How to Check if a Bond Has Been Cashed

To check if a savings bond has been cashed, you can use Treasury Hunt, which is a tool launched by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to help bondholders determine the value of their bonds. According to Senate.gov, there are over ‌$29 billion‌ in unredeemed savings bonds. If you have at least one savings bond and aren't sure if it was cashed, resources are available to help you find out.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission explains that savings bonds are debt securities issued and backed by the U.S. government. When you purchase a U.S. savings bond, you are lending money to the government and receiving a guarantee that you will be paid back with interest after the maturity date. There are two main types of savings bonds:

• ‌Series EE savings bonds‌ are sold at face value and earn a fixed interest rate regularly for 30 years. After 20 years, the bond is guaranteed to double in value. Patriot Bonds are EE savings bonds issued between December 2001 and 2011.
• ‌Series I savings bonds‌ are sold at face value and earn a fixed interest rate that can change every six months based on the current interest rate. This is called an inflation rate and is guaranteed to never fall below zero.

For both EE and I savings bonds, interest is compounded semiannually. Twice a year, the dollar amount from the months of interest is added to the bond's value.

TreasuryDirect mentions that Series HH bonds are no longer sold, but may still earn interest. Series E bonds were replaced by Series EE bonds in 1980 and ceased earning interest in 2010.

Savings bonds have long been a popular low-risk investment. Since their introduction in 1935, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) has issued more than ‌6.8 billion‌ savings bonds valued at over ‌$731 billion‌. Both bonds are available electronically. Series I bonds are still available in paper form, but only when purchased with your annual IRS income tax refund.

Whether you have an old paper savings bond or an updated electronic savings bond, there are several ways to determine its value. If your savings bond was lost, stolen or destroyed, there are also steps you can follow to request a replacement.

You can check if a bond has been cashed by logging into treasurydirect.gov. If you don't have a TreasuryDirect account, create one by selecting "Open a New Account" in the login window. You'll be asked to enter a lot of personal information, including your Social Security Number (SSN) and complete financial institution and bank account information. Then, you'll receive an email with instructions for your first login.

Once logged in, you can search for the bonds in your secure online account. If you have a mature bond that you are trying to find the value of, visit Treasury Hunt. If you think you may have an electronic bond that isn't stored in your TreasuryDirect account, you can try the other methods below.

To use the U.S. Treasury's Treasury Hunt tool, you need to know the owner's Social Security Number (SSN) and the state the bond was issued in. If you are the owner, you will be able to learn the full details of the bond. If you are looking up a bond under someone else's name, the Privacy Act of 1974 limits how much you can find out. You'll receive instructions for what to do next if a match is found.

You can also contact the Treasury department in any of the following ways:

• ‌U.S. Mail:‌ Write to the Treasury Retail Securities Site, P.O. Box 9150 Minneapolis, MN 55480-7015. Include the bond's serial number, face value and issue date in your correspondence.
• ‌Email:‌ Use the fillable forms on TreasuryDirect's Contact Us page to send a secure message.
• ‌Phone:‌ Call (844) 284-2676. Expect long wait times.

If your bond hasn't been cashed but was lost, stolen or destroyed, the Treasury Department has a form you can fill out to report the problem and potentially receive a replacement.

If you have a paper savings bond but aren't sure if it was redeemed, visit TreasuryDirect's Savings Bond Calculator. This tool provided by the U.S. Treasury allows you to enter the information on your bond to determine the bond's current value.