Treasury Direct overview

• Treasury Direct overview
• Opening a new Treasury Direct account
• Logging in to Your Treasury Direct account

Treasury Direct overview

Treasury Direct is an online service offered by the U.S. Treasury. You can use it to invest in Savings Bonds and other marketable Treasury securities, such as Treasury Bills (T-Bills), Treasury Notes (T-Notes), and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS).

Money can be transferred to Treasury Direct by payroll deduction or by an automatic transfer from the bank account you specify. Likewise, you can specify a bank account to receive interest payments or redemptions.

Electronic (or book) savings bonds purchased through Treasury Direct have these differences compared to paper (or definitive) Savings Bonds.

• You can't lose them and are less likely to forget them
• Your bonds are safe from fire, floods, and other disasters; you can close that safe deposit box
• You can determine the current interest rate and current value of your bonds simply by logging in to your account
• The Treasury transfers money out of or into the bank account you specify - no checks to get lost

Unlike paper bonds, which have fixed amounts, electronic bonds can be purchased in any amount, to the penny, from $25 to $5,000. Also, all electronic bonds are sold at face value (paper E/EE bonds are sold at half the face-value amount).

Electronic bonds can also be paritally redeemed. Each redemption must be for at least $25 and the issue month you are cashing in must have a remaining balance of at least $25. You can use this feature to withdraw interest from Series EE or Series I Savings Bonds, which gives them the current income feature that was formerly reserved to Series H & HH Savings Bonds.

How to open a new Treasury Direct account

In order to open a new Treasury Direct account, you need the following six pieces of information. Note that there are no citizenship requirements:

• Social Security Number
• Address in the United States
• Driver's license - or, if don't drive, a state ID
• Account (checking or savings) at a bank in the United States - you'll need to know the routing numbers to your account
• Email address
• Web browser that supports 128-bit encryption

The process for opening a Treasury Direct account is to enter your personal information, such as name and address, as well as the information listed above. You will also select a password, a password reminder, and additional authentication information. You will also have an opportunity to read the Treasury Direct terms and conditions and privacy and legal notices.

After you submit this information, the Treasury will email the account number of your new account to you. You will need the account number and the password you selected to log in to your new account.

Click here to open a Treasury Direct account. There is also a Treasury Direct enroll link in the TreasuryDirect box on our home page.

How to log in to your Treasury Direct account

Once you have opened a Treasury Direct account, you can log into it from anywhere and buy new bonds, schedule future one-time or periodic purchases, and redeem the electronic bonds you own. You can buy gift bonds and transfer them to accounts belonging to others. You can set up accounts for specific purposes, such as an education or wedding fund for your kids, that are linked to your main account. And you can check up on the current interest rate and current value of your bonds, when and wherever you like.

You can have your employer make an automatic deduction from your paycheck and have it deposited into your Treasury Direct account. The funds are initially invested in a Zero-percent certificate of indebtedness. You use that to buy Savings Bonds on the schedule you choose.

Click here to log in to your Treasury Direct account. There's also a Treasury Direct login link in the TreasuryDirect box on our home page. If you've forgotten your account number or password, there are links on the login page to help you recover it.