Every year since my nephew Carl passed away in 1989 I've been purchasing a U.S. Savings Bond in honor of him and giving it to a deserving student at the school he attended.
No problems, go to the bank, fill out the bond application (with the child's information given to me by the school) and they send it to the Treasury Dept who would mail the bond to the student (by the way, the bond is only for $100.00). Now, you can no longer do this (I guess because there was nothing in it for the banks to make a profit on) and you have to purchase the bond through the Treasury Dept Web Site. Well, here are the instructions that they sent me:
You can no longer purchase bonds in paper form. The only way to purchase bonds is electronically in a TreasuryDirect account.
For information on establishing a TreasuryDirect account if you haven't yet done so, please visit the site below:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/...
Read the directions just to open an account with the Treasury Dept, the only thing they didn't ask was my dress size (they'd better not). Heck, I got less questions when I opened my on line 401K account!
You can purchase gift bonds in your account and must hold the bond until you deliver to the TreasuryDirect account of the gift recipient. If a gift recipient is under 18, the parent can establish an account in their name and establish a minor linked account for the child or you can hold the bond until the childs turns 18, establshes their own account, and deliver the bond at that time.
To purchase a gift bond, just access your TreasuryDirect account, select the tab "Buy Direct", select the bond you wish to purchase and select "Submit or Select", select "Add Registration" and show that you want the bond in the gift recipient's name and SSN, select the amount to be debited from your bank account, select a one time purchase or can request repeat purchases by entering a start and ending date, select "Submit", you will then get a Review Screen and need to click "Submit" again to complete the request. The gift bond will be issued under the tab "Gift Box" the next business day.
If desired, you can first create the gift registrations before purchasing a bond. To create the gift registrations, just access the account, select the tab "Manage Direct", select "Update my Registration List" , select Add Registration.
In the future when you want to make a second purchase for the same individual, select the tab "Buy Direct", select the bond you want to purchase and click "Select or Submit", and where your name is listed, you can click on the drop down box and select the gift registration, then continue with the purchase request.
You can print a gift certificate to present in a card at the web site below:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/...
What the hell is this crap? I want to purchase a darn bond which I only do once a year, not buy into the Treasury Dept. Who sits there making up these rules and regulations? Heck, my e-filing was easier than this with less questions. Why must Government take something that was so easy to do and make it as difficult as they can?