Comment by Our_Benefactors
4 days ago
This. The website for buying treasury products is straight out of the year 2002. The login is so bad I would never consider buying them there - the service fee charged by brokerages is absolutely worth it in this case.
Which brokerages charge fees for purchasing US Treasuries? Schwab definitely doesn't.
Really the only reason you need TreasuryDirect is for buying Series I bonds (and maybe a few other niche Treasury products), which are not available through brokerages.
Schwab folds their fees into their bid/ask spread, they're not doing it for free.
Back when interest rates peaked around that period I bought a huge number of I bonds which were a great investment —- got fired by my broker because I interrupted a sales presentation with “why don’t I just buy I bonds?”
Back then I thought Treasury Direct was great.
Makes it obvious which lobby has a hand in this, doesn't it?