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Harry Sit has written an article on his website, The Finance Buff, this morning 9/14/2026, describing the new requirement for using ID.me to log into a TreasuryDirect account. I found the article particularity informative as, like him, I had previously obtained a ID.me account.
His closing comment, “You have two bad choices. Either give sensitive information to a private company picked by the government agency or sell everything and pay taxes. I really don’t like this, but I don’t think they will change”, accurately reflects my thoughts on this change.
I will likely wait a while, maybe a long while, before I log in to Treasury Direct using ID.me to give time to let any system bugs to be resolved.
My experience creating an ID.me account can be best described as “hinky,” glitches that indicated a misstep but then seconds later it worked. I also got several “retry” prompts. Based on a comment on this thread I expected trouble, and an interview process, because my credit is frozen, but nope, I was able to establish the account anyway. Yes, I’ll be sticking with “hinky” to describe the process.
Maybe this is a digression, but I had planned for some time to convert I bonds from paper to electronic and finally decided to do it before the change in login requirements, using my already established treasury direct account. I did this just ten days ago so I haven’t checked to see if they were converted. I thought the directions on the website for converting were pretty clear – the only problem I had was that I mistakenly was entering a “1” at the end of the number when preparing a manifest to mail in, instead of an “I,” so the number wasn’t being accepted as a valid bond number. Sharper eyes in my household figured out the problem. When I I made the same mistake on the calculator part of the website, my mistake was ignored and the value of my bonds with a “1” at the end was calculated. Go figure.
I’m sorry I ever bought an Ibond and hope to liquidate my small account before the deadline. My credit union recently merged into a larger one, so my checking account was changed. TD cannot, for some reason, verify my new account. I even got an agent on the phone, no success. Every other financial institution I deal with was able to verify my new bank account, not TD. The IRS accepted quarterly tax payment from the new account, but TD cannot verify it. I now have to mail in, USPS, a form with all my information with Signature Guarantee. I just want out.
Thanks for your comment. A number of comments on Humble Dollar and other sites I read gives me pause about continuing to buy I Bonds. I have not had the administrative headaches you and others have had and I certainly do not want them for myself or my heirs.
Converting my login at TD to ID.me is a distant secondary consideration on if I am willing to continue buying I Bonds if TD does not improve their customer service when something occurs for a person like you who has taken reasonable actions which are deemed to be insufficient.
Same here. My mother changed her account number at Chase due to a scam, and it’s Chase policy not to guarantee a signature on the TreasuryDirect bank change form. TD then told me they would accept a notary from the bank. I mailed it today and have my fingers crossed. If it goes through I’m cashing her out.
I signed in with my existing ID.me account yesterday. No issues. I made a decision earlier this year to wind down my Treasury Direct exposure over the next few years. They are a real pain to deal with if issues arise. If heirs are involved with the transfer of bonds, expect 6+ months to resolve. Don’t want to expose my family to inept bureaucracy.
I am not a tech person, but, I was able to easily update my treasurydirect acct., with the new requirements. It took only 8 minutes, and every step was easy. Whew!
In related news, two weeks ago, the Trump administration issued a memo through the Office of Management and Budget mandating that federal agencies make Login.gov the universal sign-on and identity verification option for most public-facing websites within two years.
I have used ID.me for a while to access my Social Security account. Recently I was forced to use It for my Medicare quarterly payment. To get into my account I used my old login procedure, was told I had to change to ID.me, then when I went to pay the bill they transferred me to a third internet site.
What could go wrong? As we all know elders are ALL tech geniuses, so why not have them deal with three separate websites to make a payment?
So it does not surprise me the government are changing logins to ID.me.
BTW my data has been compromised too many times to count. The ones I remember are Equifax, and some medical billing company. Right now I have three credit monitoring companies watching out for my best interests.
I had no problems switching to ID.me.
What to do?
do it, is my advice. Everything is scary but so many people answer calls from unknown numbers and respond to email etc.
I logged into treasury direct (with id.me) yesterday (9/13) – no problems.
I had created my id.me account a couple weeks ago. It was fairly easy – because my credit is “locked down”, I could not use the automatic authentication, but had to have the interview. I figured I would have to wait and wait for the interview, but only waited about a minute. Same for my wife.
So, now I can access, treasury direct, social security and the IRS from id.me. I think perhaps the largest advantage to id.me/IRS is to be able to obtain the IRS filing PIN so no one else can file a tax return in my name.
I had waited this long because I too did not want to hand over my personal info to a company. But, seriously, at this point, I wonder if there is anyone left in the world who could not get my personal data.
I was hit by the OPM hack back in 2015 or so – I have figured that everyone has my data since then.
As far as I know, no one has attacked me – perhaps it pays to be boring.
Whether we like it for not, ID.me is the way many U.S Government agencies are turning to. They also have Login.GOV id, but off late they prefer us to use ID.me. If one pays estimated taxes via IRS Direct Pay, he/she already has to use ID.me for a few years now.
We have to simply trust that the U.S Government agencies are security conscious to protect the online safety and financial interests of the U.S Citizens.
I believe you can use the IRS Direct Pay without using the ID.me login. Yep, we have to live in the ever changing modern world of technology. Often it is our own actions that expose our personal information but our government decisions seems to have painted us into a corner.
No you can’t.
Please see the above link-
From the IRS link –
Pay taxes from your bank account with Direct Pay.
I have made two 2026 1040-ES thus far in 2026 that have been taken from my bank account via electronic draft.
I can confirm Bill P.’s experience. I have the IRS Direct Pay link “bookmarked” on my computer and just posted my 3/4 estimated payment today via EFT from my bank account without needing a login credential. I have been doing so for at least the past 8 years.
Bill M.
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