ClaimMyBonds publishes its US savings bond guides from primary sources, independent of banks, finders and the government, and corrects every verified error on the page it affects. The policy rests on 8 kinds of primary source and 2 federal laws against impersonation.
ClaimMyBonds is a private company, not the government, and is not affiliated with Treasury, TreasuryDirect or any state. This page sets the rules for every guide, calculator page and service page on the site. Those rules sit behind our independent guide to US savings bonds, from value to cashing and claiming.
Sources: Primary Sources Only, Each With a Date
Every fact on ClaimMyBonds comes from a primary source and carries the date it was read or the date it applies to. A primary source is the body that makes the rule or publishes the number. Wikipedia is never a source.
Which Sources ClaimMyBonds Cites
ClaimMyBonds cites 8 kinds of primary source. The 8 kinds are listed below.
- TreasuryDirect: forms, rules, cashing and Treasury Hunt pages
- The Bureau of the Fiscal Service and Fiscal Data: value files and unredeemed-bond counts
- eCFR: the Title 31 regulations on savings bonds
- The Federal Register
- govinfo: the U.S. Code and public laws
- The IRS: Publication 550, Form 1099-INT, Form 8815
- State unclaimed-property agencies and state statutes
- Court dockets
News stories, blogs and advocacy figures appear only as reported claims, named and dated. Bank policies come only from the bank's own page, with the date we checked it. Every FS Form, Treasury's numbered form for a bond task, is named with its current revision.
What We Leave Out Until It Is Checked
A fact that cannot be confirmed in a primary source stays off the page until it is confirmed. You can read how ClaimMyBonds checks every value, date and rule against those sources.
Unredeemed bonds show how this works. Dollar totals for matured bonds that were never cashed circulate in news and advocacy copy. We state no dollar total, only the Fiscal Data count: 103,064,737 matured unredeemed bonds, all series, on September 30, 2026.
Every value also names its redemption month, the month a bond is cashed. Each value comes from the Fiscal Data Savings Bonds Value Files for that month, and values change on the first day of each month. For Series EE, interest accrues on the first day of a month (31 CFR 351.3).
Who Writes the Guides, and Why They Are Not Legal or Tax Advice
The ClaimMyBonds Editorial Team writes and updates every guide; no page claims an outside expert, attorney or CPA as author or reviewer.
Our guides state what a rule says, with its instrument, section and date. They are not legal or tax advice. Some decisions depend on your own facts, such as settling an estate. For those, the page tells you to ask the estate's attorney or a tax professional.
Independence: No Paid Placements, No Payments From Banks
ClaimMyBonds accepts no payment for what its guides say, recommend or list. The site carries no advertising, takes no affiliate payments and sells no paid placements.
No Paid Placements: Banks Do Not Pay for Coverage
No bank, credit union, finder service or form provider pays ClaimMyBonds to be listed, ranked or described. Our bank-by-bank policies repeat only what each bank publishes, with the date checked. Each entry keeps Treasury's rule: banks may cash paper bonds but are not required to (FS Publication 0022, Rev. October 2022).
ClaimMyBonds takes no referral fees from finder or recovery services, the private firms that trace bonds for a fee. Those services are described under the same rules as banks.
How ClaimMyBonds Earns Money: Paid Claim Help
Claiming from Treasury and from state programs is free, and ClaimMyBonds earns money from one source: its own paid help with savings bond paperwork, tracing and follow-up, priced on request. No price, success rate, recovery figure, case count or testimonial appears anywhere on the site.
The claim help never changes a guide's facts or steps. Our paid claim help works inside the rules the guides explain. Treasury pays only the registered owner or another person entitled (31 CFR 315.39(b) and 353.39(b)).
Bonds are not transferable (31 CFR 315.15, 353.15), so no guide suggests that a helper can be paid from a bond. No Treasury regulation sets, caps or approves a private helper's fee, and no page implies Treasury approval.
Free Route First in Every Mention of the Service
Every mention of the service states the free route first: claiming from Treasury and from state programs costs nothing, and the forms are free. Treasury charges no fee, and our help adds paperwork, tracing and follow-up.
On finding, inheritance, form, state, cashing and bank pages, the help box heading reads "Prefer help with the paperwork?" Its first line states the free route, and its second line reads: "ClaimMyBonds is a private company, not the government. Our paid help covers the paperwork, tracing and follow-up; pricing on request."
The button reads "Request help with your savings bonds". The request asks only for your situation, series and approximate issue years, state, contact details and consent. It never asks for a Social Security number, serial numbers, scans, ID documents or payment. Tax, scams and how-to-read pages carry no service box.
No Impersonation: ClaimMyBonds Is Not Treasury, TreasuryDirect or a State
ClaimMyBonds is not Treasury, TreasuryDirect, a state agency or Treasury Hunt, and nothing on the site claims or implies a link to any of them.
Two federal laws apply, a rule and a statute. The FTC Impersonation Rule (16 CFR Part 461, 89 FR 15017, March 1, 2024, effective April 1, 2024) bars falsely posing as a government.
It covers federal, state, local and tribal governments, and false claims of affiliation. 31 U.S.C. 333 bars using Treasury names, including "United States Savings Bond", in a way that suggests Treasury approval. A disclaimer does not cure that. So the site uses no seal, eagle, flag or government-style banner.
Treasury Hunt was Treasury's search tool, and TreasuryDirect states it has not been available since September 30, 2025. Our page Treasury Hunt is closed covers what owners can use instead; we never offer the tool as ours.
Our calculator is "our calculator, built on Treasury's published value files", never "the Treasury calculator".
ClaimMyBonds cannot look up anyone's bonds, cannot access TreasuryDirect accounts and holds no Treasury or state bond list.
States may not release bond records to third parties without Treasury's prior written approval (31 CFR 323.11(c); 89 FR 102735, December 18, 2024). TreasuryDirect states: "There are no Treasury approved apps or third-party websites for TreasuryDirect account access."
Report a mailing or website that looks like Treasury to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, 200 Third Street, Room 305, Parkersburg, WV 26106 (TreasuryDirect). Look-alike mailings are one form of savings bond fraud, next to fake bonds, fake finders and impersonators.
Corrections: How to Report an Error to ClaimMyBonds
Readers report an error by email to editorial@claimmybonds.com, and every report is checked against the primary source. The 5 steps below make a report quick to check.
- Send the page address.
- Quote the sentence, value or table row.
- Name the primary source and its date.
- Leave out Social Security numbers, serial numbers, scans and account details.
- Find every way to reach us on Contact ClaimMyBonds.
How a Correction Is Checked, Made and Dated
A verified error is corrected on the page it affects, and the page shows a dated correction note saying what changed.
A newer official source replaces the older fact on every page that uses it. Value pages can change on the first of each month and name their redemption month. FS Form pages change when TreasuryDirect posts a new revision. A report the source does not support leaves the page unchanged.
Other ClaimMyBonds Policies: About, Privacy and Terms
Other ClaimMyBonds policies sit on 4 more pages about who we are and how the site and its service work. The 4 pages are listed below.