Submitted by Mrs_WorkingMuggle t3_yebage in personalfinance
I saw a post a few days ago about the website being slow, but now it's not just being slow it's not sending the OTP that will allow me to log in.
Are that many people really taking up the site buying iBonds before rates go down? I mean, I'm one of those people, but I've never had this sort of problem with the site before.
Just wanted to see if anyone else is having these problems.
I had that same issue the other day. Bet it’s just a bunch of people trying to take advantage of the ibonds last minute. There’s been a ton of news coverage on the subject recently
>Are that many people really taking up the site buying iBonds before rates go down?
Yes. There is literally unprecedented interest in I bonds right now.
>I mean, I'm one of those people
The people posting here with TD problems probably represent a tiny fraction of the people using the site.
will do, i'll try doing it late at night as suggested on another post. Luckily i've already purchased bonds at this rate, i was just going to try and sneak in another purchase.
I doubt it. TD has always been a horrible site that was set up for the internet in 1992 and looks like it was never upgraded.
It's not just you. Servers are overloaded as people are trying to get in before the rate change. Its been all over the news lately so I assume people who have never even heard of TD or knew about I bonds are trying to make accounts and get in on the fun. I suggest trying again later in the evening.
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I seem to also have picked a bad time to buy ibonds :D
You doubt the vast majority of TD users are not active on reddit?
I took your comment that there might be a few vocal people on Reddit complaining but the majority of users have no issue.
I may be incorrect in that reading of it. But my statement was not TD is crap.
yeah wild. i made it to the last page of account creation twice and the middle a 3 for 4 times before it just times out. think i will try after midnight
I bought some I-bonds last night at 10:30 pm. You probably need to visit on low traffic periods
Yep, it’s being reported on, too.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/10/26/treasurydirect-website-crash-i-savings-bonds/
> With a Friday deadline approaching, savers trying to buy inflation-protected I bonds — which pay a guaranteed 9.62 percent — are crashing a Treasury Department website.
> This isn’t the first time the site has crashed. It happened in May when the nearly 10 percent rate was announced. The Treasury Department has also had problems keeping up with the volume of calls from people having trouble buying I bonds.
Same here... UGH why did I have to be a procrastinator
To jump onto this thread, if we buy it before the change in Nov, we're locked in at the previous interest rate for 6 months. After since months, it changes to Nov's interest rate for 6 months. So there's always a 6 month lag on interest rates if you do it now? Oct locks in the 9% for 6months from the May 2022 rate. April 2023 it switches 6%- the Nov 2022 rate. Oct 2023 it switches to the May 2023 rate for 6 months and keeps going like that correct?
twice, I must of filled out the form at least a dozen times.....finally was just able to create an account. Now trying to get the purchase completed...
Edit: Finally purchased!!
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I'm right there with you and u/demosthenesss. I can't even get past TreasuryDirect's homepage without the site crashing on me. They really need to get a web host that can actually handle post-1990s web traffic.
This is insane for a .gov site. :\
Edit: I very fortunately did get through. I posted a suggestion on how to possibly improve your odds of logging in, in this post.
You can only buy $10000 per year per entity so how does it crash? Are people making a bunch of fake companies and buying i bonds?
Yes it's just that slow. Lots of people buying.
Not an effective website for volume use considering the last time a developer load tested it was probably when Netscape Navigator first came out. But rumor has it they are upgrading the server to a whole 1gb of memory next year.
FOMO more than likely. People hear about I Bonds because they hear a magical deadline is coming up. They also realize it's a good deal. Traffic picks up and a page times out. The media covers that fact (search Google for examples) and suddenly everyone wants I Bonds.
High demand on a site that looks like it was made in GeoCities 30 years ago causes timeouts and amplifies the FOMO. Vicious cycle.
My favorite part is that this is the upgraded site. Like, I don’t know how much they improved the backend, but the front end was way worse.
A quick update to my earlier reply that I thought might be helpful for u/cobalt-ambedo, u/demosthenesss and OP u/Mrs_WorkingMuggle.
I was fortunately able to login in after multiple tries, setup an account, and purchase my iBond. I noticed that the site was MUCH easier to access after about 1 am Eastern Time (had to stay up late for this). Not sure if it's because traffic to the site is lower, or due to some schedule maintenance they did around midnight Eastern ... but the site worked much faster.
You might want to give the overnight hours a shot if you're able. There's only one night left to try it (unless you're in a position to do it now). But worth a shot.
Good luck to you!
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Please inform us of these much better places to put money.
I just opened an entity account and funded it between midnight and 12:20am PT. Site (and required e-mails) came through very quickly.
I was unable to do anything (completely dead site) for the past few days during normal hours.
If you are married or have a trusted partner to gift with, you can buy future year’s maximum. For example, if you’ve already maxed 2022, you can buy another $10K for your partner as a “gift” to deliver in January 2023. Starts the six months of high interest now, and doesn’t even lock anything up for longer, because ineligible for redemption until October 2023 anyway.
And if you’re willing to lock up the money an extra three months to January 2024….you can buy a third $10K (x2, with partner) now too.
Wait how do you do the last part you said?
You go into TreasuryDirect, you make a gift purchase for someone else. There is no limit on the amount you can buy as gifts, only a limit on what an individual can get in a calendar year, either from purchasing it themselves or receiving as a gift.
So for example, a married couple can each buy their own $10K for 2022, then buy another $10K now as a gift to deliver in 2023, or even another $10K to deliver in 2024. Buying now for 2024 only adds three months to the lock up period, as the 1 year doesn’t run out til October 2023 anyway.
It’s not hard to do, you just register it in their name and check the “this is a gift” box when you buy it.
TreasuryDirect explains it:
it's like this at 730am EST too :)
I bought them this morning just fine
I bought i bonds when they were at 7.12%, do I also get the 9.62% or do I have to buy more to get that rate?
Yup, you get each rate for six months. You got the 7.12% for six months, you get the 9.62% for six months, then you’ll get the soon to be announced rate (likely 7.48%) for six months.
No need to buy more to get the new rate, unless you want more.
Thank you for clearing that up.
Yeah I did it early this morning and had almost no issues, too
Cool, so where do you suggest I put my house downpayment savings that I’ll need in 1-5 years for a higher guaranteed rate?
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Nice! Glad it worked for you too!
(Loved the Airplane reference, btw)
Did it work for you late at night? I'm trying now and nothing.
I tried around 10 and it said the site was down for scheduled maintenance. Which baffles the mind. I think I’m probably giving up on purchasing additional bonds for this rate.
Ugh yea...I just didn't think it'd be this crazy to buy but that's on me! I'm gonna try a bunch of times tonight and maybe early tomorrow morning and if I don't get it, then what can ya do. Not the end of the world.
I disagree with the sentiment of the OP but the stock market could very easily prove to be a better place to put your money over the next year, although that's definitely riskier.
I hopped on at 6 am EST today and it was all smooth. I'm assuming that things are better when it's late pacific time.
Smart! Thank you!!!
CNN just posted an article about it. The site is now hard-down.
You do realize that the I bond rate changes every 6 months and it will likely be less than 6% 6 months from now. So you'll be stuck earning those lower rates for the full 5 years unless you take the early redemption penalty.
I would invest in land before i would put it into US bonds, especially with a major economic crash potentially coming. People always need land, it's a finite resource and the price will always go up especially so for strategic land. Safest is farm land that you can rent out, inflation rate is fairly common for farm land value plus you get a bonus of rent. Something simple like hay fields is good.
Land, for no risk. For risk sell puts in the current market.
I…don’t think you understand how ibonds work. You get 6 months of the current rate from date of purchase and then 6 months of the next rate. Since I bought this month I’ll get 6 months of 9.62% and then in May I’ll get 6.48% for 6 months. You only have to hold for a year after which point if HYSA is higher I’ll gladly take the 3 month penalty, move it there, and still come out way ahead of any savings account.
I’m not buying them as a long term investment, I’m literally putting property downpayment money there since I’m not yet ready to buy.
Isn't that exactly what I said?
6 months good interest and then in 6 months you get whatever that rate is... You lose 3 months interest if you sell before 5 years.
What did I state incorrectly?
I guess I misunderstood you. We know the next 6 month rate is going to be around 6.48%. I consider 9.62% really good and 6.48% good as well. That averages out to a little over 8% over the year. Let's say I hold 15 months to take into account the 3 month penalty, I'm getting that rate (minus federal taxes). And even if I don't, it's beating any other guaranteed investment.
so max contrib is 15k asuming you do 5k with your return. 15k for 15 months will net you about 16020 after federal taxes.
another option would be to sell "safer" puts, for example lets take tsla, what is the lowest you could see tsla stock in 15 months? lets say 180.00 that would give you a gain of $3500 less $500 after tax and you would need $14,500 to cover the margin balance. You could also close the position at any time if needed.
Are you really comparing Tesla puts to ibonds? I’m talking about a safe place to put money I will need in the medium term.
If you wanted to compare the same earnings with tesla puts you would have to go all the way down to a $100 tsla put, tesla going down to $100 is as likely as the fed declaring bankruptcy.
Thanks for the tip. I just did it at 7:15 et and after so many tries late last night, it (seemingly) worked! Thanks!
Sweet, really glad that helped!
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