Buy T-Bill from Treasury Direct

This article is about how to buy United States Treasury Bill online directly with individual account.

To park extra cash, what is better than a high-yield CD? If you have more than $1000 to save and if you live in a state with high income tax rate (like California) , look no further. With 5.2% current rate and state tax exemption, T-Bill is the answer.

TreasuryDirect http://treasurydirect.gov/
TreasuryDirect is direct channel for US Savings Bonds investors. It just take 10 minutes to setup an account online. The web site seems reasonably secure with features like virtual keyboard, and HTTPS communication. Earlier last year, the site would list your whole social security number on the pages, later it started to show only a few digits, which is good for security. This tells you that someone care about security is behind this web site.

Once you setup bank account information, purchasing is extremely easy. Just select security type, and total amount on the home page, then click "Buy Now" and confirm your order.

Here is a bullet list of important features of TreasuryDirect:
- Considered to be THE most secure investment, backed by the full faith and credit of the US Treasury;
- Minimum unit of investment for T-Bill: $1000;
- Exempt from state tax, still subject to federal tax;
- Pruchase limits:
* Savings Bonds: max $30,000 of each type--EE or I bonds, per person per year;
* Bills, Notes and TIPS: up to $5 million of each type.
- $25 annual fee is charged for account with balance greater than $100,000;

The only problem: there is absolutely no official paper record. Which make me a little nervous.

UPDATE
September 30, 2008:
In the event of recent financial meltdown and all the other bad news surrounding the stock market, T-Bill becomes very desirable. People are rushing for this safe-haven. Even I see a surge of viewer-ships of this post (5 times of average page views to be exact).

But be warned that you are going to pay a premium to buy T-Bill now. As of September 30, 2008, interested rate has dropped to around 1% APR. Some of the short term bills event dropped to 0.05% briefly.

While it is a remote possibility that US government may default, it looks less and less remote in the recent years. Look at how congress keep raising the Federal Debt Limit to protect the "full faith and credit". You know how remote it is!