TreasuryDirectReviews 152

TLDR: DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR MONEY. THEY WILL KEEP IT FROM YOU FOR 6+ MONTHS.

I started investing in early 2023 with Treasury Direct. Everything seemed to work out well for 2 months. Then all of a sudden, I couldn't log in (around late March). I tried calling, but the wait times were exhausting so I had to fine the right time where I could dedicate waiting on a phone call for over an hour.

Once I got through I learned that my account had been locked and the auto-investing feature was shut off (meaning that the money was not being reinvested). They explained that this was for "security reasons". They sent me an email with instructions to prepare a notarized letter to mail back to them.

I finally had the time to go get the letter notarized and sent back (in May). I waited a few more days and then called again. They told me again that I would have to wait on the order of 2-4 months MINIMUM (they stressed that word MINIMUM) for my letter to be processed and that they would let me know via email when my money is available.

If you have access to your money in treasury direct, grab it and run before you don't have access anymore.

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 The money was withdrawn by Treasury.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.

When I signed up for an account, I was told there was a security issue with my bank account. I got locked out, which was OK as I no longer wish to purchase T-bills. But after I was locked out, they took $1000 out of my bank. I merely want the $1000 re-deposited in my bank account. They will NOT respond to any emails! Finally got ahold of Andrea and was told nothing she can do? I only tried to purchase a treasury bill as was suggested by AARP magazine. Fixed income and tried everything to recover. I am at wits end!

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.

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.

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.

When my Credit Union stopped cashing paper bonds I created an account on Treasury Direct and following their instructions I created two manifests totaling 52 bonds. I sent them to them through USPS signature required. Two days later at 7:35 AM verified by their tracking number the packet was put into Treasury Direct's PO Box. After twelve weeks of not hearing anything and seeing nothing happening on my account and having several unanswered emails I called them. After an hour wait I finally got to talk to someone. I explained my situation and he asked for my social security number and quickly told me that there was no trace of my paper bond conversion and suggested that I submit the lost bonds form 1048 and 3500 and report them lost. I did that several weeks ago and again no response from them. Bonds that I bought 30 years ago when a 401K was not available to me are now maturing. So now I have bonds that will be maturing monthly though April of 1995 and are now lost somewhere at Treasury Direct. Lessons learned I tried what would be the easy way and did not want to open another bank account. Hopefully someone reading this review will proceed with extreme caution.

Treasury Direct is the absolute pinnacle of user unfriendliness. Everything about the website and the processes around it is painful.
* Setting up an account requires a special medallion signature from a bank
* The website looks like from the late 1990 and any navigation mistake logs you out
* Entered a security question wrong thrice? Your account is now locked, you will have to call someone, and any transactions incouding reinvestments are cancelled till you can jump through all their phone hoops
* You can't sell securities, you have to transfer them to your broker to sell them
* Transferring securities to your broker is a majore pain
* Ever need an asset overview statement? Doesn't exist, just print out the snapshot of the 1990 website and hope whoever wants it accepts that
* Those 1099, omg. You'd think the government would get at least their own tax forms right.

My parents bought 30 year bonds that I had to cash out in 2022. I had to be on hold for 4 hours just to log in. Now I can't get my 1099 because while I got into my account with a password as well as an independent verification from them to my email I still needed to answer who was my favorite teacher. I put in my favorite teacher but it did not accept it and locked me out. I am now on hold for over 30 minutes and it started ringing thinking yay someone will answer. No one did an now silence. NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE. I don't care if they offer 30 percent interest it is not worth the hassle. My God they won't even mail the 1099 to me. What kind of crap is that.

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.

Call at 5AM to avoid long holds and if you want something to whine about, try Fidelity, where they are professionals at misinformation and asking you 'how much are you planning on bringing in?'. My star rating is scored on the curve. These people at TD are doing very well given how underfunded and in demand they are. I taught myself how to maximize the site, i.e. I set up multiple links to several bank accounts, payroll direct deposit, and I use the C of I as my sweep account. Much better than brokerages to earn a steady return on money needed in <2 years.

Even when you properly navigate the cumbersome website, it frequently fails to function properly and "becomes unavailable." When you try to talk to a customer service person it's nearly impossible. Just another dysfunctional Federal agency.

I don't know how this is a government website! 3 hours on phone and get people who don't know anything …. Then write an email thought that would be easy they respond back to my email stating they are only answering emails back for prior cases that have been open! This is NO help your own ya own! I'm pulling y money right out! This is the treasury we are taking about people! This is not normal and this cheap website is even more sick! Do not give this Treasury your money it will be lost

I waited 40 minutes to speak to an agent. Finally, the recording stopped and there was a ring tone. Oh, good, I thought, I'm being connected with an agent. WRONG. Nothing but dead air time and then nothing. It was getting close to quitting time. I guess the agent wasn't taking any chances. My account has been locked and I must speak with an agent to access it. But how? This was Friday. I have to wait until Monday to try again. Although this is a good investment, I'm going to redeem all funds because Treasury Direct is so difficult to deal with.

Want to give zero star if there is an option. Here is my story.
I waited about two hours and finally got connected to an agent. I need her help to unlock my account. She was asking me about my phone number. I told her that I have two numbers, one is the working number that I was using and calling her and the other one is the one linked to my locked account, and which one did she want. But it seemed that she did not fully understand my question because I am not a native speaker. Then she kept asking me about my phone number and complained that I have not told her any information yet, and then hung up my phone. I was so disappointed and angry about it. I need to waiting another two hours and maybe more two hours. Now I just want my money back.

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.

Clumsy to use. The site would not allow me to select the security question to answer. There is no facility to reset passwords. The wait to speak to someone is 2+ hours.

This is the worst site ever.

My wife's deceased mother left a savings bond for her. I followed all of the steps carefully to complete the proper forms, sent them certified mail, and waited the time requested. Now have been waiting for 3 more months with no updates. Every time I call it is a 2 hour wait, or if I call less than 2 hours (even 1.5 hours) before the end of business hours there is a voice recording that says not enough time to take my call.

This is by far the worst bureaucratic agency I've ever encountered. SOMETHING needs to be done. This is completely unacceptable.

My account was locked due to incorrectly answering a security question. Instead of having a modern, updated website (theirs is a dinosaur!) and having 2-factor authentication, now the wait time on the phone is 2 hours and counting. Unbelievable.
UPDATE: An actual person answered my call. He was kind and fixed everything for me. (I think I got lucky with only a 2-hour wait - others were not so lucky.)