Redeem your stinkers
Monday, March 28th, 2005
Categorized as: Stinker bonds
According to an article in a recent issue of the Christian Science Monitor, the Treasury has a five-person team trying to track down the owners of Savings Bonds that have stopped earning interest.
Reportedly, seven out of ten of the people contacted don't want to cash their bonds because they'll have to pay income tax on the interest.
Instead, they opt to give the government an interest-free loan until they need the money, or until their heirs pay the tax, or until the bonds are forgotten and the government gets the entire value, not just the tax.
From a financial standpoint, keeping these stinkers is an appalling decision. If you have Saving Bonds that have stopped paying interest, cash them in, pay your tax with some of the money, and use the rest to buy new bonds that pay interest. You'll end up with far more money than you will by holding on to these dead and rotting stinkers.
(Average rating: 5 stars)
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I have a savings bond my mom told me she bought for me when I was born. She said I can probably look it up online to find out where to cash it in now but I don't have a clue where I would go for this… I found a site last year but I didn't ever go back to it and I lost it… Can you please direct me to a site that I can at least look it up and find out how much it has matured so I know whether to take it out or not and where to go to do so. Thanks
Wendee - there's no place online where you can get information on a Savings Bond that is still paying interest. You can write and ask for information, details about that are here.
If you were born more than 30 years ago, on the other hand, your bond has stopped paying interest. In that case you may be able to track it down using Treasury Hunt.
This site will calculate savings bond values:
http://wwws.publicdebt.treas.gov/BC/SBCPrice
Joseph - For rates and values, there's also a calculator right here on this site (upper right).
Maybe I misunderstood Wendee's message - I thought she wanted to "find" a bond that she had lost.