Bank gets POD backwards
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006
Categorized as: Yesterday's News (old post archive)
I just tried to redeem some Savings Bonds that are registered “my name POD my husband’s name.” The bank said this means I can’t cash the bonds until my husband dies. How do I fix this so I can cash them now?
Tom’s response
If I kept a list of the crazy things banks tell people about Savings Bonds, this would immediately jump into the top 10. The person you talked to at the bank has it exactly backwards.
This registration means that you are the owner of the Savings Bonds and that they are payable on your death to your husband.
There’s nothing preventing you from cashing the bonds whenever you like, but your husband can’t cash them unless you’ve died.
If no one at your bank understands this, see my post on how to redeem your bonds directly with the Federal Reserve.
After six years, over 400 posts, 3,680 real comments, and over 90,000 spam comments (thank you, Akismet, for making managing a blog with comments possible), I am closing public comments on Savings-Bond-Advisor.com. I will contine to update the main articles on this site, but not the comments.
Virtually every question about Savings Bonds has been asked and answered on this site multiple times. Use the search feature (see the box in the gray area near the top of this page) or the detailed menu on the lower part of the home page to find the information you're looking for.
Tom Adams