What happened to my guaranteed interest rate of 6%?
Monday, November 7th, 2005
Categorized as: Savings Bond interest rates • Series EE US Savings Bonds
Your Savings Bond Calculator shows that an EE bond issued in January 1993 is earning 4%. I understood that Savings Bonds issued through March 1993 had a guaranteed minimum of 6%. Would you clarify?
Tom’s response
Your January 1993 EE bond earned 6% through December 2004. At that point its original maturity period (the amount of time required for your investment to double in value) ended and the bond entered a new, ten-year, maturity period.
When a Savings Bond that has a guaranteed minimum rate (only bonds issued prior to May 1995 have this feature) enters a new maturity period, the Treasury has the right to change the guaranteed minimum rate, and since March 1993 it’s been changing the guaranteed minimum rate to 4%.
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Tom Adams
If the EE minimum interest rate is 4% since 1993, why then do I have EE bonds from 1983 and 1993-94 that are earning less than 3% according to the savings bond calculator?
Paul - The guarantee applies to the entire maturity period, not each six-month chunk of it. So if a bond earns more than 4% early in a maturity period, it can earn less than 4% late in the period and still meet the 4% minimum over the entire period.
Tom Adams
I bought EE bonds in 1988 that were switched to HH bonds. They will mature in 2018. I was getting $4,000.00 per year until 12/31/08. Now I am getting $1,350.00- the 1.5% rate. Can you help me underwstand why?
Sarah - see this post.
Tom Adams
I have ee bonds issued in Feb and June of 2002 do these have any guaranteed interest rate?
Tim - bonds of that vintage don’t have the kind of guaranteed rate this page is talking about, but see this and this.
Tom Adams