Are you opposed to the U.S. Treasury’s plan to eventually eliminate paper savings bonds? Are you upset at the way the Treasury announced this proposed change last year, in take-it-or-leave-it fashion, without first consulting loyal bondholders? Well, you may soon get the chance to tell the Treasury exactly what you think. Read on:

Q. I wanted to say that the bonds should not be changed. I’m a senior, and I’ve been buying four bonds a year for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and I think that having it through the computer, which some people don’t have, is a horrible way of doing it. I’m afraid to buy any bonds because I don’t know what’s going to happen to them .

M.W., Warwick, R.I.

A. I’ve heard from a lot of readers who say essentially the same thing. Now there’s some news that might interest you:

The Treasury recently published a notice of its intent to survey people about its proposal to eventually move to an all-electronic, paperless system for savings bonds.

The Treasury has asked the federal Office of Management and Budget for permission to survey about 2,500 people.

Why?

“To measure savings bond purchasers’ awareness of electronic savings bond accounts (TreasuryDirect) and help plan investor education efforts for electronic securities in support of eventual elimination of paper savings bonds,” the Treasury said in the Jan. 2 issue of the Federal Register, which is the official daily publication for various branches of the federal government.

That’s a significant step. Until now, the Treasury typically issued pronouncements about the bond program, and expected everyone to follow orders – whether they liked it or not. But in a major policy shift, the Treasury is now actually seeking public comment before it takes another step.

To Daniel J. Pederson, author of “Savings Bonds: When to Hold, When to Fold, and Everything In-Between” (Sage Creek Press; 276 pages; $19.95), it’s a welcome development.

The Treasury is “getting more in touch with their customers,” and that’s good news, Pederson said. “The original proposals, the way they were presented, as take-it-or-leave-it, caused a lot of alienation among long-term customers.”

If the Treasury receives approval, the Treasury will probably hire a polling firm to survey people about the proposed changes, said Stephen Meyerhardt, spokesman for the Treasury’s Bureau of the Public Debt, which runs the bond program.

Must you wait until then for the chance to have your say? No.

If you want to comment about the proposed survey, write to the following addresses by Feb. 2:

n Joseph F. Lackey Jr., Office of Management and Budget, Room 10235, New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC 20503.

-Treasury Department Clearance Officer, Department of the Treasury, Room 11000, 1750 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20220.

Don’t stop there. If you oppose the Treasury’s plan to eliminate paper savings bonds and force people to do all their savings bond purchases online via computer, contact your member of Congress, and let the Treasury know about it, too. Here are some contacts:

-Write: Bureau of the Public Debt, P.O. Box 1328, Parkersburg, WV 26106-1328. “They’re tracking customer input,” Meyerhardt said.

-Send an e-mail to this address:

savbonds(AT)bpd.treas.gov

-Go to the home page of the bond program’s Web site:

www.treasurydirect.gov

Once there, look to the toolbar on the left of the screen, under Resources, and click on “Contact Us” to obtain more e-mail and postal addresses and other means of contact.

Don’t think it’s a waste of time. It’s clear that previous comments from other bondholders have made a difference already.

When Peter R. Fisher, Treasury under-secretary for domestic finance, originally announced the changes early last year, it seemed that paper savings bonds were doomed, and it would be only a short time before the all-electronic system took over.

Fisher was the main driver behind the plan. But he’s since left. And the Treasury is no longer moving as aggressively to eliminate paper bonds. Consider this:

When I asked recently when the Treasury plans to stop issuing paper bonds and move to an all-electronic system, Meyerhardt said, “We’re a long way – a very long way – from the point where we can make a reasonable decision” on this issue.

The survey, he said, “is just one of many, many steps before anybody is ready to make that decision. We don’t want to do anything prematurely.”

Although the all-electronic system is still the government’s long-term goal, the Treasury still has not decided when to make the switch, he said.

“There’s no specific time-frame,” he said. “I don’t see any specific date for when paper bonds would be totally gone This is fluid; it’s not anything that’s set in concrete.”

So the Treasury will continue issuing paper savings bonds for at least the rest of this year and all of next year, he acknowledged. What happens after that is anybody’s guess.

Might the Treasury change its mind if public opinion is overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the paper bond? “I wouldn’t care to speculate,” he said.

For now, then, paper bonds are still with us, and you can continue to buy them in the usual way, through many banks, credit unions and other financial institutions; through payroll deduction at participating employers; and online, too.

As Pederson put it, the government may eventually stop issuing paper bonds, “But you have to get a critical mass (of public support for the plan) on board first,” and that may not happen for a long time to come.

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(Neil Downing is a Journal staff writer and author of “The New IRAs and How to Make Them Work for You.” If you have questions about your money matters, call us at 1-401-277-7484 or 1-888-697-7656. (When calling toll-free, please ask for ext. 7484.) We can’t reply personally; as many questions and issues as possible will be addressed in this column.)

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(c) 2004, The Providence Journal.

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AP-NY-01-12-04 0625EST