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Show HN: Earn 9.62% on US Treasury I Bonds on Yotta

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Re: Show HN: Earn 9.62% on US Treasury I Bonds on Yotta

#51

Post by adammoelis »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #37
brk wrote: post #10

My wife and I both bought I Bonds directly. It was not exactly a painful or confusing process at all. Granted, the UI/UX of the US government bonds website was not fantastic, but it was certainly usable.

Other than their goofy login page (which you can fix with a 1-liner in greasemonkey), I actually love the TreasuryDirect website. This is maybe a controversial opinion but it's one of my favorite US government websites. The UX is awesome and the layout is simple: no popups, interstitials or other BS. Even better, the page load times and responsiveness are significantly better than any other financial website a visit.…

Thanks for the feedback and thoughts. I guess those aspects of TD are nice, but if you ever make a mistake, they don't handle it gracefully.

Re: Show HN: Earn 9.62% on US Treasury I Bonds on Yotta

#52

Post by sebk »

joncfoo wrote: post #16

The virtual keyboard on the Treasury Direct login page is terrible, especially for those of us who use a password manager. I use the following bookmarklet that "types" each letter via the exposed JavaScript function on the page itself. javascript:prompt('treasurydirect.gov password please').split('').forEach(PasswordVK) easy-peasy

Similarly, I have a Greasemonkey userscript to remove the readonly attribute for the password input form so my password manager works:

  for (const e of document.getElementsByClassName("pwordinput")) { 
    e.removeAttribute('readonly'); 
  }

Re: Show HN: Earn 9.62% on US Treasury I Bonds on Yotta

#53

Post by paxys »

tiku wrote: post #11

Is it only for American citizens? Or can anyone get sweet yield and invest?

From treasurydirect.gov:

- The person must have a Social Security Number.

- The person must also meet any one of these three conditions:

    - United States citizen, whether the person lives in the U.S. or abroad, or

    - United States resident, or

    - Civilian employee of the United States, no matter where that person lives

Re: Show HN: Earn 9.62% on US Treasury I Bonds on Yotta

#54

Post by kloch »

adammoelis wrote: post #9
sparrish wrote: post #6

So how does Yotta make money? Do you charge to open an account or take a slice when the bond matures?

We don't. There is a completely optional way to pay us what you want when you buy the I Bond, but this is a brand awareness play for us. Our hope is to drive new acquisition and to convert a portion of that acquisition to other products down the road.

> All the time our customers ask us - how do you make money doing this? The answer is simple: Volume

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KodqIPMbyUg

Re: Show HN: Earn 9.62% on US Treasury I Bonds on Yotta

#55

Post by adammoelis »

rkagerer wrote: post #35
adammoelis wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes just reach out and on request, we can give you full access to your Treasury Direct account any time.

What happens if you go out of business and a user doesn't realize until a year or more afterwards that they should have asked you for that info? Can they "reclaim" their Treasury Direct account down the road without you?

Yeah we have very easy way to give you your TD account directly. If this were to happen, we would give access to everyone and ensure they received the information to take over their accounts.

Re: Show HN: Earn 9.62% on US Treasury I Bonds on Yotta

#56

Post by adammoelis »

kloch wrote: post #54
adammoelis wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't. There is a completely optional way to pay us what you want when you buy the I Bond, but this is a brand awareness play for us. Our hope is to drive new acquisition and to convert a portion of that acquisition to other products down the road.

> All the time our customers ask us - how do you make money doing this? The answer is simple: Volume https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KodqIPMbyUg

We don't make money really on I Bonds. User acquisition play.

Re: Show HN: Earn 9.62% on US Treasury I Bonds on Yotta

#58

Post by Rebelgecko »

adammoelis wrote: post #51
Rebelgecko wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than their goofy login page (which you can fix with a 1-liner in greasemonkey), I actually love the TreasuryDirect website. This is maybe a controversial opinion but it's one of my favorite US government websites. The UX is awesome and the layout is simple: no popups, interstitials or other BS. Even better, the page load times and responsiveness are significantly better than any other financial website a visit.…

Thanks for the feedback and thoughts. I guess those aspects of TD are nice, but if you ever make a mistake, they don't handle it gracefully.

Just curious, how do you handle accounts that require medallion verification to open. Do you stamp it yourself? That could be a nice benefit for people that don't have a brick and mortar bank nearby

Re: Show HN: Earn 9.62% on US Treasury I Bonds on Yotta

#59

Post by rkagerer »

adammoelis wrote: post #55
rkagerer wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens if you go out of business and a user doesn't realize until a year or more afterwards that they should have asked you for that info? Can they "reclaim" their Treasury Direct account down the road without you?

Yeah we have very easy way to give you your TD account directly. If this were to happen, we would give access to everyone and ensure they received the information to take over their accounts.

Thanks for the response. Is there any way a customer who slips through the cracks could do that directly with TD? (e.g. "I'm Jim Kirk, here's my ID, a notarized affidavit, a blood sample...")

Re: Show HN: Earn 9.62% on US Treasury I Bonds on Yotta

#60

Post by MrFoof »

adammoelis wrote: post #50
pradn wrote: post #47

This is a fantastic initiative. Yotta is gamifying savings, because why not? And it's FDIC-insured so I don't have to worry about trusting money to a start-up. I think the UI-improvement over dealing with the treasury website is substantial. Good work on finding the opportunity and setting it up transparently via your already-existing buckets feature. A note of appreciation, that's all.

Thank you - appreciate it!

Been using Yotta since the early access-ish launch. I was always prowling for something like it once the American Savings Promotion Act (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Savings_Promotion_Act) was passed. Does its job, does it easily, and my effective APY has been MORE than competitive. For certain.

I have always bought I-bonds direct so doesn't apply to me, but making that easier for the average person -- and more importantly, increasing awareness of their existence -- is a good thing. It's about accessibility for people still getting their financial footing.

Just getting the average person to save more is a good thing, and accessibility is key to that.

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