TreasuryDirect Hell [Lost account number, can't log in]

[flyninjasquirrel]

Opened a Treasury Direct account last year to purchase I bonds and had no problems. Go to buy again this year and can't find the email that contains my account number . Click on the 'Forgot Account Number' link and it's telling me the information I input is incorrect. Send them an email and they tell me to call the number. Every time I call the wait time is 2+ HOURS, even if I call right when the line opens at 8 AM. Of course I work during business hours and never have time to sit on the phone for 2 hours during the day.

Send them another email. This is the response:

Thank you for your interest in Treasury securities. Due to the large volume of e-mails we currently are receiving, we are temporarily limiting our communication by e-mail. We will respond to e-mails only under one of two conditions:

• You log into your TreasuryDirect account and send the e-mail from within the account, or
• You have a pending case with us and tell us your Treasury Services case number; please put the number in the subject line of your e-mail

If you can’t meet either of those conditions but want help, you may call us at 844-284-2676. Representatives are available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. Note: Call volumes are unusually heavy at this time. Also, instructional https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/to ... _video.htm and general information are available on our website, at www.treasurydirect.gov.

(Please note: Replies to this e-mail will not receive a response.)

Sincerely,

Treasury Securities

This is absolutely absurd. Is anyone aware of any other way I can get my account access back or am I screwed?

[mrc]

The lesson: Do. Not. Lose. Your. Credentials.

I would try very hard to location the email with your account number. Then I would record it somewhere.

[Silk McCue]

Sorry for your troubles but they are of your own making unfortunately. Sounds like you need to spend time on the phone until you can get through.

This recent thread discussed suggestions for when to call.

viewtopic.php?t=376372

Cheers

[EnjoyIt]

If your in an office alone. Call them, put them on speaker phone and go about your business till they pickup.

If your around others, get some kind of Bluetooth device and do the same thing. Keep the volume low so it isn’t toooooo distracting.

Sorry about your misfortune. Hopefully you can locate your account number.

[JoMoney]

Sounds like "you're screwed" (if that means you'll have to find/make the time to call them.)
I'd go back to searching my email for the account number, and review my personal practices for saving documentation for my financial accounts.

[exodusNH]

Opened a Treasury Direct account last year to purchase I bonds and had no problems. Go to buy again this year and can't find the email that contains my account number . Click on the 'Forgot Account Number' link and it's telling me the information I input is incorrect. Send them an email and they tell me to call the number. Every time I call the wait time is 2+ HOURS, even if I call right when the line opens at 8 AM. Of course I work during business hours and never have time to sit on the phone for 2 hours during the day.

Send them another email. This is the response:

Thank you for your interest in Treasury securities. Due to the large volume of e-mails we currently are receiving, we are temporarily limiting our communication by e-mail. We will respond to e-mails only under one of two conditions:

• You log into your TreasuryDirect account and send the e-mail from within the account, or
• You have a pending case with us and tell us your Treasury Services case number; please put the number in the subject line of your e-mail

If you can’t meet either of those conditions but want help, you may call us at 844-284-2676. Representatives are available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday. Note: Call volumes are unusually heavy at this time. Also, instructional https://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/to ... _video.htm and general information are available on our website, at www.treasurydirect.gov.

(Please note: Replies to this e-mail will not receive a response.)

Sincerely,

Treasury Securities

This is absolutely absurd. Is anyone aware of any other way I can get my account access back or am I screwed?

Search for this email: TREASURY.DIRECT@fiscal.treasury.gov

When I set mine up last April, that's where it came from and had this text:

Dear Account Holder:

Thanks again for taking the time to open a TreasuryDirect account. Your new account number is A-###-###-###.

When you log into your account the first time, you will receive an e-mail with the one-time passcode and further instructions. Once logged in, you should check the Investor InBox section of your TreasuryDirect account for an important message.

To ensure continued delivery of TreasuryDirect related information to your inbox, please add the "From" address Treasury.Direct@fiscal.treasury.gov to your address book.

Need more info? Visit our TreasuryDirect website http://www.treasurydirect.gov.

Thank you for using TreasuryDirect.

[Arabesque]

Boy, does this resonate with me.

I have my account number, but my account is locked due to some security violation. I have to call them, but I really can't hold for two hours . . . I won't be buying ibonds soon.

[Nowizard]

Same issue recently with a request for an email eventually leading to a response that basically was of no help. Posted here, and one very helpful poster suggested creation of a new account. I did, and it went through without a hitch.

Tim

[runninginvestor]

[deleted]

I see that exodusNH had the same thought as I did to provide you with some information on the email with the account number we received. So I know you that my message.

[j.click]

Usually best to try and call first thing in the morning before the queue grows. Good luck!

[Admiral]

And this is why I have never bought bonds on Treasury Direct. I don't need the headache for a little taxable interest. If there was another way to get them, I would.

[HueyLD]

Their call centers open as follows:

“ Our current call center hours are Monday-Friday 8am-5pm ET and Saturday 8am-1pm ET. ”

You can call them at 8 a.m. on Saturday.

[JoMoney]

Boy, does this resonate with me.

I have my account number, but my account is locked due to some security violation. I have to call them, but I really can't hold for two hours . . . I won't be buying ibonds soon.

That happened to me, for the seemingly innocuous request to add/link a new bank account (which I had previously done online without a hitch), and they had not yet made it a requirement to send in a signature guarantee stamped form
So infuriating... then to find out my long held B&M credit union that I kept an account with just for such situations no longer offered Medallion stamps and pretty much refused to offer any other stamp the TD form said was acceptable. After doing some searching around, and not finding a lot of other options, I was able to open an account with Chase bank and they stamped the signature verification forms (but only after a bit of a hassle, getting the right branch, with the right person, at the right time.)
The whole process left a bad taste in my mouth for Treasury Direct, especially since I had considered it money that I could easily access in an "emergency" then to find out how easily my access could be revoked and the potentially lengthy and difficult process to restore access. I had resolved to rid myself of them for good once my last years purchase was eligible to be withdrawn ... and then inflation started to head to the moon, I have my bank account situation resolved, so I'm hanging on a little longer. With interest rates elsewhere ticking up though, and inflation rates not expected to be growing at this rate for long, I'm still planning to make my exit from TD ... just no rush to do so...

[ClevrChico]

This is the downside of TreasuryDirect bonds. I fruitlessly tried to recover a parent's bond on Treasury Hunt. We were given a nonsensical reply and they closed their case. That bond (probably small, hope so) is lost forever it seems.

[z3r0c00l]

I copied the user name in a safe location because it was just a bunch of numbers, couldn't memorize or customize it. So I go back to that place to log in. Been okay for 12 years now fingers crossed!

[langelgjm]

TD has an influx of new accounts and purchases due to the unusually high rates, so I wouldn't expect phone wait times to improve soon.

Most of the issues people have are ultimately user error: Forgotten account numbers, forgotten passwords, forgotten security codes.

Getting an account authorization form stamped is an inconvenience, but it is also 100% possible and MSG is not the only option. Maybe I have a higher tolerance for paperwork after having applied for visas.

I agree that having an account locked when you try to add a bank is not really okay.

My family has 5 TD accounts - personal and entity for each spouse, plus a minor account. The oldest account is 10 years old. I had to do one account authorization in 10 years. I've never had to call TD on the phone, ever.

[nisiprius]

This has always been a problem with TreasuryDirect. It is easy to lose access to your account. In the past... I'm very serious about this... it wasn't a huge problem because they answered the phone promptly and were able to take care of account-access problems easily. I mean it was still infuriating when you didn't think deserved to be locked out. But they answered the phone promptly and took care of things. Really. They did.

My wife almost got into difficulty with her TreasuryDirect account, because the only reason she has one is that I noodged her. So she isn't into it, doesn't log in frequently... and the last time she did, ran into an awkward problem because they said she needed a "one-time password" which they would email her... and it was to an old email account she doesn't use any more. Updating that email address had never been on her to-do list. Fortunately she was able to get to the old email account, which was still active.

I don't have any good advice except to say that TreasuryDirect is clunky, does have nuisance issues, and user interface problems. (For example, if you grant another user transact access to your bonds, you need to do it specifically for each batch--problem on your end. And when the grantee logs in, they don't see some coherent presentation of all the bonds they can transact. The obvious clicks get you to a list of the bonds that are in your own account. The series of clicks and links to get to the screen showing the other bonds you have transact rights on is not obvious).

Try to keep calm, resign yourself to long waits on hold, and you might as well be nice to the person you eventually reach because being irate won't get the problem solved any faster. Patiently follow the directions and jump through the hoops. Please post if you get the problem solved, with any hints or tips you discover.

[lostcoast]

I tried to set up 2 accounts on TD. When I tried to buy an I-bond the site said my account had the wrong bank info. When I tried my DW's it just wouldn't go through. I gave up at that point. So I got lucky is how I'm looking at it, definitely not worth the hassle to me.

[HueyLD]

I tried to set up 2 accounts on TD. When I tried to buy an I-bond the site said my account had the wrong bank info. When I tried my DW's it just wouldn't go through. I gave up at that point. So I got lucky is how I'm looking at it, definitely not worth the hassle to me.

Were the routing number and account number entered correctly? Maybe you transposed some digits? Who are the owner(s) of the linked bank account?

[lostcoast]

I tried to set up 2 accounts on TD. When I tried to buy an I-bond the site said my account had the wrong bank info. When I tried my DW's it just wouldn't go through. I gave up at that point. So I got lucky is how I'm looking at it, definitely not worth the hassle to me.

Were the routing number and account number entered correctly? Maybe you transposed some digits? Who are the owner(s) of the linked bank account?

The account number was wrong. I looked at it and thought how did that happen. I know I entered them correctly as I am very careful and have done it many times. So maybe my error, maybe not. Now I don't care anymore. Moving on, I buy Treasuries through my Vanguard brokerage account though I can't buy I-bonds. Oh well. I tend to try to keep things simple so maybe this whole thing was a good thing with TD.

[StevieG72]

It should not be this difficult to recover account information, they should at least have the option to call customer back without customer losing place in line.

Op, if your only option is to be on hold for hours use a wireless Bluetooth earpiece and you can accomplish other tasks vs. holding a phone to your ear for hours. Hopefully they do not have really bad music playing while you are on hold.

Good luck getting this resolved.

[jaxinvestor]

Set up an account in late April. After "opening the account, they withdrew money from my bank account on May 2. I received an email a few days later saying I needed to send in a form with the medallion signature guarantee. Not sure why the withdrew the money if my account wasn't totally good to go. Faxed the form back and this is the reply I received the next morning.

Dear Customer,

This is a system generated email to communicate we received your Savings Bonds/Treasury Marketable Securities materials.

Cases are worked in the order they are received in our office. Your request is important to us and will receive attention as soon as possible. Please allow up to 16 weeks for review and processing. If we require additional information, we will contact you. Thank you for your patience.

Please retain the Customer Number and Case Number referenced above to streamline any future actions associated with this request. Also note, you may receive multiple email notifications and Case Numbers depending on the type of transaction(s) you have requested.

If you have additional questions, please use the Contact Us link on TreasuryDirect.gov.

We appreciate your interest in U.S. Treasury securities.

SIXTEEN weeks to "review and process" a ONE page form. Come on man.

Seems like there needs to be a major overhaul of the Treasury Department. Put someone with a business process improvement background in charge and get this fixed.

[student]

What email client do you use? Assuming you did not purposely deleted the email, it may still be on your computer. Is it possible that you accidentally archived it.

[arcticpineapplecorp.]

This is the downside of TreasuryDirect bonds. I fruitlessly tried to recover a parent's bond on Treasury Hunt. We were given a nonsensical reply and they closed their case. That bond (probably small, hope so) is lost forever it seems.

don't forget to check unclaimed property. if it matures and/or isn't sold, it might show up in escheatment:
https://www.usa.gov/unclaimed-money

[Johndoefire65]

Boy, does this resonate with me.

I have my account number, but my account is locked due to some security violation. I have to call them, but I really can't hold for two hours . . . I won't be buying ibonds soon.

Why can't you be on hold for 2 hours. Throw a blue tooth in. Go about your day as regular.

[HMSVictory]

This sounds like the people who work at the DMV are holding your money.... boy are they rude.

I chuckle every time I hear the word governmental efficiency.

[exodusNH]

This sounds like the people who work at the DMV are holding your money.... boy are they rude.

I chuckle every time I hear the word governmental efficiency.

Treasury Direct is a very small department that very few people (relatively speaking) had ever heard of before inflation decided to manifest itself.

You can't just materialize trained staff, even when there isn't an acute labor shortage.

[langelgjm]

This sounds like the people who work at the DMV are holding your money.... boy are they rude.

I chuckle every time I hear the word governmental efficiency.

Treasury Direct is a very small department that very few people (relatively speaking) had ever heard of before inflation decided to manifest itself.

You can't just materialize trained staff, even when there isn't an acute labor shortage.

Also it's not like they can just go hire a bunch of people immediately. Governmental budgets are set in advance and allocated by the legislature. Even a short term staff augmentation contact would need to go through procurement.

It's not like TD is making a profit selling us all 9% bonds with no fees.

Actionably, if you don't like what TD is doing, write your representative and senators. Especially if they're on a relevant committee.

[suemarkp]

Boy, does this resonate with me.

I have my account number, but my account is locked due to some security violation. I have to call them, but I really can't hold for two hours . . . I won't be buying ibonds soon.

Why can't you be on hold for 2 hours. Throw a blue tooth in. Go about your day as regular.

Some jobs you just can't. I worked where cell phones were not allowed in most locations. My desk, where they were allowed, was in a shielded building so it still wouldn't work. The desk phones you could use on speaker phone, but I could never guarantee I was going to be in a given room more than an hour.

[ClevrChico]

This is the downside of TreasuryDirect bonds. I fruitlessly tried to recover a parent's bond on Treasury Hunt. We were given a nonsensical reply and they closed their case. That bond (probably small, hope so) is lost forever it seems.

don't forget to check unclaimed property. if it matures and/or isn't sold, it might show up in escheatment:
https://www.usa.gov/unclaimed-money

Good idea, but no dice. Thanks for the info!

[arcticpineapplecorp.]

This is the downside of TreasuryDirect bonds. I fruitlessly tried to recover a parent's bond on Treasury Hunt. We were given a nonsensical reply and they closed their case. That bond (probably small, hope so) is lost forever it seems.

don't forget to check unclaimed property. if it matures and/or isn't sold, it might show up in escheatment:
https://www.usa.gov/unclaimed-money

Good idea, but no dice. Thanks for the info!

but you have to periodically check (at least once a year). Perhaps it will show up at some point.

[ClevrChico]

This is the downside of TreasuryDirect bonds. I fruitlessly tried to recover a parent's bond on Treasury Hunt. We were given a nonsensical reply and they closed their case. That bond (probably small, hope so) is lost forever it seems.

don't forget to check unclaimed property. if it matures and/or isn't sold, it might show up in escheatment:
https://www.usa.gov/unclaimed-money

Good idea, but no dice. Thanks for the info!

but you have to periodically check (at least once a year). Perhaps it will show up at some point.

That is true, will do. Thanks!

[vbdoug]

They are running behind in a lot of ways. I sent in some paper i-bonds on 26Apr and still no acknowledgement. Good luck.

[burritoLover]

The herd of market timers stampeding into i-bonds has them overwhelmed.

[RetiredAL]

The herd of market timers stampeding while chasing yields into i-bonds has them overwhelmed.

My add to bl's post. These are 2 violations of generally accepted BH no-no's.

[exodusNH]

The herd of market timers stampeding while chasing yields into i-bonds has them overwhelmed.

My add to bl's post. These are 2 violations of generally accepted BH no-no's.

I guess, if you squint, it is market timing. But I don't think so. It's definitely yield chasing. But chasing it into an essentially guaranteed product with with no market risk. Worst case, you've earned 9.62% APR for 6 months and then probably 5-8% for the last 6 and lose 3 months of interest. Far better than an FDIC insured account.

[Northern Flicker]

TD has an influx of new accounts and purchases due to the unusually high rates, so I wouldn't expect phone wait times to improve soon.

Most of the issues people have are ultimately user error: Forgotten account numbers, forgotten passwords, forgotten security codes.

Or logged out to open password safe to get answers to “security” questions and then had them lock the account for too many tries to enter the answer despite having performed ZERO attempts to answer the question.

[Grt2bOutdoors]

This sounds like the people who work at the DMV are holding your money.... boy are they rude.

I chuckle every time I hear the word governmental efficiency.

Treasury Direct is a very small department that very few people (relatively speaking) had ever heard of before inflation decided to manifest itself.

You can't just materialize trained staff, even when there isn't an acute labor shortage.

Exactly. Bureau of Public Debt is a gnat compared to the big elephant of government.

[LadyGeek]

I clarified the thread title.

Please stay on-topic, which is helping the OP.

flyninjasquirrel - Did you resolve the login issue?

[Tamalak]

This is reinforcing my decision not to complicate my investment plans by chasing ibonds despite their outperformance this year.

[livesoft]

My Google phone will wait on the phone and listen to the music & ads for me and then ring when the party I called picks up. I don't know if the hold will continue for 2 hours, but it does go for more than 30 minutes.

[HeelaMonster]

This won't help the OP with immediate problem (lost account number), but I can report that I have never had to re-enter my TD account number, once I got it entered the first time. It now pulls up from memory in the TD field, along with my wife's account number and other entries, so all I have to do is select it. And this is on a government-regulated laptop that is typically very stingy in hanging onto prior keystrokes; I don't believe I did anything to cause it to remember things on TD.

I have only had one problem on the TD website, and that was of my own making. It is clunky and awkward to navigate, however.

[adestefan]

My Google phone will wait on the phone and listen to the music & ads for me and then ring when the party I called picks up. I don't know if the hold will continue for 2 hours, but it does go for more than 30 minutes.

We could only wish it was Muzak. Their hood is just continuous ringing interrupted very sparsely with a short message.

[Doom&Gloom]

The herd of market timers stampeding while chasing yields into i-bonds has them overwhelmed.

My add to bl's post. These are 2 violations of generally accepted BH no-no's.

I guess, if you squint, it is market timing. But I don't think so. It's definitely yield chasing. But chasing it into an essentially guaranteed product with with no market risk. Worst case, you've earned 9.62% APR for 6 months and then probably 5-8% for the last 6 and lose 3 months of interest. Far better than an FDIC insured account.

Most of their crush is probably not from the sheer number of new investors, but rather from untangling an astronomic number of locked accounts such as those of OP and others who have posted here.

OP, any chance you took a screenshot of your purchase confirmation (or anything else) and filed it in a non-intuitive place on your computer? I just checked mine and the account number is indeed on it. Any record at all of any account activity at TD?

[JBTX]

I guess I’m lucky. We now have 4 accounts, and to date no problems, and had the initial 2 over 10 years. I recently told a sibling about the current favorable rates. He tried to sign up but ran into some problems, he forgot leading zeros on account number of something and got locked out.

[golfrgirl]

This is the downside of TreasuryDirect bonds. I fruitlessly tried to recover a parent's bond on Treasury Hunt. We were given a nonsensical reply and they closed their case. That bond (probably small, hope so) is lost forever it seems.

don't forget to check unclaimed property. if it matures and/or isn't sold, it might show up in escheatment:
https://www.usa.gov/unclaimed-money

Ya know, I've been meaning to check on this and just now, I found I've got over $750 coming to me. The claim is being processed right now after about 30 minutes of getting the docs together and uploading. Thanks for the reminder!

[arcticpineapplecorp.]

This is the downside of TreasuryDirect bonds. I fruitlessly tried to recover a parent's bond on Treasury Hunt. We were given a nonsensical reply and they closed their case. That bond (probably small, hope so) is lost forever it seems.

don't forget to check unclaimed property. if it matures and/or isn't sold, it might show up in escheatment:
https://www.usa.gov/unclaimed-money

Ya know, I've been meaning to check on this and just now, I found I've got over $750 coming to me. The claim is being processed right now after about 30 minutes of getting the docs together and uploading. Thanks for the reminder!

definitely. i've gotten money for me and my friends and family too. my mom got enough to buy a new car a year ago.

[AdventureGuy]

If your in an office alone. Call them, put them on speaker phone and go about your business till they pickup.

If your around others, get some kind of Bluetooth device and do the same thing. Keep the volume low so it isn’t toooooo distracting.

Sorry about your misfortune. Hopefully you can locate your account number.

Good advice. This is exactly what I did. After 2.5 hours, someone finally picked up and was more helpful than I was expecting. Good luck!

[Artsdoctor]

I really had it with Treasury Direct because it was cumbersome and an overall pain. I shut everything done several years ago and have no regrets whatsoever. I didn't even know there is a customer service number although it seems that no one answers anyway.

However, I wistfully looked at those lucky people--my mom--who bought I-bonds many years ago and are getting over 10% in interest right now. Still, I let it go.

Then, this past week I went home to see my mom and wanted to update her financial information so I went to get her log on information for Treasury Direct. GONE! And for reasons that remain a mystery to me, I didn't have it in my Last Pass account. As the thread above shows, I knew immediately that this would be an absurd endeavor in wasted time trying to get in touch with Treasury Direct.

Fortunately, the estate attorney's paralegal transferred over the records to joint ownership between my mom and me 8 years ago when my dad died and I figured there would be paperwork somewhere. After plowing through a bunch of crap in the safe, I actually found the Treasury Direct information and used it to get in.

Lesson learned (although I still don't know how it escaped my Last Pass account). My only advice is just assume that you're on your own with Treasury Direct and that there is no reasonable expectation of customer service. If you have to call them, I'd just plan on making a whole day affair and then you might be pleasantly surprised when you finally get through after just a few hours.

[BogleMelon]

I really had it with Treasury Direct because it was cumbersome and an overall pain. I shut everything done several years ago and have no regrets whatsoever. I didn't even know there is a customer service number although it seems that no one answers anyway.

However, I wistfully looked at those lucky people--my mom--who bought I-bonds many years ago and are getting over 10% in interest right now. Still, I let it go.

Then, this past week I went home to see my mom and wanted to update her financial information so I went to get her log on information for Treasury Direct. GONE! And for reasons that remain a mystery to me, I didn't have it in my Last Pass account. As the thread above shows, I knew immediately that this would be an absurd endeavor in wasted time trying to get in touch with Treasury Direct.

Fortunately, the estate attorney's paralegal transferred over the records to joint ownership between my mom and me 8 years ago when my dad died and I figured there would be paperwork somewhere. After plowing through a bunch of crap in the safe, I actually found the Treasury Direct information and used it to get in.

Lesson learned (although I still don't know how it escaped my Last Pass account). My only advice is just assume that you're on your own with Treasury Direct and that there is no reasonable expectation of customer service. If you have to call them, I'd just plan on making a whole day affair and then you might be pleasantly surprised when you finally get through after just a few hours.

For me, the lesson here is to not use Last Pass