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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

#33

I'm curious about how the legalities of this work. If you create a TreasuryDirect account using my SSN, do you then require a durable power of attorney to manage it on my behalf, as laid out in 31 CFR § 363.33? Or are you simply logging in using "my" credentials and performing actions as if you were me? If the latter, are you at all worried about the Treasury Department cracking down on this?

We do the latter. Performing actions as if we were you. I am not worried given that.

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

#34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does any other website in the world use a virtual keyboard like that? I don't really understand why they do it. To prevent keystroke tracking I guess? It's bizarre.

I always just paste my password into the field. That's always worked for me. Safari/macOS.

Didn't know pasting worked.

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

#35

Can I access my TD account after it's created by Yotta?

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?

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

#37
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. I can check log in AND check my TreasuryDirect balance in about the same time it takes me to log into my Schwab brokerage account or load a thread on Reddit.

Their FAQs are also written in an easily understandable way, which is good because I Bonds and the other bonds they sell have some complicated nuances. They even update the FAQs regularly so that all their I Bond example calculations use the current semiannual interest rate.

One thing that would be cool about this Yotta offering is if they automate some of the I Bond annoyances (I needed a medallion stamp to open my account although not everyone is that unlucky), give a consolidated view of purchases and holdings across across multiple SSNs and EINs, and centralize that management.

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

#39
Why would I want to use your company for buying an I-Bond myself? Treasury Direct kinda sucks, but it's really not that bad. And once you're through the initial setup repeat purchases (like each subsequent year) is a lot easier.

Why would I want to insert a middleman into a long term investment? If you all go sideways -- which is incredibly likely within the next 10 years -- then it'll be far more hassle than the up-front TD signup irritation.

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

#40
Although the TreasuryDirect UX is pretty bad, it's not impossible to navigate. My biggest beef with TD is that there appears to be no way to convert the bonds purchased electronically to paper bonds. You have to keep them on the web site, which seems risky. You are hoping that 1. their database does not get corrupt or something and they lose tens of thousands of your dollars, 2. your account doesn't get compromised, 3. your account doesn't get banned or deleted.

With a bank, you (typically) have a brick-and-mortar building you can walk into to resolve edge case problems, and also FDIC insurance. For brokerages, you have SIPC for fraud and sloppy accounting, and usually have decent telephone support. TD has a phone number--that's it. Ever try calling it? It's a long hold time, and who knows if they can even handle these edge cases. Who would you sue if you lost your account or became a victim of fraud?

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