U.S. savings bonds earn interest for 30 years from the issue date, and then they stop for good. That rule applies to both Series EE and Series I bonds sold today. Every older series, including E, H, and HH, has already passed its final maturity and is earning nothing. Once a bond hits its 30-year mark, it sits at whatever value it reached that day while inflation quietly eats away at it, which is one reason billions of dollars in matured bonds remain uncashed.
Series EE Bonds and the 30-Year Clock
A Series EE bond earns interest for 30 years total, structured as a 20-year original maturity followed by a 10-year extension.1eCFR. 31 CFR Part 351 – Offering of United States Savings Bonds, Series EE After the 30-year anniversary, accrual stops permanently, and the Treasury does not send a notice when that happens.
The 20-year point matters because of a guarantee built into EE bonds issued since May 2005: the bond will be worth at least twice what you paid by then. If the fixed rate hasn’t already doubled the value, the Treasury makes a one-time adjustment at the 20-year mark to close the gap. That guaranteed doubling works out to a minimum effective return of roughly 3.5% a year, no matter what the stated rate is. EE bonds issued between November 2025 and April 2026 carry a fixed rate of 2.50%, which on its own wouldn’t double the investment in 20 years, so the adjustment kicks in at original maturity for those bonds.2TreasuryDirect. Comparing EE and I Bonds
Once the 20-year adjustment (if any) is applied, the bond keeps earning at its fixed rate for another 10 years. Then it’s done.
Series I Bonds: Same 30 Years, Different Engine
Series I bonds also earn for 30 years, with the same 20-plus-10 structure. What differs is how the interest is calculated. An I bond uses a composite rate combining a fixed rate that stays the same for the life of the bond and a variable inflation rate that resets every six months based on changes in the Consumer Price Index.3eCFR. Part 359 – Offering of United States Savings Bonds, Series I Interest accrues on the first day of each month and compounds semiannually.4TreasuryDirect. I Bonds Interest Rates
The Treasury announces new inflation rates every May 1 and November 1. Each new rate applies for six months to every outstanding I bond, though the month your particular bond’s rate actually changes depends on the month it was issued.4TreasuryDirect. I Bonds Interest Rates
Unlike EE bonds, I bonds carry no doubling guarantee. Their 30-year growth depends entirely on inflation. In a stretch of deflation, the composite rate can fall to zero (it can’t go negative), meaning months where the bond earns nothing. In periods of high inflation, they can significantly outpace EE bonds. Either way, the clock stops at 30 years.3eCFR. Part 359 – Offering of United States Savings Bonds, Series I
The Other End of the Window: When You Can Cash
Before you worry about the 30-year ceiling, know the floor. You cannot redeem an EE or I bond during the first 12 months after purchase. The money is locked.5eCFR. 31 CFR Part 351 – Offering of United States Savings Bonds, Series EE – Section 351.66TreasuryDirect. I Bonds
From month 13 through year 5, you can cash the bond, but you forfeit the last three months of interest. Redeem at 18 months and you get 15 months of interest. The bond will never drop below what you paid.7eCFR. 31 CFR Part 351 – Offering of United States Savings Bonds, Series EE – Section 351.358eCFR. Part 359 – Offering of United States Savings Bonds, Series I – Section 359.7 After five years, the three-month penalty disappears, and you can redeem at any point up to final maturity for full value.
Older Series Have All Stopped Earning
If you’ve pulled paper bonds out of a drawer or inherited a stack of them, the series determines the earning window. For every legacy series still floating around, that window has closed.
- Series E bonds, issued from 1941 through June 1980, earned for either 30 or 40 years depending on issue date. The earliest issues (1941–1965) ran 40 years; later ones (1966–1980) ran 30. The very last Series E bond reached final maturity in June 2010.9TreasuryDirect. Savings Securities Maturity Chart
- Series H and HH bonds worked differently: they paid interest by check or direct deposit every six months rather than accumulating value. Both had a 20-year earning period. The Treasury stopped issuing HH bonds in August 2004, and the last of them reached final maturity on August 1, 2024.10TreasuryDirect. Cashing HH Savings Bonds
Any of these bonds sitting in a file cabinet are worth exactly what they were worth on their final maturity date, and inflation reduces that real value every year they stay uncashed.
Finding Your Bond’s Stop Date
On a paper bond, the issue date is printed on the right side of the certificate, just below the series designation. Add 30 years to that month and year and you have the date interest stops for an EE or I bond. A bond issued in March 1996 stopped earning in March 2026.11TreasuryDirect. Savings Bond Calculator – Detailed Instructions
To skip the arithmetic, use the Treasury’s Savings Bond Calculator on treasurydirect.gov. Enter the series, denomination, and issue date, and it returns the current value, interest rate, and maturity date.12TreasuryDirect. Savings Bond Calculator For electronic bonds, the maturity date and current value appear in your TreasuryDirect account when you view the individual security. Values update on the first of each month.
What Happens Tax-Wise When a Bond Stops Earning
This is where holders often get caught off guard. Most people defer reporting savings bond interest until they cash the bond. That deferral holds while the bond is still growing, but at final maturity, the tax bill comes due whether you redeem or not.
For electronic bonds, the Treasury automatically moves the proceeds into your TreasuryDirect account’s Certificate of Indebtedness at maturity, issues a 1099-INT for that year covering all the accumulated interest, and expects you to report it as income on that year’s return.13TreasuryDirect. Tax Information for EE and I Bonds The same rule applies to a paper bond that just sits in a drawer past maturity: the interest becomes reportable in the year the bond stops earning, whether or not you cash it. Someone with several bonds maturing at once can face a sizable lump of taxable income in a single year.
There’s also a specific deadline that already passed for HH bond holders. Investors who once exchanged Series E or EE bonds for HH bonds to keep deferring the accrued interest had that deferred amount printed on the face of each HH bond. It became taxable in the year the HH bond was cashed or reached final maturity, whichever came first. Since all HH bonds have now matured, that income should have been reported no later than the 2024 tax return.14TreasuryDirect. Tax Information for HH Savings Bonds
Cashing Matured Bonds and Finding Ones You Forgot
Redeeming a paper bond at a bank is straightforward if you’re an established customer. You sign the bond, the bank verifies your identity against its records, and the funds are paid out or deposited. Banks typically require that your account has been open at least 12 months. Without that history, banks can refuse to cash the bond, apply stricter identification rules, or limit redemption to bonds with a cash value of $1,000 or less.15TreasuryDirect. The Guide to Cashing Savings Bonds (FS P 0022)
If you suspect a family member owned bonds that were never cashed, the Treasury’s Treasury Hunt search tool was shut down on September 30, 2025 under changes required by the SECURE Act 2.0. The database of matured, unredeemed bonds has been transferred to individual states’ unclaimed property programs. Search at unclaimed.org using the bondholder’s full legal name and the state of residence at the time of purchase.16TreasuryDirect. Treasury Hunt