Welcome to How I Save Money. In an effort to find ways to save money and to make more money I decided to try to open another online account. I heard of Treasury Bonds and I figured I would buy a 4 week government bond to see what the interest would be like.

It would only tie up $100 for 4 weeks and I would have the money by the time I needed it to pay bills, while making some interest in the process. I went to the site and signed up for the account and that went smoothly.

I was then told I would have to wait for a special log in passcard that I would need to use in order to securely log in so I waited for that. All of this was easy enough and then the drama began.

I received the card and it was straight out of cryptography class. There was 10*5 grid with numbers and letters randomly placed throughout the blocks. When I went back to log into the site I had to follow the steps below to access my account:

1. Enter account number

2. Enter password

3. Enter serial number

4. Enter pass code

Now this all seems simple enough but I will have to take it step by step to make you understand my frustrations.

1. Enter account number

This step was simple enough although it involved entering a series of numbers, hyphens and letters. I guess this is to ensure that you have a complicated enough account number that someone cannot guess.

2. Enter password

The password was a little bit trickier because it had to contain letters, numbers and special characters..but had to be entered using a virtual keyboard. Now this was not too much of a problem until I saw that the virtual keyboard was scrambled and it changed EVERY TIME you logged in. You have to use the mouse to hit the keys on the screen but since they are not in the same position it takes a bit of effort to get it right.

Ok, still not so bad but I am starting to get annoyed.

3. Enter serial number

The fun starts here. The serial number is given and you have to pick yours from a series that all look suspiciously like yours..making you squint carefully at the tiny numbers printed at the bottom of the card.

4. Enter pass code

You will NEVER be able to log into your account unless you have a copy of this card in front of you UNLESS you have an eidetic memory. It reads sort of like Bingo on drugs since you have to enter three values each time..using the virtual keyboard which changes each time you log in. So I might try to enter I5, E2 and J1 today and the answers are in one place but then they change the next time I log in.

I dutifully stab out the numbers…but no Bingo!

I am finally in the account and I try to add money to my account so I can finally purchase my Government Treasury Bill but when I get to the second page it says the site is not available. This takes me back to the login page where I go through all the gymnastics of steps 1 through 4..only to be told the site is unavailable once more.

I figure it is probably the time of day so I try again the next day at a different time.

Surprise! The same thing happens.

I guess the government does not want my money because they are not allowing me to get that T-Bill.

Any one else experience this type of thing?