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Old Savings Bonds Stop Earning Interest After 30 Years. What to Do With Ones You or a Late Parent Never Cashed

By Curtis Jones · October 24, 2026

A savings bond tucked in a dresser drawer or a parent’s safe deposit box is still worth money, but if it is old enough, it is no longer growing. Series EE and I bonds earn interest for up to 30 years, according to TreasuryDirect, the Treasury Department’s savings bond site. After that, holding on gains you nothing.

Older bonds stopped even sooner. Series E bonds, sold from May 1941 through June 1980, no longer earn interest. Those issued before December 1965 matured at 40 years, and later ones at 30. A paper EE bond issued in 1995, for example, passed the 30-year mark last year.

Plenty of these bonds are still sitting unclaimed. In a 2021 report, Treasury said about 80 million savings bonds worth $29 billion had matured without being cashed as of April 30, 2021. A 2025 report to Congress put it another way: about 1% of all paper savings bonds ever issued are unredeemed and at least three years past final maturity. The same report notes that savings bonds never expire, and there is no deadline to cash them.

One change matters if you have read older advice. Treasury Hunt, the online tool that let people search for matured bonds in their name, is no longer available as of Sept. 30, 2025, TreasuryDirect says. Here is what to do instead.

Gather the paper. Look through files, safes and a late parent’s records for the bonds themselves or any list of serial numbers and issue dates.

Look up what they are worth. The free Savings Bond Calculator covers paper Series EE, I and E bonds. Enter the series, denomination and issue date, and it shows the current value and the maturity date.

Cash them at a bank or by mail. TreasuryDirect suggests asking a bank where you have an account whether it cashes savings bonds, how much it will cash at one time, and what ID it needs. Banks vary, and a Treasury report says some limit redemptions to established customers as a fraud safeguard. You can also mail the bonds with FS Form 1522. If the bonds are worth more than $1,000, your signature must be certified. Treasury has no limit on how much it will cash by mail.

Claim bonds that are lost. If a bond was lost, stolen or destroyed, file FS Form 1048. It asks for serial numbers where you have them, an exact issue date or a range of dates, and the Social Security number on the bond. It must be signed before a notary or certifying individual, and if a person named on the bond has died, you must include a certified copy of the death certificate.

Know who owns a late parent’s bonds. If a co-owner or beneficiary is named on the bond, it goes directly to that person and does not become part of the estate. If only the person who died is named, the bond belongs to the estate. When Treasury securities in an estate total more than $100,000, a court must administer it; smaller estates may qualify for a simpler process.

Plan for taxes. The interest is subject to federal income tax but not state or local income tax, according to TreasuryDirect. A bank that cashes your bonds provides a 1099-INT, and Treasury mails one the following January if it cashes them.

This article is for general information and is not financial or legal advice. For estates, consider talking with an estate attorney or tax professional. This article was produced with the assistance of AI and fact-checked against the sources cited by LightWave Reports.