I am a believer in the power of savings bonds. When we purchased our house, my husband and I cashed in over $8,000 in savings bonds that we had accumulated over the years. That money made it possible for us to qualify for a lower interest rate and not be overextended the first year. Those savings bonds were purchased when we were both young and had jobs that made it easy to purchase savings bonds. If it had been difficult to set up the purchases, we probably wouldn't have done it (seeing as we were young and not necessarily thinking ahead too terribly far).
Due to changes in the way that the U.S. Treasury offers Savings Bonds for purchase, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) will be canceling all current savings bond allotments. In order to continue purchasing savings bonds, military members will need to set up an account with TreasuryDirect.gov and then authorize a new allotment with the Treasury Direct account number.
I'm sure that the Treasury Department has a good reason why they want to do this, but it bothers me. For many people, the decision to start saving is rather fleeting and if it is hard to set up an automatic savings plan, they won't follow through on it. Also, some people won't get the message that this change has been made and will unknowingly stop purchasing savings bonds.
It may end up being a minor change, but I am against anything that makes saving more difficult. If you have a savings bond allotment, be sure to put forth the small effort to get that allotment moved over to the new system.
