Giving savings bonds as gifts

Gifting electronic EE or I savings bonds

For electronic savings bonds as gifts, both you and the recipient must have a TreasuryDirect account. TreasuryDirect is the official United States government application in which you can buy and keep savings bonds.

You can gift a savings bond to adults or children. A child under 18 can have a TreasuryDirect account if the child's parent or other adult custodian has a TreasuryDirect account and sets up a linked account for the child.

About linked accounts

In TreasuryDirect, you can give anyone either EE or I savings bonds.

What you need to know about the recipient

To give an electronic savings bond to someone else, you must know that person's

• Full name
• Social Security Number (or Taxpayer Identification Number)
• TreasuryDirect account number

You can also save that information in your account so it will be there for you to give the person other gift savings bonds in the future.

How far in advance to buy the savings bond

You must hold the savings bonds in your account for at least 5 business days before you deliver them to the gift recipient.

That 5-day hold lets us be sure that the money for the gift has successfully gone through the banking system.

How to buy and deliver a gift bond in TreasuryDirect

Use either these videos or the PDF step-by-step instructions sheet:

How the person knows there's now a gift bond in their account

When you deliver the savings bond to the recipient's TreasuryDirect account, we send them an email announcing the gift.

You can also let them know yourself with one of our gift announcements.

Gifting paper I savings bonds

Only Series I savings bonds are available in paper.

Paper Series I savings bonds come in 5 denominations: $50, $100, $200, $500, and $1,000.

The only way to get a paper savings bond is to use your IRS tax refund. With your tax refund, you can buy savings bonds for anyone (yourself, your child, or as a gift to anyone). Starting January 1, 2025, this option will be discontinued. See our FAQ.

If you buy paper savings bonds, we mail the savings bonds to you. You can then give the gift bonds yourself to the gift recipient.

You can also send or include one of our pretty gift announcements.

For more about buying paper savings bonds, see Using your income tax refund to buy paper savings bonds

Sending an announcement to tell about your gift

We have more than 25 announcements in 9 different categories for you to choose from.

Choose the design you want. Personalize it online. Print it at home. Give or send it to let someone know they are getting a savings bond from you.