Article on unredeemed US Savings bonds and how to check if you have one

LTS3

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The article is at
How to figure out if any of the $29 billion in unredeemed US savings bonds belongs to you - The Boston Globe but there may be a paywall blocking access. Here's the article copy and pasted here:

How to figure out if any of the $29 billion in unredeemed US savings bonds belongs to you
By Neya Thanikachalam Globe Correspondent,Updated October 22, 2021, 7:41 a.m.




A 1944 savings bond.

A 1944 savings bond. Public Domain

About 80 million unredeemed US savings bonds, worth more than $29 billion, are tucked away in file folders, desk drawers, safe deposit boxes, and who knows where else, leading to a bipartisan effort in Congress to help people cash them in.
Here’s how to figure out if any of them belong to you and what steps you can take to be reunited with your money.

Where should I start?
Try entering your Social Security number on Treasury Hunt, an online search tool run by the Treasury Department. The department has been digitizing its old savings bonds records, and if your information has been uploaded to the site, you should be able to see a record of your savings bonds.

I didn’t find anything. Does that mean I’m out of luck?
Not necessarily.
Some savings bond records haven’t been uploaded to the site yet. And Social Security numbers weren’t required for bonds purchased before 1974, which a Treasury Department report says make up about 12 percent of those that are unredeemed.

Also, bonds weren’t always purchased in the name of the recipient. If a grandparent, aunt or uncle bought one for you as a gift, they often used their own information for the purchase.

OK, so how do I check for one of those bonds, particularly if a relative no longer is alive?

If you have the Social Security number of your deceased relative, the process is straightforward. Just use it to look up savings bonds under their name on Treasury Hunt.

But again, this only works if your relative’s records have been uploaded.

What if I don’t have their Social Security number?

Now things get more difficult. You can ask a family member if it’s recorded somewhere. You also could try looking for a death certificate, which will have the number, or other official documents.

If those don’t yield results, finding this information will likely be a long and complicated process. You can make an electronic request to the Social Security Administration for a deceased person’s Social Security record or fill out and mail a form called SSA-711. But it might take weeks to get a response.

What if I already found my savings bond?

If you have your paper record, you can cash in your bond at most banks. If the bank can’t redeem your bond, you can mail a request of payment directly to the Treasury Department. Depending on the kind of savings bond, there may also be additional forms you must send. Filling out the forms is a complex process, and it is unclear when you will receive a response.

The Treasury Department has an online guide that contains more information.

How do I cash in someone else’s savings bond?

That also involves a form. Fill out and mail form 1048 from the Treasury Department. It requires a lot of information about the bond owner, including their social security number, full name, the address they listed on the savings bond and your relationship to the owner.

You might also have to send in other forms, so you should check the Treasury Department’s guide for more information.

This all sounds really complicated. Can the government make this process any easier?


That’s the point of the Unclaimed Savings Bond Act. It would require the Treasury Department to provide state governments with savings bond information, such as serial numbers and names and addresses of owners. States have unclaimed property programs that supporters of the bill said are better equipped than the federal government to reunite bond owners with their money.

But for now, the information needed to redeem savings bonds is stored by the Treasury Department. If you need assistance with the process, you can call the Treasury Department’s help line at 844-284-2676 or e-mail [email protected].
 

Elphaba09

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An make sure you check for unclaimed funds through your state or MissingMoney.com. I have found a few hundred belonging to my husband, son, and me. Also, I occasionally check random last names to see if anyone in my village has any. I then send them anonymous letters with directions on how to find it for themselves (like connecting through our county's auditor) so they know it is not a scam or something. (I also have tracked down relatives of people who have passed yet have unclaimed money so that they can claim it.) Most seem to have claimed theirs because the claim no longer shows up. Every once in a while, someone will post on our village's Facebook page about getting a letter and being able to claim the money. It is nice. I did a lot of it this past year because of the pandemic. (It is a small village, so it is not difficult to track down anyone!)
 
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LTS3

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I have a savings bond but it's still collecting interest until 2025 so I'm just waiting for then before I cash it in. I used the "find what your savings bond is now worth" calculator on the Treasury web site and mine is now worth only $47 more than the original purchase value :headscratch: I'm not sure if that's correct or not.
 
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