How to Give the Gift of US Treasury Savings Bonds

Whether you are holding onto some savings bonds to accrue interest or simply want to gift some away this post will teach you how to gift US Treasury Savings Bonds. It’s important to also find any unclaimed savings bonds that you may have because they are one of the most common types of missing money.

Not many people gift US Treasury Savings Bonds anymore but it is still a great to teach saving. Although you can’t get the satisfaction of holding a paper certificate anymore, since they stopped doing that in 2012, the idea of saving is still present.

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How To Buy Savings Bond Gifts

The process of buying savings bond gifts is quite simple. Below we will list out the steps on how to buy the bond.

Register an account at TreasuryDirect
Collect the gift recipient’s Full Legal Name, Taxpayer ID or Social Security Number
(When you give the bonds and want to deliver them electronically, the Recipient’s TreasuryDirect Account Number, but you don’t need it now)
Log into TreasuryDirect and click BuyDirect in the Menu
Select Series EE
Enter the Recipient’s information as the new Registration Information and check the “This is a gift” box.
Select the Recipient’s information as the registration, enter the amount, funding source, and set Purchase Frequency.
Review the Purchase Review page to ensure all the information is correct.

Once you purchase the bond, it will appear in your account in about a day. You can’t deliver it to your recipient for five days, this is to confirm the funds (ACH takes up to 5 days). However, if your recipient is a minor, they need to have a minor linked account that is associated with a parent/guardian.

Here are the steps to gifting the bond:

After 5 days of purchase, log into your Treasury Direct account.
Click on the Gift Box link in the top menu.
Select the bond you want to gift and click Submit.
Click Deliver — remember, you’ll need their TreasuryDirect account number.
You can deliver all or part of it – double check the review page. Click Submit and the bond will be delivered.

Print a Paper Gift Certificate

The Treasury no longer offers a fancy looking savings bond certificate but you do have the option to print out a gift certificate from them yourself. They have nearly 27 gift certificate templates for occasions like graduation, holidays, and even simply thank yous.

Bottom Line

Giving the gift of a US Treasury Savings Bond isn’t all that bad because it can teach the person your gifting it to how to save money. That is the primary goal of a savings bond after all.

When you purchase a savings bond, it will help them build interest, save money, and teach responsibility. These kinds of accounts can last up to 30 years, but you will be able to redeem it whenever you want to. For more posts like this, check out our list of bank guides!