US Savings Bonds

Posts Tagged ‘bonds’

Question: How can I cash in Savings Bonds that I got as a child,?

I recieved a lot of Savings Bonds as gifts, but I dont have any paper showing so. What can I do to retrieve this information, and cash in my bonds?
I dont actually have the bond papers. That is my problem!

Answer: As long as you have the Savings Bonds and they have your name on them, you only have to take them to a bank. With you proper ID they will be able to cash them in for you and will be able to give you the proper interest. They stop earning interest after a certain amount of time, so don’t let them hang on for say 25 year thinking you’ll earn lots of money, you do better investing them or putting them in a mutual fund.

The World is Drunk in a Casino Getting Drunker. Cash in your chips now.

Question: If I redeem my Series EE Savings Bonds for cash, what percent of the interest is taken out for taxes?

Say my bonds are worth $3000 and the interest earned on them is $1100, bringing their total value to $4100. If I redeem them now, how much will I receive?
How much will I have to pay on the tax form…I’m a minor.

Answer: You will owe federal income tax at your regular rate. The interest will not be subject to state income tax.

Question: How do I cash in US Savings Bonds?

Answer: Take it to a commercial bank that you have an account with. As long as the bond is at least 6 months old and it is titled in your name, you should be able to cash it in on the spot. They will look at the date that the bond was issued and use that to figure out what it is worth on the day that you cash it in. You can estimate the value by using the rule of 72. Take the number 72 and divide it by what ever the rate of the bond was on the day it was purchased. The result tells you the number of years it will take for the bond to double in value. The dollar amount that you see on the bond is called the face value. If the bond is more than 12 years old there is a good chance that it is worth the face value or possibly more. EE bonds continue to accrue interest for 30 years so if is 20 to 30 years old it is very likely that it is worth much more than the face value. When you cash it in at the bank they should give you a 1099 to let you know how much interest is being reported to the government. FYI, customer service reps at banks hate Cashing Savings Bonds because typically a customer brings in a huge stack of them and each one might have been bought on a different date so they all have to be researched separately. It’s time consuming and banks don’t make any money on them so generally they think of it as a pain in the butt. You can go on www.savingsbonds.gov and plug in the date that it was purchased and it will tell you the exact current value of the bond. Good luck