Cashing in Some Old Savings Bonds

Since I recently hit 30 and I have had this nagging thought in my head that I should dig into my files to find my small collection of U.S. Savings Bonds. I mainly accumulated these bonds from gifts over the years and I want to see when they stop earning interest.

Afterall, these bonds only collect interest for 30yrs, so if any of my wise family members gave me bonds growing up that they purchased when I was born, they could be sitting in my files not accumulating any interest.

Here was the list of bonds I found:

Denom	Issue Date	Maturity	Interest Rate	Current Value	Accrual
$ 100.00	10/1/1983	10/1/2013	3.47%	$ 179.44	Oct
$ 100.00	10/1/1981	10/1/2011	4.00%	$ 236.28	Oct
$ 100.00	4/1/1983	4/1/2013	3.54%	$ 189.64	Oct
$ 100.00	9/1/1980	9/1/2010	4.00%	$ 280.16	Sep
$ 100.00	2/1/1978	2/1/2008	4.00%	$ 484.16	Aug
$ 50.00	9/1/2003	9/1/2033	3.61%	$ 27.08	Sep

I was able to look up the current value and maturity date on the TreasuryDirect site.

The sad fact is these bonds pay very uncompetitive rates. With online savings accounts (such as Emigrant Direct or HSBC) paying interest rates above 5% APY and no signs of interest rates declining it would probably make sense to cash all of them in and move the money into a savings account.

I have decided to cash in all of these and put the proceeds in my online savings accounts. Since these bonds only accrue interest every six months, I will wait until each bond hits a accrual date and then cash them in to avoid losing interest than I need to. For the above listed bonds that means I should be able to cash them all in by October.

Note: If you think you have US Savings Bonds, but aren't sure, you can request US Savings Bond search be done to see if you have some you might have misplaced.