Sharebuilder is Costco’s “Service of the Month” for December, and they are running a promotion offering $90 Costco Cash for Executive Members ($70 for Gold or Business Members). There’s no reason not to go for the $90, since you can’t lose with Executive membership – They’ll pay you back any of the $50 extra you don’t gain in purchases. You do need to open an account and make one stock purchase.
Don’t have Costco? You can find a bunch of regular $50 Sharebuilder promotional codes here. Now, unless you really want to use Sharebuilder as your broker, there are two options to get your bonus, as selling stock there costs $15.
- Instant Gratification:Open with $5. Buy $1 of stock and pay $4 for commission. Wait for your bonus. Let the $1 in stock just rot there.
- Delayed Gratification: Open with $50. Buy $46 of a quality stock like Berkshire Hathaway and pay $4 for commission. Get the $50 (or more), and treat it like you just got free stock. Just sit back for a decade or two while it grows and grows. Details on this method here.
If you choose the latter and are going to open with at least $20, you can try to combine this with the $20 back from eBates. You can only get one eBate rebate, but myself and others have successfully gotten multiple Sharebuilder bonuses by applying again after getting the first bonus. Others simply opened up multiple accounts for others in their household: spouse, kids, parents, and so on.
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I opened up multiple accounts with sharebuilder several months ago using all of the active promo codes at the time. They closed all but 1 and denied the promo on all but 1 of them. Since then I have tried to open up a single account using a new promo code but it says code denied due to having used a similar code in the past?!! They have apparently linked my registration info on the open account and will not allow any more accounts to be opened with a promo.
Jonathan, how would you try to get around this? Use a different address on the new account or only the initial of your first name? Or some such variant?
How did you get multiple promos?
Hi,
I’ve been reading your site for a while now and it is a great site. I opened up a Sharebuilder account 3 months ago, used a promo code and recieved the $50. You said you applied for repeated promos and got them. How did you do that? I tried typing in another promo code and all it says is that I have to be an existing account holder, which I am?? Thanks.
Ketan
Don’t get me wrong, Berkshire Hathaway is a fine stock. But how are you going to buy $46 of it? BRK.A is going to open today at just over $107,050 per share. The “more reasonably” priced B shares (BRK.B) are going to open at $3574.90. I doubt any brokerage is going to sell you a fractional share and, if they did, it would probably be for a significantly higher fee.
“applying again after getting the first bonus”
– Don’t apply all at once. Apply. Get Bonus. Wait (1 week? 1 month?). Apply again. You can even use the same login. If you do multiple bonuses simultaneously they’ll block all subsequent applications. They do know your SSN after all.
– Actually Sharebuilder does sell fractional shares. That’s their specialty, why it’s a fun stock to choose. “I own some Berkshire Hathaway” 🙂 I personally have $57 of BRKB in my account right now.
Can you merge Sharebuilder accounts? Once you get the promo on multiple accounts can you just merge them all into one. That way you’re get closer to that “1 share” mark of BRKB.
Wow, sharebuilder is full of fees! Eek. But I think it would be good for a one time shot at getting extra cash at Costco.
I just went through the setup process up to the final “make account” click, and I never came across the promotion code field. Has anyone else had the same experience?
The only catch is and I verified over the phone with them, they do a soft credit check with Equifax to make sure the name and ssn you are providing are valid. A soft check doesn’t hurt your credit score. So $90 for a soft credit check … I think its worth it.
Hi,
Can anyone confirm that you can get both the Costco and Ebates deals at the same time? Seems like to get each deal, you need to click through each one and it does not appear that you can do both at the same time.
Hi, I’ve been an avid reader. How did you get the other Sharebuilder bonuses? I opened an account a few months ago and used “SHARE50” code, how can I get the other bonus say for, “ENTHOLIDAY”?
I did the sharebuilder bonus about 6 months ago when the payout was $85 for executive members. I signed myself up, my wife, and a joint account. I qualified for the promotion on all three. I didn’t do anything special.
I wanted to close the accounts to be able to qualify as a new customer again, but the online FAQs simply state to remove all funds, and that’s how you close your account. The FAQs also mentioned that they have to keep your account information on record for years for tax purposes. Anyone got an idea on how to get my information out of their system?
I opened up custodial account for my 4 kids, each (according to Sharebuilder customer service) able to get the $90 cash card from Costco. I just wish I had seen the ebates thing earlier ;-(
I put in $50 for each kid, on dividend paying stock that they are interested in (Mickey Dees for one, Disney for another, etc.). Then will turn off the plan after the first trade and add when I please. Also, if you sign up now, you can have the “standard” plan free for one month, so it doesn’t acutually cost you the $4 fee for the first trade.
This looks like a nifty idea. I’ve wanted to go buy some things at Costco but didn’t have a membership. What a nice way of making a little extra and getting to eat the $2 polish hotdogs for lunch or buy a whole pizza for dinner.
Merge accounts – yes you can do that.
Sharebuilder has minimums and no annual fees for non-IRA accounts. As for buying and selling, their system is a bit weird but not horrible if you like to buy-and-hold in stocks or ETFs. I don’t use them myself for anything but bonuses.
Steve – On the very last summary page, you should see “Promo Code – Not Entered”. Click “edit” above it, and the form should show up.
Soft credit pulls are fine, and happen all the time even without your consent. Like you said, no credit score hit.
I’m not 100% sure about the eBates combination. As for getting multiple promo code bonuses, wait until you get the 1st bonus. Then wait a while (I’ve waiting months before, but definitely at least wait until you get the bonus.). Then apply again with 2nd code. You can even use the same login. You do need a Costco membership number to do the Costco bonus.
I tried to open a Sharebuilder account through the Ebates link and there was never a place to enter a promotional code, so it looks like it is not possible to combine the Ebates $20 cash back with any promo code (which is a bum deal for anyone who signs up through Ebates).
If you login to Home from http://www.sharebuilder.com, then click Accounts. Then Click Promotions. It offers you the chance to input promo codes. Think it’s possible to use these promo codes without creating new accounts? Or for the people that did ebates to enter a promo code?
I’ve added a screenshot that show where to input promo codes here
It seems that BRKB is no longer available for trading via sharebuilder. When I do a quote on BRKB it says “BRKB is not available through ShareBuilder.” It was on my short list of “wish” stocks that would be fun to watch. I guess I will have to move on to #2 (GOOG).
I think that at some point, even if you have delayed opening new accounts over time, Sharebuilder will cut you off with opening promotional accounts. They cut me off at 4, even though it had been quite awhile since I had opened a new account (although it might have been fairly recent that I had traded on third new account and finally received its bonus).
Its definitely a good idea to merge them if you want to upgrade beyond their Basic service. Buying just “gain and loss tracker” one one account will make the service available to all accounts. But upgrading to Standard will only apply to the specific account and then its more costly to make trades on the other accounts. Does that make sense?
Tom try typing in berkshire hathaway instead of brkb. My guess is you are on the lookup name of stock because some stocks work as that such as google because of goog being the 1st letters sorry. Nice site and thanks for help jonathan
Very weird. I get the same message that BRKB is no longer available for trading through Sharebuilder when looking at the quote, but I just tried to buy some more after logging in and it let me add it to my investment plan. I’m not sure if it’s because I already own a fractional share of it.
Are you guys using the Automatic Investment Plan to buy the stock for $1 ? Thats the only plan that lets you buy at $4 commision I guess. I get this message when I try to buy BRKB or GOOG:
The investment amount you entered is not sufficient to cover the commission cost associated with your Pricing Program. Since commissions are applied when orders are created, the investment amount must be greater than $4.00
How do I invest $1 ??
Great plan for free $$ but two things: BRKB is listed as “BRK B” (with the space) on their site now. Also, with costco they give you the option to have a free trial of the “standard” account giving 6 free trades without paying the $12 fee or the $4 investment fee. (if you signed up for basic you can try to call to see if they can give you the free trades anyhow) This can be changed back to basic to avoid it for future months. I expect that this tuesday I will be the proud owner of 0.136 shares of the best stock on earth.
thanks for mentioning the deal!! I opened the account and received an email that I have qualified for the promotio.. so just waiting to get the costco cash in the mail!!!.
Is there a way to enter a promotion code without opening a new account? I tried to enter the code, but it said that I need to enter it in the promotion entry page. When I went there, to enter the codes, it actually open up a new account which I don’t want. How do I enter a code on an existing account?
I really need screenshots for this; it’s so confusing and frustrating. Now, I don’t know how to remove the extra account.
Here’s a link to add to the list — you can sign up for Sharebuilder and receive $40, a free copy of David Bach’s Automatic Millionaire, and a 1-year subscription to Money Magazine.
link
Kaira,
To enter a promotion code on an existing account:
1. Log into your account.
2. In the “Accounts – Overview Tab” click on Profile & Settings
3. Then find the tab labeled “Enter Promotion” and click it.
4. Select the account from the drop down list and tab/click in the promotion code box.
5. Type in or cope the promotion code exactly as it appears and hit enter or the Submit button.
You will get a confirmation message if valid or a red error message/explanation.
Hope this helps?
To remove an extra account, ensure it is closed.
1. Go to the “Accounts – Overview” tab.
2. Click on Forms & Applications
3. Scroll down to “Make account changes” and find the bullet “close an account” – Complete online.
Once that has been done, you can contact Sharebuilder customer service via phone or email and ask them to delete the invalid/closed account from your profile so that it is not so cluttered.
They did this for me last week on an “old” closed joint account. So I know it works.. A good way to keep multiple accounts from just sitting out there…
If you cant use an old “BDAY__” code, try: BDAY12FY for one free automatic trade that expires on 4/30/2012.