A Guide to Buying Gift Savings Bonds Online

As you may already know, you can no longer buy paper U.S. savings bonds. The Treasury phased out the paper certificates and now sells all bonds only online.

As we enter the graduation time of year, many may be wanting to buy savings bonds as gifts for high school and college graduates. Ann Carrns over at the New York Times Bucks blog recently wrote about some helpful tools put out by Treasury Direct to guide you through the gift bonds buying process.

Specifically, Treasury Direct has put together a helpful demonstration video that walks you through the process. The above diagram may make it look more convoluted than it really is. Watch the video. But as a reminder--

To buy bonds as a gift, you'll need the following:

• a TreasuryDirect account
• the recipient's name and Social Security Number
• eventually - the recipient’s TreasuryDirect account number to deliver the gift

For minors, you'll need to open your own Treasury Direct account and then add a linked account for the minor.

And if you’re wondering what you’ll actually hand your graduate since the bond is digital, Treasury Direct has several printable gift certificates suitable for most gift-giving occasions.