Where to Buy Savings Bonds for Grandchildren as a Gift

To buy savings bonds for grandchildren as a gift, you go to TreasuryDirect.gov and purchase them through your own online account. The Treasury Department stopped selling bonds at banks and credit unions in 2012, so the government portal is the only place to buy electronic Series EE or Series I bonds. One narrow alternative exists: you can buy paper Series I bonds by directing part of your federal tax refund toward the purchase on IRS Form 8888.

Open Your Own TreasuryDirect Account First

You cannot buy a gift bond without an account of your own. Setup is free, and you will need your Social Security number, a U.S. mailing address, an email address, and the routing and account numbers for a checking or savings account.¹ The bank account you link is where funds come from when you buy and where cash lands if you ever redeem.

One account is enough even if you plan to buy bonds for several grandchildren over many years. You will purchase, hold, and deliver every gift bond from the same dashboard.

Pick Series EE or Series I

TreasuryDirect sells two types of savings bonds, and they behave differently.

Series EE bonds earn a fixed rate for the first 20 years. Bonds issued from November 2025 through April 2026 earn 2.50% annually. The feature that matters most for a long-horizon gift is the Treasury’s guarantee that an EE bond will double in value after 20 years, even if the stated rate alone would not get it there. The guaranteed doubling works out to roughly 3.5% annually if you hold the bond for the full 20 years.²³

Series I bonds combine a fixed rate with an inflation adjustment that resets every six months. For bonds issued November 2025 through April 2026, the composite rate is 4.03%, made up of a 0.90% fixed rate plus the inflation component.⁴

Both types earn interest for up to 30 years and can be purchased in any amount from $25 to $10,000.⁵ For a young grandchild who will not need the money for decades, the EE doubling guarantee is a strong fit. For a grandchild closer to college age, I bonds give you inflation protection over a shorter window.

How the Gift Purchase Works

Once you are logged in, click the BuyDirect tab, pick the series (EE or I), and enter the dollar amount. The system then asks you to mark the purchase as a gift and to enter the grandchild’s full legal name and Social Security number.⁶ Get the Social Security number from the child’s parent before you start. After you confirm, the funds pull from your linked bank account.

The bond lands in a holding area in your account called the Gift Box. Interest starts accruing on the first day of the month you bought it, so nothing is lost while it sits waiting. There is no deadline to deliver, and a bond can stay in your Gift Box earning interest for up to 30 years.

Delivering the Bond: The Minor Account Problem

Delivering the bond means transferring it electronically from your Gift Box into the grandchild’s own TreasuryDirect account. You open the Gift Box tab, select the bond, click “deliver,” and enter the recipient’s TreasuryDirect account number.⁷ The transfer is instant.

Here is the snag most grandparents hit. The grandchild needs a TreasuryDirect account to receive the bond, and a minor cannot open one alone. A parent, or whoever provides the child’s primary financial support, has to open a linked minor account on the child’s behalf.⁸ That custodian controls the account until the child turns 18. A grandparent generally cannot open this account unless they are the one providing chief financial support, so you will usually need to coordinate with a parent.⁶

If no minor account exists yet, you have no reason to rush. Leave the bond in your Gift Box. It keeps earning interest.

Annual Purchase Limits

Each person can hold up to $10,000 in electronic EE bonds and $10,000 in electronic I bonds per calendar year. The detail that matters for gift givers: gift bonds count against the recipient’s limit, not yours.⁹ If you buy $10,000 in I bonds for one grandchild, that child’s I bond allowance for the year is used up, and no one else can buy more I bonds for the same child until next year.

A bond sitting undelivered in your Gift Box does not count against anyone’s limit. It counts toward the recipient’s limit in the year it is actually delivered, not the year you bought it.⁹ If you are gifting larger amounts, you can buy now and time deliveries across different calendar years to stay inside the limit.

Gift tax is unlikely to be an issue. The 2026 annual gift tax exclusion is $19,000 per recipient, and the maximum electronic bond purchase per type is $10,000.

Paper I Bonds Through Your Tax Refund

Paper bonds are the only exception to the TreasuryDirect-only rule, and they only come one way: through your federal tax refund. You file IRS Form 8888 (Allocation of Refund) with your return and direct part of your refund toward paper Series I bonds.¹⁰ Paper bonds come in $50 increments, and the annual limit is $5,000 per return. That $5,000 is separate from the $10,000 electronic I bond limit, so a person can theoretically receive up to $15,000 in I bonds in a year.

Form 8888 lets you register the paper bond in someone else’s name, so you can put your grandchild directly on the bond.¹¹ The Treasury mails the physical bonds to the address on your tax return after the IRS processes the refund, which usually takes several weeks. You can then hand the paper bond to your grandchild in person, which feels closer to a traditional gift than a screen transfer does.

Store the paper bond somewhere secure. Replacing a lost or stolen one requires filing FS Form 1048 with the Treasury and getting your signature notarized.¹²

Who Pays the Tax

Savings bond interest is subject to federal income tax but exempt from state and local income tax. When you buy a bond as a gift and register the grandchild as sole owner, the grandchild owes the tax on the interest, not you.¹³ Most people defer the tax until the bond is cashed, so a grandchild who redeems in a low-income year, perhaps while still a student, often owes little or nothing because the standard deduction shelters the interest.

The Education Tax Exclusion Does Not Apply to the Grandchild

The Treasury offers a tax break that lets a bond owner cash EE or I bonds tax-free if the proceeds pay qualified higher education expenses. It sounds like a natural fit for a college fund, but one rule rules out the obvious use: the bond owner must have been at least 24 years old at the time the bond was issued.¹⁴

A bond registered in a grandchild’s name will never qualify, because the child was not 24 when the bond was issued. To use this exclusion, you keep the bonds in your own name (or jointly with your spouse) and redeem them yourself to pay the grandchild’s tuition, and the grandchild has to be your dependent for the expenses to count.¹⁴

Income limits apply too. For 2026, the exclusion phases out for single filers with modified adjusted gross income between $101,800 and $116,800, and for joint filers between $152,650 and $182,650. Above those ceilings the exclusion disappears entirely, and married taxpayers filing separately are not eligible at any income.

1
U.S. Department of the Treasury. Setting Up an Account in TreasuryDirect
2
U.S. Department of the Treasury. Fiscal Service Announces New Savings Bonds Rates
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U.S. Department of the Treasury. EE Bonds
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U.S. Department of the Treasury. I Bonds Interest Rates
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TreasuryDirect. About U.S. Savings Bonds
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U.S. Department of the Treasury. Buying Savings Bonds
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U.S. Department of the Treasury. FAQs About Undelivered Gift Bonds
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eCFR. 31 CFR 363.27 – Minor Accounts
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U.S. Department of the Treasury. How Much Can I Spend/Own?
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U.S. Department of the Treasury. Buying Savings Bonds – FS Publication 0023
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 8888 – Allocation of Refund
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U.S. Department of the Treasury. Get Help for Lost, Stolen, or Destroyed EE or I Savings Bonds
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U.S. Department of the Treasury. Tax Information for EE and I Bonds
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U.S. Department of the Treasury. Using Bonds for Higher Education