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Portfolio > Economy & Markets > Fixed Income

Treasury Sold More I Bonds In October Than All of 2021

By Dinah Wisenberg Brin

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Investors bought nearly $1 billion in U.S. government Series I savings bonds on Friday, the last day they could lock in a 9.62% interest rate for six months, while many reported that problems on the overwhelmed TreasuryDirect.gov website were thwarting their purchasing efforts last week.

The new interest rate for inflation-adjusted I bonds, to be announced Tuesday, is expect to dip to roughly 6.47%. Customers had to buy their I bonds and receive a confirmation email by 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern time, Oct. 28, to secure the higher rate, but many reported via social media that they couldn’t get through the process because of website glitches.

The bonds keep their interest rate for six months from the purchase date.

The Treasury Department logged nearly $7 billion in I bond sales in October, a spokesman told ThinkAdvisor by email Monday. That’s more than the roughly $5 million sold on TreasuryDirect.gov in 2021, according to Treasury data.

The department sold nearly 44% of that value last week alone as buyers rushed to get in before the Friday night cutoff to secure the attractive rate before a semi-annual reset.

“Unprecedented volume put significant pressure and strain on the 20-year-old TreasuryDirect application. We tripled TreasuryDirect’s capacity last week and saw many customers successfully create accounts and purchase bonds at record levels,” the spokesman said.

“Any additional updates to TreasuryDirect during the final days of the rate window, such as a delay to the Nov. 1 rate change, would have posed significant risk to the operational integrity of the system,” he added.

Here are the approximate TreasuryDirect.gov sales and new-account statistics for October and last week, the spokesman said Monday. While these figures include some other Treasury securities sold via the website, the “vast, vast, vast majority are I bonds — likely upwards of 95%,” he said.

  • Friday: 95,482 new accounts and $994,056,487 in purchases.
  • Last week: 359,822 new accounts and $3,049,007,049 in purchases.
  • October: 731,336 new accounts and $6,948,068,415 in purchases.

“We continue to work towards an updated, modern TreasuryDirect,” the spokesman said.

Individuals may purchase up to $10,000 in electronic I bonds per calendar year through TreasuryDirect and $5,000 in paper bonds per year through income tax refunds. I bonds earn interest for 30 years or until cashed. Holders may redeem bonds after 12 months, but if they cash them in before five years they’ll forfeit the last three months’ interest.

Melanie Waddell contributed reporting.

Dinah Wisenberg Brin

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