at TD.

Circling back around on this one FBO someone in the future setting up TD with Fidelity. It did work quickly and easily with the brokerage account (I don't have a CMA). I used the longer account number with only numbers.

 

[bookman51]

Back to April, I purchased I-bond in TD for myself, spouse and gifts to each other for the next couple of years. But I made a mistake when I went through the process which led to over paying 40k. I did get an email from the Fed that they will return the money in 16weeks (4month). It has been 6weeks, still no money yet. Maybe for once, they will keep their words They took the money the day after the purchase, but return the money in 4month, it seems a bit of unbalanced

Yes, they did the same thing to me. The wait time on the phone is more than two hours, and I cannot imagine but only the very desperate waiting that long. I have sent them several messages, but no response yet. Yes, it seems bit more than a bit unbalanced.

 

[bookman51]

Your guess is correct that it was the gift part of it. There was a drop down to select who you would like to gift to, I didn't select it so it went to the default which is myself. I didn't know what I did wrong at that time until I came to the other I-bond thread, people provided different ideas and possibilities, that helped and I was able to sent in more money to do it correctly.

In my case, I thought I did check gift, but the results were the same as yours. So you sent in more money and do not have the original back yet? Just askin.

 

[Eucerin]

In my case, I thought I did check gift, but the results were the same as yours. So you sent in more money and do not have the original back yet? Just askin.

When you gifting, you check the gift box and then go to other page to select the dropdown who you'd like to gift to and with the $amount, then you are good to go. Yes, I am still waiting the original money back, it has been 6weeks

 

[sengsational]

When you gifting, you check the gift box and then go to other page to select the dropdown who you'd like to gift to and with the $amount, then you are good to go.

So for those of you who are waiting for money back because the gift didn't work, how did this happen? I watched this video: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/purchasing-a-gift-bond.htm and it didn't look like there was a checkbox for gift mentioned, but the video was about gifting. Is the video accurate or what?

ETA: I see the "this is a gift" checkbox in the video (1:19), and the demonstrator checks the box. I presume the people having problems did the drop-down with the recipient, but neglected to click the box.

 

[jollystomper]

So for those of you who are waiting for money back because the gift didn't work, how did this happen? I watched this video: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/purchasing-a-gift-bond.htm and it didn't look like there was a checkbox for gift mentioned, but the video was about gifting. Is the video accurate or what?

ETA: I see the "this is a gift" checkbox in the video (1:19), and the demonstrator checks the box. I presume the people having problems did the drop-down with the recipient, but neglected to click the box.

An additional verification step - after adding a registration, go to the ManageDirect tab, then select Update My Registration List. The list of your current registrations will be shown, and for gift registrations the "Gift" column should have "Yes" if the gift registration was done correctly.

 

[pb4uski]

What they probably should do where people buy more than their allowance is to put the money in the Zero-Percent C of I account and then you could use it to retry if you overbought because you didn't do a gift right or you could just redem the Zero-Percent C of I money and have it sent back to your bank.

 

[bookman51]

So for those of you who are waiting for money back because the gift didn't work, how did this happen? I watched this video: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/purchasing-a-gift-bond.htm and it didn't look like there was a checkbox for gift mentioned, but the video was about gifting. Is the video accurate or what?

ETA: I see the "this is a gift" checkbox in the video (1:19), and the demonstrator checks the box. I presume the people having problems did the drop-down with the recipient, but neglected to click the box.

Yes, I clicked the gift box. I used to work in instructional design and have a graduate degree in it. There should have been a bunch of pilot testing to determine what might occur before the webpage was ever put up. My guess there was not. There are reasons there is a two-hour wait when calling the Treasury about Series I bonds. Who would wait for two hours on a phone for a response? I have been waiting almost two weeks for a response to my emails sent via my account---other than automatic canned email responses. There must be a huge number of failures, and the Treasury is understaffed to handle them. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

 

[Chuckanut]

Yes, I clicked the gift box. I used to work in instructional design and have a graduate degree in it. There should have been a bunch of pilot testing to determine what might occur before the webpage was ever put up. My guess there was not. There are reasons there is a two-hour wait when calling the Treasury about Series I bonds. Who would wait for two hours on a phone for a response? I have been waiting almost two weeks for a response to my emails sent via my account---other than automatic canned email responses. There must be a huge number of failures, and the Treasury is understaffed to handle them. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

A fellow I know needs to cash in some E-bonds early for a big purchase. But, he can't get into his TD account which for some unknown security reason has blocked him. The waits of over two hours seem to be never ending.

I told him he should bounce his problem up to his Congressman. If some bank were doing this to Dave Depositor, our elected reps would probably be demanding an investigation into the entire banking industry.

 

[harllee]

A fellow I know needs to cash in some E-bonds early for a big purchase. But, he can't get into his TD account which for some unknown security reason has blocked him. The waits of over two hours seem to be never ending.

I told him he should bounce his problem up to his Congressman. If some bank were doing this to Dave Depositor, our elected reps would probably be demanding an investigation into the entire banking industry.

Well some banks are doing something similar. My mother has some paper EE bonds and her bank (Wells Fargo) refuses to cash them. I have not found any bank in her small town that will. I know she can mail them into Treasury and have them redeemed but I have read that takes months. I think I can get my Credit Union to cash them for her but it is going to be a big hassle.

 

[Chuckanut]

Well some banks are doing something similar. My mother has some paper EE bonds and her bank (Wells Fargo) refuses to cash them. I have not found any bank in her small town that will. I know she can mail them into Treasury and have them redeemed but I have read that takes months. I think I can get my Credit Union to cash them for her but it is going to be a big hassle.

I get your point. So much for full-service bricks and mortar banks.

But, I was not clear. What I was referring to the was a person has money in a bank, for some reason he/she is locked out of the account, and the only help available is via a 2+ hour wait on a phone call, that may or may not ever connect with somebody who can help.

At the very least the TD should allow us to leave our number and get a call-back from TD representative who can help us. Expecting people to tie up a phone line on hold for hours at a time is not reasonable.

 

[pb4uski]

While I'm not justifying what TD did, at the same time if I had a lot of money that I was locked out of, waiting a couple hours for TD to answer would be easy for me to do even though I would not like it.

 

[JoeWras]

Yes, I clicked the gift box. I used to work in instructional design and have a graduate degree in it. There should have been a bunch of pilot testing to determine what might occur before the webpage was ever put up.

Wait, wait, wait. You are expecting the geniuses behind the TD website to do pilot testing?

I mean, this is the most archaic high volume web page on the internet. It's a mess. The 1099s are a disaster in formatting. The browser back button doesn't work! I could list a hundred more problems with it but then I'd just get mad. Maybe I need to visit the pet peeve page.

 

[pb4uski]

We'll, at least they chose the lowest bidder.

 

[Dash man]

We'll, at least they chose the lowest bidder. :>)

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
Can’t imagine what it would cost us in tax dollars to bring that website up to today’s standards.

 

[Sunset]

So for those of you who are waiting for money back because the gift didn't work, how did this happen? I watched this video: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/purchasing-a-gift-bond.htm and it didn't look like there was a checkbox for gift mentioned, but the video was about gifting. Is the video accurate or what?

ETA: I see the "this is a gift" checkbox in the video (1:19), and the demonstrator checks the box. I presume the people having problems did the drop-down with the recipient, but neglected to click the box.

It is at the registrant creation time, that a person checks the box "this is a gift".

It's tying the person to the action, which is not what we normally think.

 

[sengsational]

So for those of you who are waiting for money back because the gift didn't work, how did this happen? I watched this video: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/purchasing-a-gift-bond.htm and it didn't look like there was a checkbox for gift mentioned, but the video was about gifting. Is the video accurate or what?

ETA: I see the "this is a gift" checkbox in the video (1:19), and the demonstrator checks the box. I presume the people having problems did the drop-down with the recipient, but neglected to click the box.

Yes, I clicked the gift box. [...]

An additional verification step - after adding a registration, go to the ManageDirect tab, then select Update My Registration List. The list of your current registrations will be shown, and for gift registrations the "Gift" column should have "Yes" if the gift registration was done correctly.

It seems some people get this to work, and others run into problems. Is there a correlation of problems to registrations that do or do not already have a Treasury Direct account, perhaps? Of course, if an account was required, it should reject registrations where an existing account does not exist, but we're not talking about an air-tight system here, as evidenced by the problems.

Regardless of if the recipient has a TD account already, it sounds like the safer process for gift buyers would be to create and validate the gift recipient before initiating the purchase. Maybe create the registration not on the buying page, but instead in "Manage Direct > Update My Registration List". And maybe wait a day before buying to let everything get in synch.

 

[Eucerin]

So for those of you who are waiting for money back because the gift didn't work, how did this happen? I watched this video: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/purchasing-a-gift-bond.htm and it didn't look like there was a checkbox for gift mentioned, but the video was about gifting. Is the video accurate or what?

ETA: I see the "this is a gift" checkbox in the video (1:19), and the demonstrator checks the box. I presume the people having problems did the drop-down with the recipient, but neglected to click the box.

I watched same video before proceed with the gifting process, I did checked gift box but neglected to select the drop-down with the recipient. There is another way to verify if you did correctly, when you went through the process, before you submit, there is a summary page, the summary page list the gift recipient, $amount and stating "this is a gift", if you have all these, you are good to go.

 

[Gumby]

Based on today's CPI release, at the next I-Bond rate reset on November 1, 2022, the rate will be at least 3.3% APR. And there are still four more months of CPI increases to add to that.

 

[Sunset]

I watched same video before proceed with the gifting process, I did checked gift box but neglected to select the drop-down with the recipient. There is another way to verify if you did correctly, when you went through the process, before you submit, there is a summary page, the summary page list the gift recipient, $amount and stating "this is a gift", if you have all these, you are good to go.

+1
Maybe some people don't actually read it. I do as I have a habit when buying online stuff to read all the details before clicking purchase now button.

There is no need to rush, they won't run out of I-bonds

 

[Mulligan]

Based on today's CPI release, at the next I-Bond rate reset on November 1, 2022, the rate will be at least 3.3% APR. And there are still four more months of CPI increases to add to that.

Considering a portion of my IBonds wont even have the 9% plus kick in until September, this means I suspect I will buy more Jan. 1 and keep the gift in the gift box another year.

 

[Sunset]

Considering a portion of my IBonds wont even have the 9% plus kick in until September, this means I suspect I will buy more Jan. 1 and keep the gift in the gift box another year.

Best to buy another gift, if you have someone who can gift it to you, and then move the old gift to your regular account.

I'm wondering if I should buy a 2026 gift, we already have 2023,2024,2025 gifts.