TreasuryDirect Is Kind of a Mess. Buy Your T-Bills Here Instead.

I want to talk about something that sounds minor but has frustrated a surprising number of people who’ve tried to act on good advice: TreasuryDirect.gov, the official US government platform for buying T-bills, is kind of a nightmare to use. Clunky interface, finicky account verification, phone support that feels stuck in 2004. I’ve watched people with real intentions to move cash into T-bills abandon the process halfway through account setup because the UX made them feel like they were filing for something they didn’t fully understand.

Here’s what nobody tells you in the articles that recommend T-bills: you don’t have to use TreasuryDirect at all. Most people reading this probably already have a brokerage account that lets them buy T-bills in about four clicks. And the brokerage route is better in almost every way that matters for everyday savers.

T-bills are currently yielding 3.78% on the 3-month and 3.93% on the 6-month as of late June 2026, per the Federal Reserve’s H.15 data. Those yields are exempt from state and local income taxes — which, depending on where you live, can make them materially better than their face rate suggests. The HYSA post covered the state tax math at a high level. This post is about the mechanics of actually getting your money into T-bills without losing three hours of your life to a government website that hasn’t been redesigned since the Bush administration.

What TreasuryDirect Gets Right (And Why It Doesn’t Matter for Most People)

TreasuryDirect is the only place to buy I-Bonds. That’s its actual killer feature — not T-bills, I-Bonds. If you want the inflation protection of Series I savings bonds, you have to go through TreasuryDirect. There’s no brokerage shortcut for that.

For T-bills specifically, TreasuryDirect also has no fees. Zip. You buy directly from the auction, receive the full discount at maturity, and never pay a brokerage commission. For large amounts — say, $250,000 or more — this matters. For the typical saver moving $10,000-$50,000, the commission difference is negligible, and most major brokerages don’t charge transaction fees for Treasury purchases anyway.

So if you’re buying I-Bonds or you have a large enough position that fee differences actually show up on your statement, TreasuryDirect is worth the setup pain. For everyone else? Your brokerage account is waiting.

How to Buy T-Bills Through Your Brokerage (Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard)

The process is basically the same across major brokerages, with slight UI differences. Here’s the actual path at Fidelity, which is where I do this:

Log in → go to Trade → select Fixed Income, Bonds & CDs → click New Issues → filter for Treasury → select Treasury Bills → pick your maturity → enter the dollar amount → submit. That’s it. Non-competitive bid is selected by default, which means you get the auction rate without having to guess what rate to bid at — the Treasury fills your order at whatever the auction clears. You don’t need to know what yield to expect in advance.

At Schwab, the path is similar: Trade → Fixed Income → Treasuries → filter by maturity. Vanguard brokerage users can access Treasuries through the bond trading section. TD Ameritrade (now absorbed into Schwab) follows the same flow.

One feature the brokerage has that TreasuryDirect makes significantly more annoying: auto-roll. When your T-bill matures, most brokerages let you set it to automatically reinvest in a new T-bill of the same maturity. This is genuinely useful for building a T-bill position that doesn’t require you to log back in every 13 weeks. TreasuryDirect has an equivalent feature called Payroll Savings Plan, but it’s clunkier to set up and maintain.

The Ladder Strategy Nobody Actually Explains

Here’s where most articles lose people — they mention “laddering” without explaining what problem it actually solves.

The problem: if you put everything into a single 6-month T-bill, you have $0 access to that money for six months. If an unexpected expense hits in month three, your options are selling on the secondary market (possible, but introduces transaction costs and minor principal risk) or scrambling to cover with other accounts.

A ladder solves this by splitting your T-bill allocation across multiple maturities so something is always maturing soon. A simple version: divide your T-bill allocation in thirds. Put one third in a 3-month bill, one third in a 6-month bill, one third in a 9-month bill (technically a 1-year and wait, or a sequence of 3-months). Every three months, a portion matures and you either use the cash or roll it into a new longer-maturity bill.

On $30,000 at current rates, this structure yields roughly $1,150-$1,170 annually before taxes, compared to $900 in an Ally HYSA at 3.00%. The difference is real. In New York or California, it’s even wider once you factor in state tax exemption.

When You Should Actually Use TreasuryDirect

Real talk: there are three situations where TreasuryDirect is the right move despite the interface.

First, I-Bonds — as mentioned, no alternative. If you want the I-Bond’s inflation protection and you haven’t used your $10,000 annual limit, TreasuryDirect is the only way in.

Second, very large Treasury positions where the absence of any intermediary or counterparty is a meaningful consideration. TreasuryDirect holds your Treasuries at the Department of the Treasury itself. For someone moving $500,000+ into T-bills, that direct relationship has appeal that’s hard to quantify but real.

Third, if you genuinely don’t have a brokerage account and don’t want one. TreasuryDirect is free, requires no account minimum, and lets you purchase as little as $100. For someone who wants T-bill exposure but isn’t otherwise invested in the market, it’s still a viable path — just budget 45 minutes for account setup and have your bank routing number, Social Security number, and a working printer ready.

For everyone else, the brokerage is faster, easier to manage, integrates with your existing investment picture, and offers auto-roll. The government platform exists for good reasons. It just doesn’t need to be your first call anymore.

One more thing worth knowing: T-bill interest shows up on a 1099-INT from your brokerage, clearly labeled as Treasury interest and exempt from state/local taxes. This matters at tax time — if your brokerage doesn’t break it out properly, you may be overpaying state taxes on income that shouldn’t be taxed. Most major brokerages handle this correctly now, but it’s worth checking your 1099 summary the first year you hold T-bills to confirm. Your state’s line for Treasury income exclusion should match what the brokerage reports.

The government built TreasuryDirect to give every American direct access to T-bills. That’s genuinely good. The execution just hasn’t kept pace. In the meantime, your brokerage account already does this job better. Use it. If the state tax angle is the reason you’re considering T-bills at all, the state-by-state breakdown shows exactly how much the exemption is worth by state. The HYSA rate context explains why cash optimization matters more now than it did when rates were higher.