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Treasury I bond rates poised to slide in November

Kerry Hannon · Senior Columnist
Sun, October 16, 2022 at 7:32 AM

The Treasury Department’s popular inflation-protected I bonds won’t return as much when the rate adjusts on November 1, so buying them now is a better bet.

The rate will be at least 6.48%, according to estimates from Ken Tumin, a senior industry analyst at Lending Tree and founder of DepositAccounts.com, down from the current 9.62% the I bonds are offering until the end of October. The rate applies for the first six months you hold the bond.

That’s the second-best rate since November 2005 when the composite rate was 6.73% and the seventh-highest since the bond’s introduction in 1998, according to Treasury data. But if inflation cools quickly over the next six months, the bond won’t be worth as much.

“For November I bond purchases, we only can know the first six months I bond inflation rate. We won’t be able to estimate exactly the May I bond inflation rate until mid April 2023,” Tumin said. “It’s possible that the inflation rate could be much less. Then, the I bond will look much less appealing — like it has been before 2021.”

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