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    TreasuryDirect

TreasuryDirect

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Overview

TreasuryDirect has a rating of 1.4 stars from 150 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about TreasuryDirect most frequently mention customer service, bank account, and hour wait problems. TreasuryDirect ranks 211th among Government sites.

  • Service
    78
  • Value
    54
  • Shipping
    23
  • Returns
    24
  • Quality
    52
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 0%
Positive
0
Neutral
0
Negative
9
View ratings trends
3
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How would you rate TreasuryDirect?
Top Positive Review

“If you want to buy treasury bonds, bills, notes, etc”

Stanislas R.
5/3/13

If you want to buy treasury bonds, bills, notes, etc. directly from the US Government, this is the place to do it. The fees are the lowest and you can trust them as much as you can trust any thing I suppose. The bad news is, as of May 3,2013 you essentially are paying the government to borrow your money since most (all?) real yields are currently negative and if interest rates rise as they one day will, all us bond holders will probably lose even more money. That said, what other assets look more attractive these days? I wish I knew...

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Top Critical Review

“Can Elon Musk Save Treasury Direct?”

David A.
9/16/24

I am Personal Rep for my aunt who passed this past February. While still alive, I had her move her savings bonds into Treasury Direct, thinking it would be easier to address payout after she died. In May, when I submitted the paperwork, the wait time was estimated at 4 months. I waited and called in September and was told the wait time had increased to 'expect it to take 12 months' due to high processing activity. Wow. Don't die holding savings bonds. If the wait time is as advertised, this estate will have extra expenses for tax and estate filing due to the delay. If NASA has to rely on Elon to bring back its own astronauts, perhaps TreasuryDirect can turn to him as well to introduce some technology and some AI into the process to aid the overburdened staff.

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Reviews (150)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (42) bank account (16) security question (20)
Thumbnail of user laurieh498
Arizona
1 review
9 helpful votes
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June 7th, 2022

It's next to impossible to get past the worst antiquated login system that I have ever encountered. Customer service must be non existent. I have decided it's too big of a risk to invest money with Treasury Direct because even if I could get past the crazy log in procedure, I may not be able to do it again to access my account and my money.

Thumbnail of user susant285
New York
2 reviews
7 helpful votes
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November 20th, 2023

Do NOT open an account with Treasury Direct. I attempted to change the bank account linked to my treasury direct account and now my account is locked. I had to submit a form notorized by my bank. Now Im being told it will take 6 months to make any changes. They are now basically holding the money from my t bills that have matured and not giving me any interest on them for 6 months. The customer service is horrendous and the website is flawed. Instead buy your t-bills in the secondary market because you are basically getting the same return.

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user robertw3803
Arkansas
3 reviews
2 helpful votes
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October 12th, 2022

The phone number *******656 say they are not taking calls! But the recording says " go back and try again". Website still has me locked out and I can not talk to a person? This is intolerable, no wonder people are angry, with GVT agencies!

Service
Thumbnail of user bobm1252
Colorado
1 review
0 helpful votes
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June 24th, 2022

I think some Government employees should be fired and contractors given performance reviews. This is because assistance is way too hard to get. It seems to me like they are hiding from customers. Seems like wait times over 15 minutes is cause for performance review. I think people should write their congressmen over wait time mismanaged monstrosity.

"The new rule, found in 75 Fed. Reg. 46,783, approved on Aug. 1,2013 and effective September 3,2013 creates a Government wide repository for contractor and grantee past performance evaluations. All Past Performance Evaluations must be entered into the CPARS system. All Contracts over the threshold of $150,000 will require the Contracting Officer (CO) to make entries into this system."

Thumbnail of user colleena129
California
1 review
7 helpful votes
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June 15th, 2022

It was a rough start, hold for 6+ hours several days in a row, being told by customer service each time that despite the website saying I had to call they couldn't help. But have hope people—wonderful Bob in RM finally came to my rescue. He was a solid 20 out of ten but overall this system was the most painful experience I've ever been through.
Just have hope folks and keep calling.

Tip for consumers:
Don’t give them your $

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user shaund147
Mississippi
1 review
6 helpful votes
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December 19th, 2022

Anyone that wants to cash in Series EE bonds and needs the money within 1-3 months should try their hardest to cash them in with a local bank branch or credit union. I know each bank may have a different set of policies for cashing bonds in (customer account required, under $1000, etc), but from my experience and talking to others it's a minimum of 4 weeks from the date of receipt to having the cash deposited in your account. I'm at 10 weeks with no deposit. Customer service is non-responsive and call times are 2 hours plus. Their website and process are stuck in the 1990s. Extremely frustrating.

If I had known this I probably would have tried every bank in town to avoid dealing with the Treasury Department.

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Shipping
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Thumbnail of user johnd7641
Massachusetts
1 review
4 helpful votes
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February 11th, 2023

Adding my one star to their site. It should be zero given how awful it is. There should be warning when you will be locked out, I have used this computer countless times why do they keep prompting for secret questions? Now I will have to waste time requesting it be reactivated. The worthless people who run this site should all be fired.

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Shipping
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Thumbnail of user miriamc201
New Jersey
1 review
8 helpful votes
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October 3rd, 2022

Website confusing. Long wait for customer service. It took me 1 hour to get
Through to my website. I could not update my bank account. I was
Then locked out. The wait time is almost 2 hours. I have my phone on now
Waiting, and I have to listen to endless messages repeating themselves. Why
Could a representative not call me back instead.

Thumbnail of user wexlerd1
Iowa
1 review
1 helpful vote
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May 16th, 2023

I purchased a 10,000 ibond 11 months ago, which I verified with my bank. The money was withdrawn by Treasury. Planning to redeem in a month I checked the account only to discover there was no record of the Ibond purchase. I called customer service, but no luck connecting. I e-mailed an inquiry and received an automatic reply saying that only emails pertaining to pending cases will be read. The others, will not be read. They mention the telephone customer service hours, but also say that call volumes are unusually heavy during those times. Meaning short of staying on the phone for hors on end there is no possibility of getting through without a legal challenge, which is expensive.

Thumbnail of user johnb10289
Kentucky
1 review
7 helpful votes
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January 3rd, 2023

I thought the piss poor customer service was due to the IBond craze, but it has apparently been terrible since well before that. I tried to update my dad's account to name my mother as beneficiary, but it didn't like the way I answered the stupid security question. (I thought maybe I did something wrong, but there are many others here who had the problem with security question.) I am on hold for what will probably be over 2 hours. I tried last week when I was at the folks and had the same problem. Their website is straight out of 1996, so wonder everything is such a freaking mess.

Service
Quality
Thumbnail of user marcelw36
Singapore
1 review
3 helpful votes
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March 16th, 2023

I am trying to cash out matured EEs and have the cash deposited at my bank.
Now, after three month of inaction, they send me a letter that I first suspected was from a scammer (and maybe still so). It was factually incorrect and full of spelling errors! So far it cost me $900 in lost interest and there is no end in sight!
HOWEVER, I upgraded my rating to two stars because I finally got through by phone (called at 8am and was put on hold for 'only'30 minutes). My concerns were noted and I was told they would be reviewed.

Service
Thumbnail of user melvink63
New Jersey
1 review
15 helpful votes
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September 7th, 2022

Still waiting( 2 + months) to receive funds from submitted mature several HHbonds. Cannot contact customer service. Complained to my House of Representative, not helpful. In my opinion they are faulting on the contract to provide the mature bonds funds. As a senior patriotic citizen who bought bonds for over 40 years, this is cruel, demeaning and a perfect example of incompetence.

Thumbnail of user kennethm1243
Florida
1 review
3 helpful votes
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June 6th, 2022

TreasuryDirect does not allow you to correct an error you may have made when creating your bank account information. They require you to fill out a paper form and have that form signed in person by a bank officer. Our bank is out of state and we cannot travel to have a form signed. Furthermore, their customer service phone line wait times a 2 hours or more.

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Value
Shipping
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Thumbnail of user jamesp4205
Minnesota
1 review
16 helpful votes
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September 19th, 2022

Waited on hold for 2hrs to try and unlock my account. Once I got through to a human, they informed me that they could not unblock my account "due to technical issues" and that I have to call back another day. We can send people to space, unblock bank and brokerage accounts with huge amounts of money in them almost instantaneously. But, we can't have a government run site that functions. Go figure. Absolute joke. Be upset, regardless of your partisan affiliations. This country is a joke.

Service
Value
Shipping
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Quality
Thumbnail of user lauris57
New York
1 review
26 helpful votes
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July 13th, 2022

They tease you with higher rates, you attempt to create an account but can't for whatever reason, so you call, and get NOWHER! 1 1/2 hours of recorded crap, then it rings, and rings, more recordings, more rings, and no one ever picks up! I hung up after 2 hours! Imagine trying to cash in a bond... Is no one trying to fix this joke of a system? Our government doesn't care about the little guy, simple as that!

Tip for consumers:
Don't bother calling Treasury Direct, and you can't even go to the bank nowadays to buy a bond.

Products used:
None

Thumbnail of user gordyb1
California
1 review
1 helpful vote
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October 3rd, 2022

After meticulously creating manifests for 243 EE bonds and mailing them by registered mail I was surprised to learn that 17 of the 50 matured bonds on the first manifest were not received. I was pleased to hear the other bonds were accounted for but was bewildered of how the first 17 matured bonds escaped from the package. After my two hour phone wait I was assured they could be replace if lost (more like mishandled). I received an email detailing how to make a lost bond claim. After more hours of form filling and notarizing I'm back on the infamous 13 week merry-go-round. When it comes to handling money there should be no "Oops, we've never seen one like this before".

On a positive note the additional EE mature bonds were converted to an I bond and the remaining EE bonds are automatically redeemed as they mature. I guess there is always Love and Hate in any relationship.

Service
Thumbnail of user mikey577
Pennsylvania
1 review
8 helpful votes
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October 13th, 2022

What a pain in the butt. Been on hold for going on THREE hours. Called just after 9am. This is ridiculous! Unfortunately I can't stay on the line any longer. Should have know a government department would be a total waste of my time. Best of luck if you have to call them for any reason! Customer service used to mean something, apparently not with the government.

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user williamb4262
Delaware
1 review
6 helpful votes
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May 20th, 2022

I tried to send a gift bond to my Grandson after 11 days it was bought but could not. They say it has to be 5 days. I guess as they can't count as well as not answering the phone after an hour on hold. I wish they would go back to the good old days when the banks could issue a US Saving Bond in five minutes. I will not be buying anymore savings bonds.

Thumbnail of user nancys2529
Illinois
1 review
31 helpful votes
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January 15th, 2022

I've used Treasury Direct to cash in savings bonds, but the website is difficult to use. Login page uses a virtual keyboard to enter password and my clicks sometimes register nothing and sometimes duplicate entries. Site does not allow display of password to verify entries. Takes me multiple tries to get in. Once I'm in, an error (?) navigating from one page to another kicks me out my account & requires another login. Wish they would allow password display on login and kick me back to your account page instead of out the website completely. Worst website I've ever used.

Thumbnail of user davidl5514
Pennsylvania
1 review
1 helpful vote
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March 6th, 2023

My account was locked. I called *******676 before 5 PM. It says the wait was 30 minutes. When somebody (Isabel) picked up the call it was over 1 hour. Isabel promptly hung up the phone after a quick hello. I know she pretended that she could not hear me.

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Thumbnail of user dennisg547
Michigan
2 reviews
15 helpful votes
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February 4th, 2022

I do appreciated that Treasury direct does respond to my emails. I mailed physical bonds to them three months ago, expecting them to appear in my electronic account in a couple of weeks. It is now three months and still nothing. Not just annoying, but worrying.

Thumbnail of user paulab944
Ohio
1 review
2 helpful votes
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October 26th, 2022

Day one, I spent 3 hours, 20 minutes on hold to inquire about an email the website said I would receive in order to complete opening an account. The agent who finally answered my call gave me the account number, and told me their email wasn't working. I asked if there would be anything else needed, and received a "no". After disconnecting the call, I found I needed a one-time password, which would have been on the email I didn't receive. So I'm into another 2 hour plus call hold to get the password! In looking at past reviews, I see that the email situation is long standing. It should be a priority fix. Others have commented on their negative experience, but there is no indication that any remediation is in process.

Thumbnail of user patiencei5
Mississippi
1 review
1 helpful vote
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March 22nd, 2023

I was lucky enough to get a responsive email stating the bonds I sent in would be converted in 13 weeks. I'm still waiting it's been 9 weeks. I'm going to hang in here and see what transpires. I have faith in Treasury Direct because they did have enough courtesy to email me a time frame.
Thank you.

Tip for consumers:
Because of the pandemic, and staff shortages expect a 13 week delay in any type of transaction.

Products used:
EE Bonds converted to cash

Service
Value
Quality
Thumbnail of user kiernanw
Massachusetts
1 review
2 helpful votes
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December 19th, 2022

I bought bonds for my children when they were young in the early 2000's. I don't check into the site often and when I went to log in recently, I was not given the opportunity to enter my password after entering my account number. Instead, I was locked out and directed to call a telephone service number. Hold time was 71 minutes before they unlocked the account.
I asked what it would take to close out the account and was told that each of my children would have to create a TreasuryDirect account because they were now all over 18 years old and that was the only way they could collect their bonds.
This is not a good investment option and customer service is terrible.

Tip for consumers:
Avoid TreasuryDirect

Products used:
Bonds

Service
Value
Thumbnail of user mahendrak16
New Jersey
1 review
2 helpful votes
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October 18th, 2022

Most difficult to reach them... extra interest is not worth the hassle - they do not respond to phone or email.

People have so many negative review because it is the worth Govt site I can think of.

My rating is negative -10

Tip for consumers:
unless you have all prepared including beneficiary upfront ... and can handle stress of not reaching them for days or weeks - then only open an account

Products used:
i-bond

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We're a new Bureau of the Treasury Department formed from the consolidation of the Financial Management Service and the Bureau of the Public Debt. Our mission is to promote the financial integrity and operational efficiency of the U.S. government throu...

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