That’s amazing, though I’m not sure what “hyperinflation” you’re talking about. COVID and supply chain issues have caused the cost of many goods to rise, but it’s hardly “hyperinflation”. Here in Canada major bank GICs (the equivalent of CDs in the US) range from 0.05% to a maximum of 0.9% if fully open, depending on dollar amount and term. Online banks and credit unions pay a lot more, but still only in the range of 0.2% to a maximum of 1.9% depending on the term, and those don’t offer early redemption. 1.9% is for a 5-year term. Basically interest rates are still pretty rock-bottom. The ability to get over 7%, even if it’s only for a short term and not guaranteed, is still amazing.
Another thing here in Canada is that federal government savings bonds have been discontinued. You can of course still buy government bonds just like corporate bonds, but the consumer-friendly savings bonds are gone. At the end of this year, all existing bonds will have matured and will no longer earn interest.
Sonuvabitch! I’ve had an account but we decided to open one for my wife and same bullshit ensued. I hope our local CU will work with us. They were very accommodating when we were moving retirement/IRAs which required the same shit and none of it was within their own CU.
“Hyperinflation” may be a bit of an exaggeration, because it’s nothing like what they have experienced in Zimbabwe, Venezuela, or for that matter the Weimar Republic, but compared to the past, that’s what it is.
Fed chair Powell said yeaterday that it’s time to retire the word ‘transitory’. The inflatiion we are going through is a mix of cost-push from supply chain issues, demand pull from COVID benefits and savings after the lockdown, and monetary inflation from the unprecedented amount of money printing it took to distribute those COVID benefits.
The high yield of savings bonds is not necessarily good news - it means that the government is now having to offer those high yields to get buyers. That said, I Bonds (inflation protected) are a pretty safe investment if you don’t need the money for at least a year. If you have money in a savings account, you are probably losing at least 5% per year on it right now. And the stock market is extremely risky right now. Once interest rates start rising as they must, the market is going to get hammered.
I’ve been buying $100 EE bonds for my nieces each year since they were born (2009 and 2011). I use TreasuryDirect and am able to gift them right to their accounts, with my brother as the co-owner.
Is it stupid to be buying EE bonds? They won’t double in value for 20 years. So if my nieces are itching to get their money when they’re 21 they’ll only get an extra $100 from what I put in (the first year bonds will be doubled). Heck if they want them when they’re 18, they won’t get anything extra.
Should I be buying I bonds instead? Should I tell my brother to see if he can convert the EE bonds to I?
Not strictly speaking, at least as far as Treasury goes. Accompanying the form was another page that gave specifics on what was allowed (basically, it had to come from a financial institution), and stated a notary stamp was not sufficient.
Hmm. I created an account about an hour ago. Got a one-time password via email for verification, which also allowed me to register my computer. I then proceeded to purchase some I bonds. Everything looks fine, although the message said that the actual purchase won’t happen until Monday. But I received a BuyDirect Confirmation, so I think (hope) that I managed to avoid the identity verification step.
They only “work” during business hours. For example, if I were to cash one in on Friday evening, my account would not be credited until Monday morning.
I already had a Treasury Direct account, as I’d bought some I savings bonds already years ago, so when I saw this thread a month ago I logged on to buy more. Except the bank account info they had was out of date. And changing your bank account with them also requires sending in a form that requires that same signature guarantee.
Well that’s annoying, but I filled out the form and took it down to my credit union. They looked it over, were like “that’s strange”. And they weren’t even sure if they were allowed to do a signature guarantee since those are supposed to be for guaranteeing funds and require some dollar amount to be associated with it. So they stamped it with some other official bank stamp, and said that should be acceptable.
So I sent the form in, and maybe a week later I got an email from Treasury Direct saying they rejected my form because the stamp they used wasn’t on the list of acceptable seals. D’oh! So back down to the credit union I went, with another copy of the form and their email, do do it all over again. They looked at the list of acceptable seals, saw that a “bond paid” stamp was on the list, and were like “I guess we can use that one.” So I got the stamp and sent the form in again, and today I finally got an email from Treasury Direct today saying that my account info had been updated.
So finally, I can buy savings bonds again. I was hoping to get it done before the end of December, so that way I could have bought $10,000 last year and another $10,000 this year. It’s flabbergasting how many hoops the Treasury makes you jump through to do something that should be relatively simple.
We sent my wife’s form in on 12/3 in the hopes we could buy the $10K for 2021. They still haven’t processed it. I’m guessing it is in a gigantic stack that they might get to in a few months.
That’s interesting. I sent my first one in on 12/10, got my rejection maybe a week or two later, sent my second form 12/23, and it got approved yesterday. So they processed my two forms in less time than her one form. Maybe hers fell behind someone’s desk or something. Did you at least get an acknowledgement that they received it? With both forms I sent in I got a generic “we received your request” email a few days before they actually processed it.
The actual money transfer can take some time. Not sure why, as you would think that an electronic transfer would be immediate. But it took days for the money to leave my account and then about a week for them to reject and return it to my account (because I didn’t understand the $10K/year rule). I finally got it all straightened out and got my wife’s account opened.
It’s frustrating, because it could be as simple as some typo or something, or maybe you’re wanted for domestic terrorism. They just say, “there’s been a problem and we can’t tell you what it is (neener neeener), now fill out this weird form, get a bank to validate it, and send it in the mail”.
it for a banking institution imo.