All about the Treasury's free Savings Bond Wizard
Monday, July 25th, 2005
Categorized as: Current value of a US Savings Bond
While you can find out the value and current interest rate of your Savings Bonds using my US Savings Bond Calculator, the Treasury also offers software you can download and install on a Windows computer - the Savings Bond Wizard - that has more features.
Unlike my calculator, it offers you the chance to change the valuation date to something other than today and it gives you a way save your bond data for next time.
However, it's Windows-only software that you have to download and install on your own computer. Before you go to that trouble, I recommend you begin by reading my comparison of the four most-used Savings Bond calculators.
The US Savings Bond Wizard requires a computer running Windows 95 or newer and the ability to install software.
Here's how to get a copy. The web site you will be downloading from is the Bureau of Public Debt at the U.S. Treasury, not from our web site. When you follow the instructions on the link below, you will see a standard Save Dialog Window - create a new folder or select an existing one to save the file - sbwsetup.exe - on your own computer.
Right-click on this link and select
Save Target As or Save Link As
from the menu that appears on your screen:
US Savings Bond Wizard
After you have downloaded the file, select the Run… command from your Start menu. Click on the Browse button, find the file you just downloaded, select it, then click the OK button. If you have administrative rights to install software on your computer, you'll be seconds away from using the Wizard.
The installation process will put a link to the US Savings Bond Wizard in your Start Menu. When the installation process is complete, find the Wizard in your Start menu and crank it up.
If you have trouble downloading the file, try a normal click on the download link above. If that doesn't work either, here are additional downloading tips from the Treasury's savings bonds web site.
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I tried downloading the Savings Bond Wizard to my new computer (Windows XP operating system) but according to my compatability wizard it's not compatible. I originally created my Savings Bond Wizard in Windows 98SE and the savings bond data I will be importing was also created in Windows 98SE. Is there a way to download a Savings Bond Wizard that's compatible with Windows XP and that will also allow me to import the data that was created in Windows 98SE?
Ayre - I'm not familiar with the "compatibility wizard," but can you just ignore it? The SB Wizard works fine on Windows XP.
I used the savings bond wizard with my old Dell PC and found the program very useful.
I've switched to a Mac computer OS X version 10.4.8. Is there any program I can download to access the Bond Wizard? I feel left out at this point in time.
Hi Fran - there's a program called GBonds that you may be able to get to work on Mac OS X, but I suspect your best bet is to use a program that works through your browser.
Browser-based programs don't have to be updated and you can access your data from any computer, so upgrading your system doesn't cause any problems.
Your two basic choices are the Savings Bond Guru and the Savings Bond Calculator.