I-Bonds: How long does it take to buy them?

[icedtea]

I'm thinking about buying 5-10k in I-Bonds before the end of the year to serve as part of my EF (I'm fine waiting a year before I can withdraw the money, I'll keep other money for emergencies this year). I read it's best to buy I-Bonds at the end of the month. I see you can take care of it online. How long does it take to actually purchase the bonds and transfer the funds? I assume the funds have to be transferred by 12/31 to meet the deadline for this year, right?

Thanks,
Iced Tea

[armeliusc]

It is very quick process. Just go to http://treasurydirect.gov/, create an account, and transfer the money from your bank to buy I saving bonds. A couple days at the most.
Best,
AC

[Grt2bOutdoors]

Do you have a Treasury Direct account? If not, don't wait - set it up now!
The absolute last day to submit your order for purchase is the next to last business day before the actual purchase. This year 12/31 falls on a Monday - if you want to ensure your purchase goes through on Monday - I'd place the order no later than Thursday night of the preceding week with a schedule to purchase on 12/31.

This is not directed towards you (OP), but I don't understand why some folks like to procrastinate and wait till the absolute last day to submit the order.

[icedtea]

Do you have a Treasury Direct account? If not, don't wait - set it up now!
The absolute last day to submit your order for purchase is the next to last business day before the actual purchase. This year 12/31 falls on a Monday - if you want to ensure your purchase goes through on Monday - I'd place the order no later than Thursday night of the preceding week with a schedule to purchase on 12/31.

This is not directed towards you (OP), but I don't understand why some folks like to procrastinate and wait till the absolute last day to submit the order.

Thanks for the help. Agreed, I wouldn't be doing it last minute if I had the chance but I've been waiting for a CD to mature. It just matured the other day so I'm still waiting for the money to come across!

[NAVigator]

Thanks for the help. Agreed, I wouldn't be doing it last minute if I had the chance but I've been waiting for a CD to mature. It just matured the other day so I'm still waiting for the money to come across!

Be aware when you deposit a large amount in your account, there may be a "hold" put on it at your bank or credit union. Mine was for seven business days.

Jerry

[icedtea]

Thanks for the help. Agreed, I wouldn't be doing it last minute if I had the chance but I've been waiting for a CD to mature. It just matured the other day so I'm still waiting for the money to come across!

Be aware when you deposit a large amount in your account, there may be a "hold" put on it at your bank or credit union. Mine was for seven business days.

Jerry

Yeah, that's happened before. I'll have to see what happens. Worst case scenario I just buy the bonds in late Jan. I don't intend to purchase more in the near term. I'm not aiming to accumulate I-Bonds beyond use in my EF at this time.

Iced Tea

[Doctev]

I recently opened a TD account and the account was placed on hold pending a TD authorization form. I had to take the form to a local bank and have it signed with a medallion stamp. Has anyone had to deal with this process, and if so how long did it take before you could make purchases?

Doctev

[DickBenson]

Agreed, I wouldn't be doing it last minute if I had the chance but I've been waiting for a CD to mature. It just matured the other day so I'm still waiting for the money to come across!

Just to be sure, hope you understand that the account can be set up without having the money available. The bottleneck you are facing is the time needed to get the account in place. Would start that process immediately.

Dick

[donall]

I recently opened a TD account and the account was placed on hold pending a TD authorization form. I had to take the form to a local bank and have it signed with a medallion stamp. Has anyone had to deal with this process, and if so how long did it take before you could make purchases?

Doctev

Setting up the account takes a few minutes. After sending in the authorization form, it may take a few weeks (2-3 weeks) to have the account active to buy bonds or receive gifts. Keep checking your messages in the TD account...

[dad2000]

There is a delay in setting up the bank account as I recall.

I think you can buy them as small as $25?

I would suggest buying a small one tonight just to get through the initial process.

[Grt2bOutdoors]

I recently opened a TD account and the account was placed on hold pending a TD authorization form. I had to take the form to a local bank and have it signed with a medallion stamp. Has anyone had to deal with this process, and if so how long did it take before you could make purchases?

Doctev

I went through that process when I switched banks, after mailing it in, it took about 8-10 business days, so 2 weeks sounds just about right.

[canga]

Do you have a Treasury Direct account? If not, don't wait - set it up now!
The absolute last day to submit your order for purchase is the next to last business day before the actual purchase. This year 12/31 falls on a Monday - if you want to ensure your purchase goes through on Monday - I'd place the order no later than Thursday night of the preceding week with a schedule to purchase on 12/31.

This is not directed towards you (OP), but I don't understand why some folks like to procrastinate and wait till the absolute last day to submit the order.

I purchase I Bonds on the last business day of the month in order to get an interest credit for the whole month. Every little bit helps. Although my purchase will be January 31.

[SSSS]

When you enter a requested purchase date, Treasury Direct will list what the actual purchase date will be, so you can revise the order if needed.

[hollowcave2]

At Treasury Direct, it takes 2 business days for the bonds to be assigned. Since 12/31 is a Monday, you need to place the order by Thursday 12/27.

I believe that you can also walk into a bank that has an agent that sells savings bonds and be able to get the bonds dated December on the last day, 12/31. But these would be paper bonds mailed to you.

[linguini]

Just buy them whenever. Even if you buy the full $10k limit of them, the return on investment you'll get by waiting a few more days until the end of this month would amount to something like five dollars.

[crowd79]

At Treasury Direct, it takes 2 business days for the bonds to be assigned. Since 12/31 is a Monday, you need to place the order by Thursday 12/27.

I believe that you can also walk into a bank that has an agent that sells savings bonds and be able to get the bonds dated December on the last day, 12/31. But these would be paper bonds mailed to you.

Savings bonds are no longer sold by banks. They are only available from the Treasury Direct website in electronic form and in paper only by the "backdoor" method on your income tax return.

[srinivas]

How long does it take to actually purchase the bonds and transfer the funds?

I registered an account and submitted a purchase request for Series I Savings Bonds late last night at the Treasury Direct web site, and the bonds showed up in my account this morning. So, took less than 12 hours.

Only issue was that the account number for my wife's account didn't come through until several hours after registering online.

[WHL]

I'm buying mine $192.30 a week which will put me a few cents under 10k by the end of the year. Still pondering if I want to make a huge purchase for the end of this year as I just started with these I-bonds two weeks ago.

[hollowcave2]

Savings bonds are no longer sold by banks. They are only available from the Treasury Direct website in electronic form and in paper only by the "backdoor" method on your income tax return.

Wow, you are absolutely right. This year flew by! I have to keep up with the times!

OK, so the last day to buy savings bonds issued this year is Thursday 12/27.

Thanks for keeping my brain up to date.

Steve

[buzzlight]

Can we add more than one bank on treasury direct?

[Grt2bOutdoors]

Can we add more than one bank on treasury direct?

No - one bank account per individual TD account. I tried the multiple bank account and it was a "no-go".

[Phineas J. Whoopee]

Can we add more than one bank on treasury direct?

No - one bank account per individual TD account. I tried the multiple bank account and it was a "no-go".

Hi Grt2bOutdoors,

By no means am I suggesting you didn't have that experience, but logging in today, Treasury Direct's website draws a distinction between a primary and other, non-primary accounts. I accessed the bank account addition form and it not only lets one say whether the new account is primary or not, it even has space for adding yet another account at the same time.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/pdf/rs/PDF5512.pdf

Based on the form, at least, it appears to me there is a way to link more than one bank account, from today anyway.

PJW

[buzzlight]

So is tonight last option to buy I bonds for 2012? Or will it be Ok to submit by 12/28 or 12/31?
My 50% are allotted worried about remaining 50%. Thanks for sharing your experience on this.

[Grt2bOutdoors]

So is tonight last option to buy I bonds for 2012? Or will it be Ok to submit by 12/28 or 12/31?
My 50% are allotted worried about remaining 50%. Thanks for sharing your experience on this.

Log on to TD and see. 12/31 will definitely be too late.

[icedtea]

So is tonight last option to buy I bonds for 2012? Or will it be Ok to submit by 12/28 or 12/31?
My 50% are allotted worried about remaining 50%. Thanks for sharing your experience on this.

Log on to TD and see. 12/31 will definitely be too late.

I bought mine this evening, as soon as I could. The site indicates a purchasing date of 12/28. I'm not sure if that means my bonds will be confirmed tomorrow but they should be in place by Monday. I'd go ahead and get moving.

Iced Tea

[buzzlight]

Made the move, I got purchase date of 12/31.

[icedtea]

Made the move, I got purchase date of 12/31.

Sounds good. Does this date show up on your history tab on the TD web site?

My history tab says I have a 'Purchase Requested' dated 12/28. It's not crystal clear that this is the date the bond will be confirmed but hopefully we're in the clear.

Iced Tea

[buzzlight]

No I don't see it in history. I think you will see the allotment on Monday and I will see on tue/wed for year 2012 i'll update this thread and never repeat this procrastination

[aceoperations]

I just purchased some ibonds and the date on it was Dec 31 2012.

So I guess Dec 27th is the last day to buy for the year.

[SS]

I created new accounts and placed I Bond orders on Dec 22. The bonds were there on Dec 24. No holds on the bank transfers at all.
SS

[icedtea]

I logged onto TD's web site and my purchase shows up under Current Holdings. All set in a day.

Iced Tea

[papito23]

Just buy them whenever. Even if you buy the full $10k limit of them, the return on investment you'll get by waiting a few more days until the end of this month would amount to something like five dollars.

Assuming the funds are coming from a high-yield online account (0.80%), we're talking less than a U.S. quarter per day. This is way, way down on the list of important investment decisions. It shouldn't even be on the I-bond wiki, IMO (some people will time it wrong, trying to get $0.21 of interest and losing 30x that.)

[Rainier]

Placed an order on Wednesday night to buy the next day. The cash left my bank by the time I logged in Thursday morning.

[buzzlight]

No I don't see it in history. I think you will see the allotment on Monday and I will see on tue/wed for year 2012 i'll update this thread and never repeat this procrastination

Phew! Allotment was completed when I logged in to my TD account today.