How to give a savings bond
U.S. savings bonds are often given as gifts to young children — after all, a baby or young child won’t remember that stuffed bear you got them, but they’ll sure think of you years later when they go to cash in their bond. (Boy was I grateful when my grandparents let me know that they had a savings bond for me that had matured: the face value was $1000, which was great enough, but imagine my surprise when I cashed it in and it was worth FIVE thousand dollars.) If you’re interested in buying a savings bond, there are two ways to go about it: in person and online.
To buy a savings bond in person, go in to your local bank, pay for one, and it will be mailed to you a few weeks later. There are gift certificates that you can print out for the recipient to let them know the bond is coming. You’ll need either your own social security number or the recipient’s social security number to do this, along with their full name. Putting your own social security number on the bond doesn’t mean that you’ll owe taxes on it, but it does mean that that is the number that will be used to look up the bond if it’s ever lost. For that reason, I recommended using the recipient’s social security number if it all possible. (It’s a lot easier for them to remember their own number, than to try to figure out yours, especially if a large number of years have gone by.)
If you don’t want to worry about someone losing the bond, or just want to avoid a trip to the bank, you can sign up for an individual account on TreasuryDirect and purchase the savings bond electronically. If you go the electronic route, you won’t receive a paper bond. Instead, you’ll have an electronic record of it. The person you are giving it to will receive an email letting them know that you’ve given them the bond. You’ll need more details in order to give an electronic bond as a gift, so while using the web site is a GREAT way to buy bonds for yourself, you may be better off stopping at the bank for gift bonds. Details on the requirements for purchasing electronic gift bonds are available on the savings bonds as gifts page of TreasuryDirect.
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