Frequently Asked Questions about Savings Bond Tracker

Activating

• I purchased a copy, do I have to do anything else?
• I reinstalled my OS and my license is no longer valid, what do I do?

Security

• Does Savings Bond Tracker connect to the Internet?
• Can you (Spotted Snake Software) see my personal bond data?

Using Savings Bond Tracker

• I updated my pricing data and the bond values are all wrong! Help!
• I bought a bond three (or one, or eleven) months ago and no earnings are shown. Why?
• Some of my bonds are paper, some electronic. How do I handle the different pricing?
• I see an error message when I try to run the price updater. Help!

I purchased a copy, do I have to do anything else?

No, the embedded purchase engine automatically activates your serial number, making the software unlocked and ready for use. You will receive an email with your serial number; retain this if you ever need to reinstall.

I reinstalled my OS and my license is no longer valid, what do I do?

Download a fresh copy of the software and install it as instructed by the accompanying Readme file. Launch the application and open the Preferences... dialog. You will see a tab with a field in which you can enter your serial number to reactivate.

Does Savings Bond Tracker connect to the Internet?

Only when you update pricing data, in which case it only pulls new data to your computer. The data pulled is the same for any user and is not traceable to you personally. Further, Savings Bond Tracker does not send your bond data from your computer. The embedded purchase engine and product activation process require network access as well.

Can you (Spotted Snake Software) see my personal bond data?

No, your data is stored in a portfolio file on your disk. If you don't make that file available to someone, they can't read it. Normal precautions about protecting the security of your personal data still apply, of course.

I updated my pricing data and the bond values are all wrong! Help!

You must close all portfolios when using the price updater. After the updates are installed, you must quit and restart the application. If you do not restart, your pricing data will be inaccurately reported.

I bought a bond three (or one, or eleven) months ago and no earnings are shown. Why?

The US Treasury Department does not publish pricing data for bonds that are not marketable. Bonds that are still in the mandatory holding period (currently 12 months) are not marketable and so there is no redemption value because they cannot be redeemed. Once the redemption lock is up, their redemption values will be shown, including the interest accrued during the holding period.

Some of my bonds are paper, some electronic. How do I handle the different pricing?

Use the Paper? checkbox shown in each bond's row to indicate whether a bond is (not) paper. Electronic bonds are issued at face value, unlike paper bonds. If you typically buy bonds in one form or the other, you can make that form the default in the Preferences... dialog.

I see an error message when I try to run the price updater. Help!

You must install Savings Bond Tracker to your hard drive. You cannot update pricing data if you try to run it from the downloaded DMG disk image because that image, like all DMG images you download, is read-only. A read-only disk gives Savings Bond Tracker nowhere to write its updated pricing data. The fix is to follow the instructions in the Readme file: copy the application to your Applications/ folder on your hard drive and always launch it from there. We recommend ejecting the downloaded DMG disk image as soon as you are finished installing the software so that there is no risk of confusion.