Buying a savings bond as a gift on TreasuryDirect is pretty simple once you know the ground rules. A few things are worth getting straight before you start clicking around.
Gift savings bonds through TreasuryDirect are electronic only — no paper certificates. The recipient needs their own TreasuryDirect account to receive the bond. If they don’t have one yet, that’s fine; the bond just sits in a Gift Box inside your account until they’re ready. You’ll also need to wait at least five business days after purchase before you can actually hand it off to them.
One more thing: gift bonds can’t be bought through entity accounts, and Treasury marketable securities aren’t eligible as gifts at all.
Log in and head to the BuyDirect section. When you get to the registration step, look for the recipient in the dropdown. If they’re not listed, click “Add New Registration” and fill in their information. You’ll pick an ownership type — Sole Owner, Primary Owner, or Beneficiary — and check the “This is a gift” box at the bottom before saving.
After saving, you’ll land back on the BuyDirect page with the new registration now available to select. Pick it, finish entering your purchase details, and submit.
The bond usually shows up in your Gift Box within one business day of the purchase date. If you happened to schedule the purchase on a weekend or federal holiday, TreasuryDirect pushes it to the next business day automatically.
Once the five-business-day waiting period is up, you can deliver the bond straight from your Gift Box to the recipient’s TreasuryDirect account.