The I bond rate combines two parts. A permanent interest rate at purchase time which is currently 0% and a rate based on the Consumer Price Index which changes based on inflation.
Earlier I bonds may have had a healthy permanent interest rate. 2-3%. That combines with the current 9% CPI rate to give you an amazing 11% on older I bonds.
Has anyone run into these problems trying to buy bonds on the Treasury website:
your bank account routing number has 9 digits, but the application form only allows you to enter 8
the application form asks for the name on the bank account you’ll be paying from, but the form doesn’t have room for you to enter both names on a joint account
I didn’t experience anything like that. Try a different browser maybe.
Or disable any plugins in your current browser. I discovered that one was affecting me once. I didn’t bother figuring out which one. I just shut them all down.
I just created a TreasuryDirect account and bought the $10,000 maximum. The process was a little tedious and annoyingly, I couldn’t just cut-and-paste the password but instead had to type it in using an on-screen keyboard.
Back then, there weren’t any series I savings bonds, so it’s probably series E (or EE?). Anyway, it’s probably no longer earning interest, so you should cash it in.
Thanks for the timely reminder. Our CD’s are maturing and we were looking at interest rates. Hubs had horrible issues with the webpage because he couldn’t use the back button despite being warned in red letters not to do it.
I had no problem creating my account and scheduling 10 daily purchases of a thousand each.
I went back to the Treasury site a couple days ago, and for some reason this time was able to enter the full bank account routing number along with both names (or close to it) on the account and successfully made a bond purchase.
I’m wondering if reports of problems with the webpage are because so many people are now buying bonds.
We had forgotten all about savings bonds until the interest rate became high enough for people to take notice. CDs are paying less than 2% and stocks are falling faster than an out of favor oligarch. We both bought our yearly limit recently and shared our experiences with our friends. Some of them have already moved money that way as well.
I’m guessing the website has been getting more traffic this month than it usually gets in a year and most of the visits involve setting up secure accounts which is going to take more bandwidth.
Capital One 1-yr CDs are currently at 3.25%. We have a lot of cash so are always looking for ways to get a bit more out of it and we’ve already maxed out the I-series bonds so now on to CDs.
Looking at Vanguard’s website, they also have brokered CDs in that range, with ones in the 13-18 month range at 4.45%. So my guess is that any broker can find you CDs with good rates.