Are you sitting on Expired Savings Bonds?

If you have U.S. savings bonds tucked away in a safe-deposit box or a drawer, you may want to see if they've matured. If they have, they've stopped earning interest, and you may as well have that money stashed under the mattress.

There are 32 million expired bonds, worth about $12.9 billion, sitting around not earning interest, according to the Bureau of Public Debt.  Some estimates place the lost interest over the last 12 years at over $2 billion; that’s money that Uncle Sam has been using for free.

Many years ago, these bonds had initial maturity dates that have been extended by 10 years one or more times. Those bonds ended up having final maturities of 30 or 40 years.  Many people who own these bonds are elderly and have no idea that the bonds are not earning interest.  Worse, the government did virtually nothing in terms of notifying people until 1999.  After public pressure, they set up a unit of 12 people to call these bondholders, a whopping two million people.

The Bureau of the Public Debt is the branch of the U.S. Treasury that deals with this issue and there appears to be no let up in sight.  The value of unclaimed, matured savings bonds is growing by about $1 billion a year.  Don't let government bureaucracy or your own less-than-stellar record keeping separate you from money that's rightfully yours, money that should be earning interest for you.

These savings bonds have matured, they no longer earn interest. If you have one, you can redeem it at your local bank.

The Web site for the Bureau of Public Debt can help you inventory your bonds to determine their current redemption value, how much interest they've earned and their final maturity date. The site is free, but a spokeswoman admits the database isn't exhaustive.

Now that you’re interested, what do you do next.  Well, depending on your particular circumstance, the following options are available to you:

1.    Search the US Treasury's website with your social security number to see if there are any matches.  (Note: The website is updated on a continual basis but the bond you're looking for may not be listed. Also, if you ordered a savings bond and never received it, you may find it here. The site lists savings bonds that were returned to the Treasury as undeliverable).

2.    Call the Savings Bond Customer Service toll-free at 1-866-388-1776.

3.    Download the Savings Bond Wizard, a free Windows-based program that you can use to inventory your savings bonds on your computer, provided by the Federal Reserve.