U.S. Savings bonds - red tape & use as poetry contest prize
OhioGuy
bonds at one time or another, and I used them both to help pay for my
college education, and to buy my wife's wedding ring. 9 years after she
died, I still felt like my great grandmother had a part in buying that ring.
Some of the other savings bonds I had purchased when I was about 12 or 13
from my sheep 4-H projects. It taught me the value of saving for the
future.
For the past couple of years, my wife's family has been sponsoring a
poetry contest in memory of my wife's Grandfather, who liked to paint and
especially, write poetry.
Participation in the contest was pretty low the first year, I think partly
because the prizes were rather low, and it was the first time. $50 for
first prize, for example. Heck, back in the late 80's when I was in high
school, $50 was a decent prize for first place in a writing contest. Now,
not so much.
Therefore, we decided to sponsor a $100 U.S. savings bond as the grand
prize, first prize, or whatever you want to call it. It still only cost us
$50, but it was a triple digit prize, so it seems more attractive.
Anyway, here's the deal. The contest is being run in the opposite corner
of the state, where 'Grandpa' lived, and where most of my wife's family
reside. I figured it would be easiest if one of the family members there
just took our $50, gave it to a local bank, and asked them to issue a $100
savings bond when the winner showed up to claim it.
I got a letter from 'Grandma' today saying that it was a nightmare.
Evidently both of them had to be present at the same time, and signatures
had to be filed. The winner didn't show up, and it was only on the third
try that everything worked out. This is out in a rural area where people
have to drive a long way to get to the banks and such. I would have taken
care of it, but asking the winner to drive 9 hours round trip would be a bit
much.
So here's my question: is there no way that a person can simply give money
to a local bank, explain that it's for a savings bond prize, and have the
winner claim it, show ID, do paperwork & pick it up at a later time? What
I'm being told is that there is a LOT of red tape for this sort of thing
now.
As an alternative, can anyone suggest something similar to a U.S. Savings
bond that would work in a similar way, but have less red tape? Of course,
what we really like about U.S. Savings bonds is that the printed value is
twice what we pay for it. Is there anything else that is similar that
people can buy and present as gifts? Some sort of bank or State backed
bearer bond with less hassle?
The theme of the poetry contest this year is "heroes", in honor of
Superman's 70th birthday. I considered offering a share or two of my Marvel
stock, but I'm not really sure how I could pull that off, either. I own it
through scottrade, so if I sell it, I just get $. I'm not sure how I would
transfer ownership of a few shares.
Mostly, I guess I'm interested in knowing:
A) are there ways to make U.S. savings bonds less painless, and work better
for use as prizes?
&
B) are there better alternatives that we could use instead, with less red
tape, but which still manage to show a greater value than the upfront paid
price?
Again, I'd like something that would convey the rewards of saving, and not
just something popular like a gift card