TreasuryDirect account guide: open it, link a bank, buy, reinvest and fix problems

TreasuryDirect is the Treasury Department's own website for buying and holding its securities. It charges no fees, but anything beyond routine buying runs on paper forms and the mail, and since October 2026 even signing in depends on an outside identity service. The rules below come from TreasuryDirect's own pages and forms as of November 2, 2026; to compare it with other places to buy, see how to buy Treasury bills.

Who can open a TreasuryDirect account?

You qualify if you are 18 or older and have a Social Security number, a US address of record and a US bank account that accepts electronic debits.

An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number is not accepted, and US citizens abroad still need a US address on file, in TreasuryDirect and in the identity wallet. Trusts, estates, companies and sole proprietorships can open entity accounts with an Employer Identification Number or SSN, run by a manager who verifies their own identity. Without an SSN, see whether foreigners can buy US Treasury bills.

An individual Primary account can add linked accounts with separate holdings: Minor accounts for children, Custom accounts for goals you name, and a Conversion account for paper savings bonds turned electronic. TreasuryDirect offers no IRAs, takes only noncompetitive bids and does not sell cash management bills; for retirement money, see T-bills in an IRA.

How do you open a TreasuryDirect account?

Choose Open a New Account on TreasuryDirect.gov, complete the individual application with your bank details, and link a verified identity wallet so you can sign in.

TreasuryDirect calls the application a three-step process and puts the identity check at 5 to 10 minutes.

1. Gather what you need

   Your SSN, a US mailing address, an email address only you use, a phone number, a government-issued photo ID, and the routing and account numbers of a US checking or savings account.

2. Fill in the application

   Choose Open a New Account, pick an individual account, and complete the owner, contact, bank and submission sections. Keep the bank and account-holder names short; the ACH payment format limits their length.

3. Verify your identity with ID.me

   Choose Secure Sign In and create an identity wallet, or use one you already have. Expect to show your SSN and photo ID and usually take a selfie; if the automatic check fails, a video call with a Trusted Referee can finish it.

4. Watch for the confirmation email

   Your account number arrives by email, and genuine messages come from treasurydirect@lists.fiscal.treasury.gov. If your details cannot be verified, TreasuryDirect asks for FS Form 5444, signed before a certifying officer at a financial institution or a notary and mailed in; the account opens once it is approved.

5. Set up registrations

   Under ManageDirect, create registrations that add a secondary owner or a beneficiary, so you can choose one when you buy.

How does the ID.me sign-in work?

Signing in now requires an ID.me account, the only way to sign in since October 28, 2026, and typing an old TreasuryDirect username and password into the site returns an error.

Secure Sign In hands you to the identity service and back; after setup, signing in takes seconds with the wallet's email, password and a security code. The rules worth knowing:

• It is free. The service never charges or asks for a card, so a payment request is a red flag.
• TreasuryDirect cannot fix the wallet. Failed checks and missing codes go to the service's help center; TreasuryDirect agents cannot bypass verification.
• Your account name may change to match the wallet, including nicknames, middle initials and suffixes.
• One wallet per person. It reaches every account you manage, but spouses cannot share a wallet or an email address.
• Phone changes take a week or more. You close the wallet, wait at least seven days and verify again. Name changes are self-service, and address changes need proof of address.
• Login.gov is not accepted, while hardware security keys such as YubiKeys can replace text codes.
• Holdings keep running. Maturities, interest and scheduled reinvestments process without a linked wallet, and the service shares your identity details with TreasuryDirect but never sees your balances or bank details.

How do you link or change a bank account?

You can add a bank online under ManageDirect; editing an existing one, or adding one after verification fails, takes FS Form 5512 signed before a bank official.

To add one, open ManageDirect, choose the option to update your bank information, select Add, and tick the box if it should be your primary bank. A verification service checks it; after three failed tries, your bank information goes on hold and TreasuryDirect emails you a link to the form.

FS Form 5512 handles the rest. To change an account, you add the new one and delete the old one on the form, keeping one primary bank and any number of secondary ones. Sign it in ink before a certifying officer at a bank, trust company or credit union, who adds a signature guarantee or Medallion stamp; a notary's seal is not accepted. To promote a bank already on file to primary, or fix a small error in a bank name, call instead. Mailed changes take two weeks or longer and do not affect transactions already in process.

How do you buy a bill inside TreasuryDirect?

Choose BuyDirect, pick the bill and auction, enter a face value, and the purchase price comes out of your linked bank account on the issue date.

You pick a registration, the name the bill is held in, pay from your bank or a leftover Certificate of Indebtedness balance, and can schedule reinvestments on the same screen. The order then sits under Pending Purchases and Reinvestments, where it can be deleted, but not edited, until the auction closes. Our guide to buying Treasury bills has the full steps, and how Treasury auctions work explains how the rate is set.

So this bill can leave TreasuryDirect only between December 21 and January 28, and any mailed transfer form must be processed inside that window.

How do reinvestments work in TreasuryDirect?

A scheduled reinvestment rolls a maturing bill into a new bill of the same term; you can add, change or cancel it until shortly before that auction.

You set the number of rolls when you buy or later in ManageDirect, up to 25 for 4-week bills, 16 for 6-week, 10 for 8-week, 7 for 13-week, 6 for 17-week, 3 for 26-week and 1 for 52-week. Changes close four business days before the auction of the new security, and setting the count to zero cancels the schedule. A roll paid entirely by the maturing bill skips the 45-day hold, while one topped up with new money starts the hold again. Each new bill is priced at its own auction's rate, which may be lower than the last, and the discount comes back to your bank. What happens when a T-bill matures follows a roll through maturity day, and a T-bill ladder staggers several rolls.

Why is your TreasuryDirect account locked, and how do you fix it?

The fix depends on the cause: sign-in problems clear online, while security holds and failed bank checks need a mailed, certified form.

Mailed requests to restore access take two weeks or longer, and the call center at 844-284-2676 answers Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern. If you suspect someone else has access, you can place a hold on your own account from Account Info, which blocks every sign-in and transaction until it is removed.

Why can't you transfer or sell a bill from TreasuryDirect?

TreasuryDirect cannot sell securities at all, and a transfer out to a broker is blocked during the 45-day hold and the closed book period before each payment.

Inside those limits, transfers still stall for avoidable reasons:

• The wrong destination. FS Form 5511 needs the receiving firm's book-entry instructions, including its ABA routing number and wire name; a checking or savings account cannot receive a Treasury.
• A notary's stamp. Only an authorized official at a financial institution can certify the form.
• Mailing too late. A form arriving just before a closed book period can be rejected or delayed; for the example bill, the usable window is December 21 to January 28.
• Lost rollovers. You can move all of a security or part of it in $100 steps, but a transfer to a broker cancels its scheduled reinvestments.
• Internal moves. Sending a bill to another TreasuryDirect account needs that account's number and the owner's taxpayer number, and some transfers still need the paper form.

Moving bills the other way is easier. To bring a Treasury in from a broker, give the broker the receiving name TREASURYDIRECT, ABA number 051736158 and your TreasuryDirect account number without dashes; securities that arrive this way skip the 45-day hold. Selling Treasuries before maturity has the full outbound procedure.

Where do you find your 1099 in TreasuryDirect?

Your 1099 is posted inside the account by the end of January, under ManageDirect and Manage My Taxes, for any year with reportable interest.

Pick the tax year and use the 1099 link at the top of the Taxable Transactions Summary; the summary itself is not the tax form. Each Minor, Custom or Conversion account has its own statement, reached through Manage My Linked Accounts. If you cannot sign in, Customer Support can mail the current year's forms once they are released. Bill interest is federally taxable but exempt from state and local tax; are T-bills taxable? explains how to report it.

What are the risks of keeping Treasuries in TreasuryDirect?

The bills themselves carry the full faith and credit of the US government; the account-level risks are losing access, slow paper fixes, scams and being stuck until maturity.

• Access depends on a private company. If the identity check fails, TreasuryDirect cannot override it, though payments keep flowing to your bank.
• Fixes run on paper. Certified forms and mail mean waits measured in weeks, and TreasuryDirect says trust requests can take ten months or longer.
• Cash before maturity is slow. Between the 45-day hold, the closed book and the mailed form, money you may need early is easier to reach at a broker.
• Scammers target account holders. TreasuryDirect has no approved apps or third-party access sites, charges no fees, offers no gifts and warns never to share your one-time passcode.
• Nobody else keeps your records. There are no paper statements, and Treasury Hunt, the lookup tool for forgotten holdings, was retired on September 30, 2025, so keep your account number and a printout of holdings where heirs can find them. How to cash savings bonds covers tracing older paper bonds.
• Market risks still apply. Rates can fall before you reinvest and inflation can outpace bill yields; are Treasuries risk-free? covers both, and the Treasuries hub maps every security TreasuryDirect sells.