TreasuryDirect vs Brokerage: Where to Buy Treasuries

TreasuryDirect vs brokerage comes down to exits, not entry fees. On November 9, 2026, Treasury sold $58 billion of 3-year notes at a 4.627% high yield, and savers could buy at that yield for $0 at TreasuryDirect, Fidelity or Schwab. The gap comes later: TreasuryDirect locks a new note for 45 days and has no sell button. For most investors, a big broker wins.

Key takeaways

• Today’s $58 billion 3-year auction cleared at 4.627%, with a 2.53x bid-to-cover.
• Online auction orders cost $0 at TreasuryDirect, Fidelity and Schwab.
• TreasuryDirect securities must sit 45 days before you can sell or transfer them.

What happened at today’s 3-year Treasury auction?

Treasury sold $58 billion of 3-year notes on Monday, November 9, 2026, at a high yield of 4.627%. Demand was soft. The auction tailed by half a basis point, and the bid-to-cover ratio of 2.53x trailed the 2.64x average, according to investingLive’s auction recap. It was the first of three refunding sales this week.

Foreign and fund buyers, the indirect bidders, took 55.5% versus a 62.7% average. Dealers absorbed 9.5%. The when-issued yield just before the 1 p.m. deadline was 4.622%, so the market had to pay a little extra to clear the size.

The November 4 refunding statement lays out the week: $125 billion in total, refunding about $97 billion of maturing debt and raising about $28 billion of new cash. A $42 billion 10-year note follows on November 10 and a $25 billion 30-year bond on November 12. All three settle on November 16.

Here is the part that matters for savers. Every noncompetitive bidder gets the same yield the big institutions set. A $1,000 order placed through a broker or a $100 order in TreasuryDirect earned the same 4.627% as a primary dealer. The question is only which door you walk through.

Is TreasuryDirect or a brokerage cheaper for buying Treasuries?

At auction, it is a tie at zero. TreasuryDirect charges nothing to open an account or buy. Fidelity and Schwab both list $0 for online new-issue Treasury orders. Fees only appear if you phone a rep, buy on the secondary market, or need to leave TreasuryDirect early. That is where the platforms split.

The TreasuryDirect FAQ says there are no fees to open an account or buy securities. Bids start at $100 and run in $100 steps. Noncompetitive bids are capped at $10 million per auction, and TreasuryDirect accepts only noncompetitive bids.

Brokers match the zero. Fidelity’s commission page lists $0 for online Treasury auction and secondary orders and $19.95 for a rep-assisted trade. Schwab’s fixed-income pricing lists $0 online and $25 broker-assisted.

Platform	Auction order (online)	Secondary market	Minimum	Phone/rep order	Selling before maturity
TreasuryDirect	$0	Not available	$100	n/a	45-day hold, then transfer out (fee normally applies)
Fidelity	$0	$0 commission (markup possible)	$1,000	$19.95	Sell in the account at the bid
Charles Schwab	$0	$0 commission (markup possible)	$1,000	$25	Sell in the account at the bid
E*TRADE	Free	Free	$1,000	$25	Sell in the account at the bid
Public	0.10%–0.25% of face	0.10%–0.25% of face	$1,000 first, then $100	Not stated	Sell in the account at the bid
Interactive Brokers	No auction access	0.002% of face, $5 minimum	$1,000	Not stated	Sell in the account at the bid

How much does each platform cost on a $10,000 Treasury?

Bought online at auction and held to maturity, a $10,000 note costs nothing extra anywhere on the big three. A phone order at Fidelity or Schwab shaves 0.07 to 0.08 points a year off a 3-year note. Selling early adds a bid-ask haircut at a broker, plus a 45-day wait and a transfer step at TreasuryDirect.

Start with the income. At today’s 4.627% high yield, $10,000 earns roughly $462.70 a year, or about $1,388 over three years. That is the baseline every platform has to protect.

1. TreasuryDirect or broker, online: $0 fee. Effective yield stays at 4.627%.
2. Fidelity, rep-assisted ($19.95): $19.95 ÷ $10,000 = 0.20%. Spread over 3 years, that is 0.067 points a year, so about 4.56% effective.
3. Schwab, broker-assisted ($25): $25 ÷ $10,000 = 0.25%, or 0.083 points a year. Effective yield is about 4.54%.
4. Public at 0.10%–0.25% of face: $10 to $25 up front, or 0.033 to 0.083 points a year over three years, before any management fee.
5. Secondary-market buy instead of auction: The Finance Buff’s sample Fidelity quote showed a 0.065 gap per $100 between bid and ask. On $10,000 face, that is about $6.50 for a round trip at that spread.

The lesson is blunt. On a buy-and-hold note, the only real fee is the one you pay for picking up the phone. Use the website and the cost is zero at all three big doors.

Can you sell a TreasuryDirect note before maturity?

Yes, but not inside TreasuryDirect. Treasury’s own guidance says a security bought there must stay in the account for 45 days, then be transferred to a bank, broker or dealer, which then sells it. TreasuryDirect says a fee normally applies to that transfer. A 4-week bill can never be transferred because it matures first.

That is the hidden cost of the “free” government platform. If rates jump or you need cash in a hurry, a broker account lets you sell the same afternoon at the bid. A TreasuryDirect holder has to wait out the hold, file the transfer, and then sell anyway through a broker.

For a 3-year note, liquidity matters more than it does for a 4-week bill. You are committing money for 36 months. If you weighed locking in a 2-year note against rolling T-bills, the same logic applies here: the longer the maturity, the more you value an easy exit.

Which investors should use TreasuryDirect, and which a broker?

TreasuryDirect suits small, patient savers who will hold every security to maturity and like dealing straight with the government. A broker suits almost everyone else: people who want to sell early, keep cash and bonds in one place, or buy on the secondary market. The fee is identical online, so convenience decides.

Investor profile	Better fit	Why
Saver buying $100 to $900 at a time	TreasuryDirect	$100 minimum versus the $1,000 bond minimum at most brokers
Holds every note to maturity, never trades	Either	$0 online at both; the 45-day hold never binds
May need cash before maturity	Broker	Sell the same day instead of a 45-day hold plus transfer
Wants auto-roll on bills	Either	TreasuryDirect lets you schedule reinvestment; Fidelity and Schwab auto-roll auction purchases
Already holds stocks and ETFs at a broker	Broker	One account, one tax form, cash settles next to your other holdings
Wants an older issue or an exact maturity date	Broker	TreasuryDirect has no secondary market

The usability gap is real

NerdWallet’s broker review calls the TreasuryDirect site “clunky, slow and hard to figure out.” That is not a cost you see on a fee schedule, but it is a cost. A mistyped term or a missed reinvestment setting can leave cash idle for weeks.

The broker catch: “free” is not always free

Here is the skeptical read. Fidelity’s page says its affiliate may mark the price up or down and “may realize a trading profit or loss.” Schwab says a markup can reflect the bid-ask spread, with no minimum or maximum. The $0 commission on secondary trades is real, but the spread is where the broker gets paid.

At auction there is no spread at all, because everyone pays the same price. That is the single best reason to buy new issues rather than older bonds, wherever you hold them.

Do taxes or limits differ between TreasuryDirect and a brokerage?

No. The security is the same, so the tax treatment is the same. Treasury interest is federally taxable but exempt from state and local income tax, as Fidelity’s Treasury page notes. The $10 million noncompetitive cap applies in both places, and Fidelity applies it per household for each security type and term.

That state-tax break matters most in high-tax states. It is also why direct Treasuries can beat some cash funds on an after-tax basis, a gap we measured in T-bill ETFs versus money market funds.

Rates set the stakes. The Fed held its target range at 3.75% to 4.00% on October 28, 2026, with two officials dissenting in favor of a hike, according to the FOMC statement. Treasury’s par curve on November 6 showed 4.02% at one month, 4.59% at three years and 4.86% at ten years.

What to watch next

Three dated events this week and one in December could move the yields you lock in. None changes the platform math, but each changes what a $10,000 order earns. Inflation data and two more auctions land within 72 hours.

• November 10, 2026, 8:30 a.m. ET: October CPI, per the BLS release schedule. A hot print could push the 10-year auction yield higher the same afternoon.
• November 10, 2026, 1:00 p.m. ET: $42 billion 10-year note auction.
• November 12, 2026: $25 billion 30-year bond auction; all three refunding issues settle November 16.
• December 8–9, 2026: the next FOMC meeting, per the Federal Reserve calendar.

FAQ

Is TreasuryDirect safer than a brokerage?

The credit risk is identical, because both hold the same US Treasury security. The difference is custody and convenience, not the safety of the bond itself.

Do you get a better yield at TreasuryDirect?

No. Noncompetitive bids at TreasuryDirect and at brokers all receive the yield set at auction. On November 9, 2026, that was 4.627% for the 3-year note.

What is the minimum purchase?

TreasuryDirect starts at $100 in $100 steps. Fidelity, Schwab and E*TRADE generally start at $1,000 of face value.

How long must you hold a TreasuryDirect security before selling?

45 days. After that you transfer it to a bank, broker or dealer, which sells it for you. TreasuryDirect says a fee normally applies to the transfer.

Do Fidelity and Schwab charge to buy Treasuries at auction?

Not online. Both list $0. Fidelity charges $19.95 for a rep-assisted order and Schwab $25 for a broker-assisted one.

Is Treasury interest taxed by states?

No. It is subject to federal income tax but exempt from state and local income taxes, wherever the security is held.

The bottom line

Buy at auction, buy online, and the fee is zero wherever you go. That makes the choice simple. If you will hold every note to maturity and want to invest in $100 slices, TreasuryDirect works. If there is any chance you will need the money early, a major broker wins outright: same 4.627% yield today, same $0 fee, and an exit that takes minutes instead of 45 days.

The one fee worth avoiding is the phone order. And if your goal is inflation protection rather than a fixed rate, compare the options in our I Bonds vs TIPS breakdown before you bid.

This article is journalism, not investment advice. Do your own research before investing.

Sources

• US Treasury: Quarterly Refunding Statement, November 4, 2026
• investingLive: US Treasury sells $58 billion of 3-year notes at a high yield of 4.627% (November 9, 2026)
• TreasuryDirect: FAQs About Treasury Marketable Securities
• TreasuryDirect: Additional Auction-Related FAQs
• US Treasury (Bureau of the Fiscal Service): Selling a Treasury Marketable Security
• Fidelity: Commissions, Margin Rates, and Fees
• Fidelity: US Treasury Bonds
• Charles Schwab: Fixed Income Pricing
• NerdWallet: The Best Brokers for Investing in Treasury Bills, Bonds and Notes (updated September 28, 2026)
• The Finance Buff: How to Buy Treasury Bills and Notes on the Secondary Market
• US Treasury: Daily Par Yield Curve Rates, November 2026
• Federal Reserve: FOMC statement, October 28, 2026
• Federal Reserve: FOMC meeting calendar
• BLS: Consumer Price Index release schedule

Wealth Engine researches and drafts with AI tools and checks every figure against the sources above. How we report.