New I bonds are sold in one place: TreasuryDirect, the Treasury's own website. Since 1 January 2025 I bonds have been "only available electronically", and Treasury calls TreasuryDirect.gov "the one and only place to electronically buy and redeem U.S. Savings Bonds". Banks stopped selling paper savings bonds in 2012, and buying paper I bonds with a tax refund ended on 1 January 2025. So the answer to where to buy I bonds is a TreasuryDirect account, and the rest of this page is how.
No current rate is printed here: how the rate is built is on the I bond interest rate page, and TreasuryDirect's page on buying savings bonds shows the rates for bonds issued in the current six-month window.
Where you can buy I bonds, and where you cannot
| Route | For new I bonds | What the source says |
|---|---|---|
| A TreasuryDirect account | Open | "the one and only place to electronically buy and redeem U.S. Savings Bonds" |
| A bank | Closed | "in 2012, banks stopped selling paper savings bonds" |
| Your federal tax refund (Form 8888) | Closed; paper I bonds ended 1 January 2025 | "Form 8888 is now only used to split your direct deposit refund" |
| The Payroll Savings Plan | Closed since 31 January 2025 | "The Payroll Savings Plan was discontinued on January 31, 2025." |
| A brokerage account | Not a route (our deduction) | No source names brokerages. Deduced from two Treasury statements: I bonds are "only available electronically", and TreasuryDirect.gov is "the one and only place to electronically buy" savings bonds |
Banks still appear at the other end of a bond's life: Treasury says owners of paper bonds "can continue to redeem them at some financial institutions", a matter for how to cash I bonds.
What you need before you buy
An individual opening a TreasuryDirect account needs a valid Social Security number, to be 18 or older and legally competent, a US address of record, and an account at a US depository financial institution that accepts ACH debits and credits. Opening the account is free, and "We don't charge you any fees to purchase EE or I Bonds." How to buy Treasury bills sets out the same account requirements. Whoever is named on the bond also needs a Social Security number and must be a US citizen (living in the US or abroad), a US resident, or a civilian employee of the United States.
Logging in: ID.me from 29 October 2026
TreasuryDirect's login page says "Traditional TreasuryDirect Login will be retired on 10/28/2026", and its home page says: "Beginning October 29, 2026, ID.me will be required for logging into TreasuryDirect!" Without an ID.me Wallet, an account holder can still manage the account by paper forms but, in the words of TreasuryDirect's ID.me FAQ, cannot "Sign in to TreasuryDirect online" or "Make new purchases". From 29 October 2026, then, a buyer needs ID.me. The FAQ adds:
- Have two IDs ready: a Social Security number and a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver's licence, state ID or passport.
- Not Login.gov, which "cannot be used to log in to your TreasuryDirect account".
- Funds stay safe. "Your funds and investments will remain safe", and online access can be restored at any time by completing the set-up.
TreasuryDirect's home page adds that ID.me "will not charge you or ask for a credit card".
How to buy an I bond in TreasuryDirect
TreasuryDirect's steps: go to your account, choose BuyDirect, choose EE or I bonds and click Submit, then "Fill out the rest of the information." That comes down to four choices:
- Who owns the bond. You can name "yourself, a child, yourself and someone else (either as another owner or as the beneficiary)", or a gift recipient.
- How much. Anything from $25 to $10,000, to the penny; TreasuryDirect's own example is an I bond for $36.73. Electronic bonds sell at face value: "you pay $50 for a $50 savings bond".
- Where the money comes from. A debit from your linked bank account, or your Zero-Percent Certificate of Indebtedness (C of I), which TreasuryDirect describes as "a Treasury security that does not earn any interest".
- The purchase date. A non-business day is moved to the next business day.
You then review the purchase details and the terms and conditions, and submit.
When the money leaves, and the issue date
Savings bond purchases "are generally issued to your TreasuryDirect account within one business day of the purchase date", and TreasuryDirect debits your bank or C of I as it issues the bond into your account. A debit returned for insufficient funds removes the bond; TreasuryDirect retries a bank (not a C of I) the next business day, and a second return removes it for good.
The issue date is "the first day of the month in which the Treasury receives funds for the purchase of the security". A bond bought on 10 July is dated 1 July, and I bonds "earn interest from the first day of the month you buy them". The 12-month lock, the five-year line for the three-month interest penalty, the six-monthly rate resets and the 30-year final maturity all count from the issue date, as when I bonds mature sets out.
Buying near the end of a month
Funds must be received "prior to Midnight Eastern Time to be credited for a particular day", and "If you make a purchase request at the end of the month, your bond's issue date may be the following month depending upon when funds are received." That matters most at the end of April and October, since each 1 May and 1 November brings a fixed rate for "all I bonds that we issue during the next 6 months". At the May 2026 change, TreasuryDirect's savings bond FAQ says the outgoing rate was available until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, 29 April, the second-last day of the month.
How much you can buy, and whose limit it uses
The cap is per number, per calendar year: "one Social Security Number or one Employer Identification Number may buy … up to $10,000 in electronic I bonds". The regulation, 31 CFR 363.52, sets a separate $10,000 for EE bonds, so the two limits never combine; EE bonds vs I bonds compares the series. How it counts, from TreasuryDirect's page on how much you can spend and own and the regulation:
- The first-named owner. For individual accounts the limit applies to the first person named. Bonds on which you are named second "do not count towards your limit".
- Children. A bond bought for a child counts against the child's limit "no matter who buys bonds for the child", and "Each child has the same yearly limit".
- Gifts. They count against the recipient, in the year delivered (next section).
- Two accounts, one number. With an individual and an entity account on the same Social Security number, "you can purchase up to the limits in each of the 2 accounts".
- Not counted. Paper bonds converted to electronic; bonds bought "in a fiduciary capacity", for the buyer; and bonds received because the registered owner died, for the recipient.
- No ceiling on holdings. "There is no limit on the total amount that any person or entity can own in savings bonds."
Buy past the cap and the regulation reserves Treasury's right "to take any action we deem necessary to adjust the excess", including removing the excess bonds from your TreasuryDirect account and refunding the payment price to your bank account of record.
One household's calendar year (illustrative)
| Purchase (illustrative) | Counts against | That person's room left this year |
|---|---|---|
| $10,000 of I bonds, Partner A first-named, Partner B named second | Partner A | $0 |
| $6,000 of I bonds, Partner B first-named | Partner B | $4,000 |
| $2,500 of I bonds in their child's minor account | The child | $7,500 |
| A $1,000 gift bond bought by Partner A for an adult friend, delivered the following January | The friend, next year | Not this year's |
Partner A's gift still goes through, because buying for yourself is "in addition to the amount you can spend on buying savings bonds for a child or as gifts". The household spends $19,500 this year, of which $18,500 counts against its own three numbers.
Buying an I bond as a gift
"For electronic savings bonds as gifts, both you and the recipient must have a TreasuryDirect account." The process, from TreasuryDirect's gift page and its step-by-step sheet:
- Gather the recipient's details: full name, Social Security number (or taxpayer identification number) and TreasuryDirect account number, which is needed only at delivery.
- Buy it. In BuyDirect, choose I bonds and add a registration with the recipient's name and Social Security number in the first-named section, as sole or primary owner. Tick "This Is A Gift", enter $25 to $10,000, choose the source of funds, review and submit.
- It waits in your Gift Box. Gift purchases are "generally issued to the Gift Box in your TreasuryDirect account within one business day of the purchase date", and the bond can stay there until the recipient sets up an account.
- Hold it at least five business days. "That 5-day hold lets us be sure that the money for the gift has successfully gone through the banking system."
- Deliver it. In the Gift Box, select the bond, click Deliver, enter the recipient's TreasuryDirect account number and submit. Treasury emails the recipient.
There is no deadline to deliver. "You may hold an EE and I Bond that is registered as a gift until it reaches maturity." If it matures undelivered, the redemption amount is "held as Gift Box Proceeds in your Gift Box until delivered".
How it counts. "The gift belongs to the person to whom you give the bond", so it uses the recipient's $10,000, not yours, and only from delivery: "The gift counts for that person's limit in the year in which they get the bond." While it waits in your Gift Box, "it is not yours and does not count in your limit". The recipient's own purchases and every gift delivered to them in a calendar year share one $10,000.
Children and entities. For a recipient under 18, the child's parent or legal guardian must set up a Minor Linked Account within their own TreasuryDirect account, and the gift is delivered there. A minor account can receive gifts but cannot buy bonds with a gift registration, and "Gift securities are not available in entity accounts."
Buying for a child under 18
A parent, natural guardian or person providing chief support can open a Minor account for a child under 18, linked to their own primary account; only the custodian can use it, buying, cashing and receiving gifts on the child's behalf. The bonds belong to the child and count against the child's limit. Under ID.me the parent verifies their own identity: "Your child does not need an ID.me Wallet."
At 18 the account is "temporarily put on hold", the ID.me FAQ says, and the new adult must "create their own TreasuryDirect account and verify their identity through ID.me". The custodian then moves the bonds across, which TreasuryDirect calls de-linking, and the amount de-linked is applied toward the child's annual purchase limitation in that year.
For parents saving towards college, TreasuryDirect warns: "do NOT put the bond in the child's name. Keep the bond in your name." The education tax exclusion needs an owner who was at least 24 before the bond's issue date; how to cash I bonds sets out its conditions.
Trusts, businesses and other entities
An entity account is run by one account manager who can act alone and may have to show evidence of that authority. TreasuryDirect accepts corporations, deceased estates, LLCs, living estates (a court-appointed guardian of another living person's estate), partnerships, professional LLCs, sole proprietorships and trusts, but says entity accounts "are not available at this time" for unincorporated associations, government bodies or tribal organisations. A trust's registration must specifically identify the trust, and the account uses the trust's employer identification number or the grantor's Social Security number.
The $10,000 is counted by the entity's EIN or SSN; an individual and an entity account on the same Social Security number each get the full limit. ID.me verifies the account manager "rather than the entity itself". Paper requests are slow: as posted on 14 October 2026, TreasuryDirect's home page says requests related to trusts "may take ten months or longer to process".
What no longer works: paper bonds and tax refunds
The Tax Time Savings Bonds programme, set up in 2010, let filers buy paper I bonds with their tax refunds, in $50 steps. Then, in TreasuryDirect's words: "As of January 1, 2025, you are no longer able to buy paper Series I savings bonds with your tax refund." The IRS's Form 8888 now says buying bonds with a refund "has been discontinued". Older articles that add a refund allowance on top of the $10,000 describe a route that no longer exists; TreasuryDirect's answer on the limit is "You may continue to purchase up to $10,000 of series I bonds in a calendar year."
The change runs one way: "Electronic EE and I Bonds may not be converted to paper bonds." Paper I bonds you already own can be kept until cashed, or converted to electronic without using any of your yearly limit.
After the purchase
A new I bond cannot be cashed for 12 months from its issue date, and one cashed before five years loses its last three months of interest; that lock is why where to keep an emergency fund keeps I bonds out of the first layer of savings. The bond's value shows in your TreasuryDirect account, and the I bond calculator projects one on rates you choose. Cashing it is covered on how to cash I bonds.
Before you buy
- Is your ID.me Wallet linked? From 29 October 2026 there is no other online login, and no purchase without one.
- Will the money be there when the debit arrives? A second returned debit removes the bond for good.
- Who is named first? That person's $10,000 is the one used.
- Is it near the end of the month? The issue date may roll into the next month, and at the end of April or October so may the rate.
- For a gift: does the recipient have an account, or a minor linked account, and do you have their name, Social Security number and account number?
- What is the rate? Read it on TreasuryDirect on the day, not here.
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