My grandparents and parents set up Series EE savings bonds for me starting shortly after I was born in 1988, and continued until the last one in 2003. They’ve been sitting around for a while now, and a few years ago I went to Bank of America to cash them in, but they said I had too many. I didn’t quite understand that and just gave up on the idea for a while.
Now I’m back in the mode of looking at my investments and wondering what to do with these bonds. They’ve been fully matured since 2018, and they’re just sitting there doing nothing. I want to put them into my investment portfolio.
I also have a Roth with Fidelity. Can I deposit the money from these bonds directly into my Fidelity account? Is there some rule about cashing them in when you’ve got a lot like this?
You can convert your paper savings bonds into electronic bonds through Treasury Direct. It’s a bit of a process, but it works. You’ll need to create an account online and send the bonds to them, which can take up to 12 weeks. There’s a good guide to help with this here: [link].
Local bank employees often don’t know how to handle paper bonds anymore since they aren’t issued as much, but your bank should still be able to help you cash them. I’d try a different branch or bring some instructions with you on how the process works.
I work at a bank, and yes, we can still cash paper bonds, but there’s a limit on how many we’ll process in one visit because they take a while to handle. You could take a few bonds at a time. Also, if you’re cashing over $10k in one go, there’s extra paperwork that needs to be filled out.
I looked into Treasury Direct, and it seems like I’d have to fill out a form if my bonds are worth over $1000, get them notarized, and physically mail them in. I’m not thrilled about putting that much money in the mail and hoping nothing goes wrong.
Don’t worry too much! If they get lost, you can file a claim since the bonds are tied to your Social Security number. You’ll be able to get them reissued if something happens.
You don’t need to do that. The bonds are already registered to you and no one else can cash them in. If they get lost, the Treasury can reissue them for you.
I think the form you’re looking at is for cashing in bonds by mail. If you go through Treasury Direct, they’ll convert your bonds to an electronic version, and you can withdraw some or all of the money into your checking account. Just take pictures of your bonds so you have the serial numbers in case anything goes wrong.
You could also try calling local banks to see if any of them will cash your bonds without having to mail them in. Some still do it, you just need to ask around.