Posted on Oct 28, 2014
Do "bonds" purchased in boot camp expire?
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I remember having an option to buy a few $50 "bonds" during USMC boot camp back in 1996. I remember the purchase was automatic and withdrawn from my paycheck for a few months to cover the 3 or 4 bonds I had agreed to purchase. I don't remember what the bonds were for exactly. They may have been war bonds. However, I do remember that they were supposed to mature in 7 or 10 years to $100 each.
I remember thinking about it a lot, because as an E-1 $50 was a lot of money. I remember looking at my LES and realizing there would be a few hundred dollars worth when they matured, but I don't remember being given any certificates of ownership or any paperwork proving that I ever purchased them, other than the withdrawals from my LES's, which obviously I no longer have those LES's. I remember asking an admin clerk about them, and was told it should be recorded in my SRB. So I didn't think anymore about it, until after I had separated.
I separated in 2001 due to injury. I remember waiting a few years to inquire about the bonds, which would have been in 2004 and 2005. I did not find any mention of them in the copy of my SRB I have. I tried to contact the VA about it, and was transferred to or given several phone numbers to contact. It seemed I was being given the run around, and no one connected to the VA resources I was in contact with had any idea what I was talking about. Finally, I remember being given a specific number to call and put in a request to have them investigate the issue, but I never heard anything back.
I did some research online about it, but never found anything solid. To be fair, the folks investigating the issue may have sent me some information in the years that followed, but I had moved and lost the numbers I was given, so if they sent anything, I never got it. I haven't been able to find that number since.
Does any one remember buying bonds in boot camp?
Has anyone had any luck finding out how to retrieve them and cash them in?
I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks.
I remember thinking about it a lot, because as an E-1 $50 was a lot of money. I remember looking at my LES and realizing there would be a few hundred dollars worth when they matured, but I don't remember being given any certificates of ownership or any paperwork proving that I ever purchased them, other than the withdrawals from my LES's, which obviously I no longer have those LES's. I remember asking an admin clerk about them, and was told it should be recorded in my SRB. So I didn't think anymore about it, until after I had separated.
I separated in 2001 due to injury. I remember waiting a few years to inquire about the bonds, which would have been in 2004 and 2005. I did not find any mention of them in the copy of my SRB I have. I tried to contact the VA about it, and was transferred to or given several phone numbers to contact. It seemed I was being given the run around, and no one connected to the VA resources I was in contact with had any idea what I was talking about. Finally, I remember being given a specific number to call and put in a request to have them investigate the issue, but I never heard anything back.
I did some research online about it, but never found anything solid. To be fair, the folks investigating the issue may have sent me some information in the years that followed, but I had moved and lost the numbers I was given, so if they sent anything, I never got it. I haven't been able to find that number since.
Does any one remember buying bonds in boot camp?
Has anyone had any luck finding out how to retrieve them and cash them in?
I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks.
Money
Investing
Boot Camp
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 13
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The bonds you would have purchased in 1996 would almost certainly have been Treasury Bonds of some sort. I'm pretty sure we haven't sold war bonds since 1945 - although maybe we should have, but that's a whole different discussion.
The Treasury Department should have a record of the bonds you bought - presuming they were properly entered into the system back in 1996. This link should help you get started: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/tools_treasuryhunt.htm
The Treasury Department should have a record of the bonds you bought - presuming they were properly entered into the system back in 1996. This link should help you get started: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/tools/tools_treasuryhunt.htm
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Sgt Alvin P. Liendo "Tanto" Unfortunately I do not remember having the chance to purchase bonds at basic training. In my limited experience with them they do not typically (at least the ones I have seen) expire and can be cashed in so long as you have the paperwork.
Have you tried to contact anyone in the USMC about this issue?
Otherwise, without the numbers and paperwork you may be out of luck...
Have you tried to contact anyone in the USMC about this issue?
Otherwise, without the numbers and paperwork you may be out of luck...
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Sgt Alvin P. Liendo "Tanto"
Thanks for the feedback. I will try to contact the DFAS again and report back.
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SFC Jim Ruether
I bought some savings bonds when I was in back in 1982. Checked the maturation of the bonds and its a long way off. A $50 savings bond I bought in 90' or 91' for $25.00 is worth about 28.75. Not a real money maker if you know what I mean.
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SSG (Join to see)
SFC Jim Ruether that seems to be a trend I found with some other people who bought bonds...
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LtCol William Bentley
If you bought them at the right times, the interest rates on some years of savings bond was quite good...and they are literally guaranteed. As always in financial products, the less risk, the less reward. See today's CD's pulling .1%, etc.
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Thank you all for the comments and suggestions. SCPO (Join to see) was correct in that they are not war bonds, they are savings bonds. The website Davis provided offered this quick search tool (https://www.treasurydirect.gov/TH/THGateway). Unfortunately, my ID was not found.
Here are a few other options that I was able to come up with that I will try:
Option 1: http://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/bondretrieval.html
Option 2: DFAS
[login to see]
fax: [login to see]
Option 3: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/forms/sav1048.pdf
Simply fill out the form for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed U.S. Savings Bonds (Form PD F 1048) and mail it to the address provided on the form.
If you don't have a listing of your savings bonds' issue dates and serial numbers, write to Savings Bonds, Parkersburg, WV 26106-7012. Provide as much information on the bond as possible and request a search of our records. We will replace your savings bonds if we can establish that a person entitled to cash the bonds hasn't done so.
I will post later, if I am successful in recovering my savings bonds.
Thanks again,
Semper Fi
Here are a few other options that I was able to come up with that I will try:
Option 1: http://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/bondretrieval.html
Option 2: DFAS
[login to see]
fax: [login to see]
Option 3: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/forms/sav1048.pdf
Simply fill out the form for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed U.S. Savings Bonds (Form PD F 1048) and mail it to the address provided on the form.
If you don't have a listing of your savings bonds' issue dates and serial numbers, write to Savings Bonds, Parkersburg, WV 26106-7012. Provide as much information on the bond as possible and request a search of our records. We will replace your savings bonds if we can establish that a person entitled to cash the bonds hasn't done so.
I will post later, if I am successful in recovering my savings bonds.
Thanks again,
Semper Fi
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LCpl Steve Smith
Bonds and SecuritiesUntitled 1Untitled 1Untitled 1Untitled 1Untitled 1
view auctions. find a form. get tax information at IRS.gov. see interest rate data. switch to electronic benefits. find currency and coin information. report a suspicious email or suspected fraud view budget, performance, and financial reports. have a lost or expired check reissued
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LtCol William Bentley
Sgt Alvin P. Liendo "Tanto" - https://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/bondretrieval.html
Here is the official DFAS guidance on hunting down and claiming any remaining US Savings Bonds that are held "for safekeeping." That is the official title of what most of us remember from the "old days" of US Savings Bonds: we used part of our paycheck to directly purchase savings bonds, Type E or EE or I, etc., and those "bonds" were "held for safekeeping." This meant your money went somewhere, the US Govt used it for something, and when you decided you wanted to cash out your Savings Bonds, they figured out how much it was worth after interest was added, and printed it out for you, and mailed it to you. This all ended in 2014: all the US Savings Bonds held in safekeeping for armed forces members were supposed to have been printed out and mailed to the servicemembers...
This is EXACTLY what happened to me in 2014, shortly after I retired. I got a huge stack of US Savings Bonds, in paper form, in the mail, along with an itemized inventory of every bond I had bought and placed in safekeeping. I also got instructions on how to register those savings bonds back into the new system, so they could continue to grow. Or I could have just taken them down to the bank and cashed them out. I chose to register them, did the online thing, and mailed the entire lot to the new location "for safekeeping." Where they were presumably destroyed in their paper form and converted back into digital money...until some day when I decide to cash them out.
They usually mature at 30 years, after that typically they don't earn anything more, but you don't have to cash them out. Could just have it sit as digital savings, waiting for an event that minimizes the tax hit, such as using them for higher education for a child. Or convert to something else.
Many of my bonds were bought back when interest rates were more favorable, and some are drawing quite impressive returns (by today's standards of savings bonds and CDs, at least).
If the initial attempts to contact using their POCs fails, keep trying. Or just call DFAS customer service. Sometimes you have to work the system to get through the call screening and get results at DFAS: be persistent. Find the bonds. Verify if you still even have any, or if they mailed them to a long-forgotten address you lived at years ago. It's your money!
Here is the official DFAS guidance on hunting down and claiming any remaining US Savings Bonds that are held "for safekeeping." That is the official title of what most of us remember from the "old days" of US Savings Bonds: we used part of our paycheck to directly purchase savings bonds, Type E or EE or I, etc., and those "bonds" were "held for safekeeping." This meant your money went somewhere, the US Govt used it for something, and when you decided you wanted to cash out your Savings Bonds, they figured out how much it was worth after interest was added, and printed it out for you, and mailed it to you. This all ended in 2014: all the US Savings Bonds held in safekeeping for armed forces members were supposed to have been printed out and mailed to the servicemembers...
This is EXACTLY what happened to me in 2014, shortly after I retired. I got a huge stack of US Savings Bonds, in paper form, in the mail, along with an itemized inventory of every bond I had bought and placed in safekeeping. I also got instructions on how to register those savings bonds back into the new system, so they could continue to grow. Or I could have just taken them down to the bank and cashed them out. I chose to register them, did the online thing, and mailed the entire lot to the new location "for safekeeping." Where they were presumably destroyed in their paper form and converted back into digital money...until some day when I decide to cash them out.
They usually mature at 30 years, after that typically they don't earn anything more, but you don't have to cash them out. Could just have it sit as digital savings, waiting for an event that minimizes the tax hit, such as using them for higher education for a child. Or convert to something else.
Many of my bonds were bought back when interest rates were more favorable, and some are drawing quite impressive returns (by today's standards of savings bonds and CDs, at least).
If the initial attempts to contact using their POCs fails, keep trying. Or just call DFAS customer service. Sometimes you have to work the system to get through the call screening and get results at DFAS: be persistent. Find the bonds. Verify if you still even have any, or if they mailed them to a long-forgotten address you lived at years ago. It's your money!
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LtCol William Bentley
LCpl Steve Smith - https://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/bondretrieval.html
Here is the official DFAS guidance on hunting down and claiming any remaining US Savings Bonds that are held "for safekeeping." That is the official title of what most of us remember from the "old days" of US Savings Bonds: we used part of our paycheck to directly purchase savings bonds, Type E or EE or I, etc., and those "bonds" were "held for safekeeping." This meant your money went somewhere, the US Govt used it for something, and when you decided you wanted to cash out your Savings Bonds, they figured out how much it was worth after interest was added, and printed it out for you, and mailed it to you. This all ended in 2014: all the US Savings Bonds held in safekeeping for armed forces members were supposed to have been printed out and mailed to the servicemembers...
This is EXACTLY what happened to me in 2014, shortly after I retired. I got a huge stack of US Savings Bonds, in paper form, in the mail, along with an itemized inventory of every bond I had bought and placed in safekeeping. I also got instructions on how to register those savings bonds back into the new system, so they could continue to grow. Or I could have just taken them down to the bank and cashed them out. I chose to register them, did the online thing, and mailed the entire lot to the new location "for safekeeping." Where they were presumably destroyed in their paper form and converted back into digital money...until some day when I decide to cash them out.
They usually mature at 30 years, after that typically they don't earn anything more, but you don't have to cash them out. Could just have it sit as digital savings, waiting for an event that minimizes the tax hit, such as using them for higher education for a child. Or convert to something else.
Many of my bonds were bought back when interest rates were more favorable, and some are drawing quite impressive returns (by today's standards of savings bonds and CDs, at least).
If the initial attempts to contact using their POCs fails, keep trying. Or just call DFAS customer service. Sometimes you have to work the system to get through the call screening and get results at DFAS: be persistent. Find the bonds. Verify if you still even have any, or if they mailed them to a long-forgotten address you lived at years ago. It's your money!
Here is the official DFAS guidance on hunting down and claiming any remaining US Savings Bonds that are held "for safekeeping." That is the official title of what most of us remember from the "old days" of US Savings Bonds: we used part of our paycheck to directly purchase savings bonds, Type E or EE or I, etc., and those "bonds" were "held for safekeeping." This meant your money went somewhere, the US Govt used it for something, and when you decided you wanted to cash out your Savings Bonds, they figured out how much it was worth after interest was added, and printed it out for you, and mailed it to you. This all ended in 2014: all the US Savings Bonds held in safekeeping for armed forces members were supposed to have been printed out and mailed to the servicemembers...
This is EXACTLY what happened to me in 2014, shortly after I retired. I got a huge stack of US Savings Bonds, in paper form, in the mail, along with an itemized inventory of every bond I had bought and placed in safekeeping. I also got instructions on how to register those savings bonds back into the new system, so they could continue to grow. Or I could have just taken them down to the bank and cashed them out. I chose to register them, did the online thing, and mailed the entire lot to the new location "for safekeeping." Where they were presumably destroyed in their paper form and converted back into digital money...until some day when I decide to cash them out.
They usually mature at 30 years, after that typically they don't earn anything more, but you don't have to cash them out. Could just have it sit as digital savings, waiting for an event that minimizes the tax hit, such as using them for higher education for a child. Or convert to something else.
Many of my bonds were bought back when interest rates were more favorable, and some are drawing quite impressive returns (by today's standards of savings bonds and CDs, at least).
If the initial attempts to contact using their POCs fails, keep trying. Or just call DFAS customer service. Sometimes you have to work the system to get through the call screening and get results at DFAS: be persistent. Find the bonds. Verify if you still even have any, or if they mailed them to a long-forgotten address you lived at years ago. It's your money!
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LCpl Steve Smith
LtCol William Bentley - I remember direct purchase from pay checks...that's how I got mine...but back in the mid 90's when I got out it was way easier to cash them in lol
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