EE bond interest rates for bonds issued from May 1997 through April 2005

For example: You have an EE bond with an issue date of September 1, 2003. Your 6-month rate periods start in September and in March. The rate we announce on May 1 will start for your bond on the following September 1. The rate we announce on November 1 will start for your bond on the following March 1.

To see in which months your EE bond begins to earn each new interest rate, see When does my bond change rates? further down this page.

For an historical record of interest rates for these bonds, see the tables on What have interest rates been? at the bottom of this page.

The interest gets added to the bond's value

For EE bonds we issued from May 1997 through April 2005, we add interest every month. Also, every sixth month from issue, we begin applying the bond’s interest rate to a new value: the sum derived from taking the bond’s previous value and adding the total interest the bond earned in the following six months.

This is called semiannual compounding. With it, your money grows not just from the interest percentage but from the fact that the interest is calculated on a growing balance.

You can find a bond’s current value

If the bond is in TreasuryDirect, look in your account there. If the bond is paper, use the Savings Bond Calculator.

These EE bonds have 2 maturity dates

EE bonds that we issued from May 1997 through April 2005 have an original maturity date part way into the bond's 30-year life, as well as a final maturity date at the end of the bond's 30-year life.

Issue date of EE bond	Original maturity date
May 1, 1997 through May 1, 2003	17 years from issue date
June 1, 2003 through April 1, 2005	20 years from issue date

We guarantee that when it reaches its original maturity date, an EE bond will be worth at least double what you paid for it – whether you bought a paper EE bond at half its face value or an electronic EE bond at its full face value.

If the EE bond has not at least doubled its purchase price when it reaches the original maturity date, we will make a one-time adjustment to make up the difference.

Here's how we set the interest rate for these EE bonds

Up to the bond's original maturity date, we determine the interest by

• finding the average yields of 5-year Treasury securities for the previous 6 months, and
• taking 90 percent of that number

For the rest of the bond's life (the "extended maturity period"), we use the same method unless we announce a different method.

If we change the method, we must announce it before the bond's original maturity date. If you do not want the new way the bond will earn interest in its extended maturity period, you can cash it when it reaches its original maturity date and has at least doubled what you paid for it. (You can, of course, cash the bond any time after it is 1 year old.)

When does my bond change rates?

If we issued your bond in	Your interest rate changes
January	January 1 and July 1
February	February 1 and August 1
March	March 1 and September 1
April	April 1 and October 1
May	May 1 and November 1
June	June 1 and December 1
July	July 1 and January 1
August	August 1 and February 1
September	September 1 and March 1
October	October 1 and April 1
November	November 1 and May 1
December	December 1 and June 1

What have interest rates been for EE bonds we issued from May 1997 through April 2005?