Posted on Oct 28, 2014
Do "bonds" purchased in boot camp expire?
21.4K
26
33
1
1
0
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 I remember the purchase was automatic and withdrawn from my paycheck for a few months to cover the 3 or 4 bonds I had agreed to purchase.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
7
7
0
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
We're pleased to hear from our customers regarding their satisfaction with our website. Although your browser settings don't allow you to view the website survey we're conducting, please e-mail your comments.
(7)
(0)
3
3
0
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...
(3)
(0)
Sgt Alvin P. Liendo "Tanto"
Thanks for the feedback. I will try to contact the DFAS again and report back.
(0)
(0)
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.
(0)
(0)
SSG (Join to see)
SFC Jim Ruether that seems to be a trend I found with some other people who bought bonds...
(0)
(0)
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.
(0)
(0)
2
2
0
2
2
0
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
(2)
(0)
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
(0)
(0)
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!
(0)
(0)
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!
(1)
(0)
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
(0)
(0)
1
1
0
to the best of my knowledge they do not expire, They just stop earning money when they Mature.
(1)
(0)
0
0
0
Funny I came across this conversation because I remember buying them years ago (30 to be exact) and never had anything about them since. Been trying to track them down. That's how I came across this page.
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
I been looking for this for years. I bought two $100 bonds when they first handed out our orders at the end of boot camp. Everyone I've talked to said they don't know what I'm talking about. I've done treasury hurt and unclaimed money thing and nothing.
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
Yes. I to was able to purchase them in boot camp back in 87', but have not been able to find out how to retrieve them. The money was withdrawn from my paycheck at the beginning of boot camp up until I finished my A-school at Balboa Hospital in San Diego. No one in the Navy knows what we're talking about. Someone got a retirement bonus.
(0)
(0)
0
0
0
0
0
0
Tanto, you won't find any evidence of US savings bonds in your SRB, and the VA will not know anything about them. They ARE, however, shown on each of your LES's in those months when part of your paycheck was withheld to buy US savings bonds through the "safekeeping" program.
This program ended in 2014, and you cannot buy US savings bonds any longer through the old-style (and simple to understand and use) method of an allotment from your pay. If DFAS was still holding any savings bonds you purchased under the "safekeeping" allotment program, you were supposed to receive them all in the mail, in paper form, in late 2014, with instructions about how to either cash the in, or register them back with the new Treasury Direct program so they could continue to draw whatever (usually pathetic, but guaranteed...) interest rate they had until they reached full maturity at 30 years. I can tell you this worked: in late 2014 I got a stack of paper bonds, that I forgotten I had bought years ago in the early 1990's and then again years ago while deployed, with the instructions how to register them, which I did. I put them back into the "machine" so they can continue to mature and I have a safe, virtually hidden stash of cash I can use for my kid's education someday and minimize the taxes...or something like that.
You now have to buy them through Treasury Direct, using a method similar to allotments but actually is a form of monthly bank draft: you set up a payment of a certain amount from a checking or savings account, and the frequency of payments, and what type of Bonds you want to buy. And then it goes on autopilot, just like the old allotments but completely privatized, outside the military pay system. It's just you -- and the US Govt's Treasury Direct program -- and your bank of course.
Here is the military DFAS guidance on this topic: https://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/bondretrieval.html
Here is the US Treasury Direct site: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/global_open.htm
And, most people do not keep copies of their LES's forever. But, DFAS does! They have every LES that was ever generated on you, from the active or reserve sides of MCTFS, the only fully integrated personnel and pay system within the DoD. It holds all personnel and pay-related information on every Marine in the Corps - active, reserve, and retired, even separated for a couple of years! (In 1994, the Joint Uniform Military Pay System/Manpower Management System (JUMPS/MMS), and the Reserve Manpower Management Pay System (REMMPS) were merged to form MCTFS...a little trivia that adds color to this answer). (See: http://jdgrose115.tripod.com/Adjutant/mctfs.html)
I have successfully requested various LES's over the years from DFAS. Here is what DFAS FAQ website says about that (https://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/faqs.html):
Marine Corps Members:
For Active, Reserve and Separated USMC Service Members: Your LES's for the past 12 months are available on myPay. For copies of an LES more than one year old, send an e-mail to [login to see] or fax your request to [login to see] .
If you don't get what you want the first try, or the email comes back undelivered, etc., which HAS happened to me, then call the DFAS customer service and ask for supervisors until you get through to what you want. I have received old LES's as recently as 6 months ago, so this system works. You probably should just ask for ALL your old LESs, don't try to guess which months you bought savings bonds. Then go from there.
This program ended in 2014, and you cannot buy US savings bonds any longer through the old-style (and simple to understand and use) method of an allotment from your pay. If DFAS was still holding any savings bonds you purchased under the "safekeeping" allotment program, you were supposed to receive them all in the mail, in paper form, in late 2014, with instructions about how to either cash the in, or register them back with the new Treasury Direct program so they could continue to draw whatever (usually pathetic, but guaranteed...) interest rate they had until they reached full maturity at 30 years. I can tell you this worked: in late 2014 I got a stack of paper bonds, that I forgotten I had bought years ago in the early 1990's and then again years ago while deployed, with the instructions how to register them, which I did. I put them back into the "machine" so they can continue to mature and I have a safe, virtually hidden stash of cash I can use for my kid's education someday and minimize the taxes...or something like that.
You now have to buy them through Treasury Direct, using a method similar to allotments but actually is a form of monthly bank draft: you set up a payment of a certain amount from a checking or savings account, and the frequency of payments, and what type of Bonds you want to buy. And then it goes on autopilot, just like the old allotments but completely privatized, outside the military pay system. It's just you -- and the US Govt's Treasury Direct program -- and your bank of course.
Here is the military DFAS guidance on this topic: https://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/bondretrieval.html
Here is the US Treasury Direct site: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/global_open.htm
And, most people do not keep copies of their LES's forever. But, DFAS does! They have every LES that was ever generated on you, from the active or reserve sides of MCTFS, the only fully integrated personnel and pay system within the DoD. It holds all personnel and pay-related information on every Marine in the Corps - active, reserve, and retired, even separated for a couple of years! (In 1994, the Joint Uniform Military Pay System/Manpower Management System (JUMPS/MMS), and the Reserve Manpower Management Pay System (REMMPS) were merged to form MCTFS...a little trivia that adds color to this answer). (See: http://jdgrose115.tripod.com/Adjutant/mctfs.html)
I have successfully requested various LES's over the years from DFAS. Here is what DFAS FAQ website says about that (https://www.dfas.mil/militarymembers/faqs.html):
Marine Corps Members:
For Active, Reserve and Separated USMC Service Members: Your LES's for the past 12 months are available on myPay. For copies of an LES more than one year old, send an e-mail to [login to see] or fax your request to [login to see] .
If you don't get what you want the first try, or the email comes back undelivered, etc., which HAS happened to me, then call the DFAS customer service and ask for supervisors until you get through to what you want. I have received old LES's as recently as 6 months ago, so this system works. You probably should just ask for ALL your old LESs, don't try to guess which months you bought savings bonds. Then go from there.
(0)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google