I just noticed that discount stock brokerage Sharebuilder is offering a $50 cash bonus as long as you open a new account with $50 by December 31st with promotion code 50WS10. (The code is also mentioned on the promo page.) It doesn’t appear that you even need to make a trade. Fine print:
** You must open a new account with ShareBuilder and deposit $50 or more to be eligible for this promotion. Initial deposit must be completed by 12/31/2010. ShareBuilder will deposit a $50 bonus approximately 4-6 weeks after your first $50 deposit. The $50 bonus offer is available for Individual, Joint and Custodial accounts only. Offer not valid for IRAs or ESAs. The $50 bonus from ShareBuilder is not available for withdrawal for 90 days after it is awarded to your account. This offer is not valid with any other offers and is non-transferrable. Limit one ShareBuilder account bonus per unique customer or custodial beneficiary. […] Offer expires 12/31/2010.
If you open it quickly, you should be able to take combine this with these several promotional codes worth over a hundred dollars in free trades, both real-time and automatic. Automatic trades differ from the real-time market/limit trades that most brokerages offer, as they are market orders that only execute in batches once a week on Tuesdays. In most cases, this is best suited for people regularly investing a constant amount (i.e. $50 a month) into ETFs or widely-traded stocks. The commissions start at $4 for each automatic trade, and $9.95 for a real-time trade.
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“Limit one ShareBuilder account bonus per unique customer or custodial beneficiary.”
Hmm… I opened an account years ago with a Costco promo. Got a bonus of something like $80 for opening the account. Would that prevent receipt of this bonus? Thanks!
Nice! I already have two ShareBuilder accounts open from past promotions. Just tried this one and the promotion went through again.
Beware with Sharebuilder, like the author mentioned, isn’t meant for all investors. It suits long-term, low budget investors quite nicely. If you’re a shorter-term trader that doesn’t only want to trade on Tuesday, $10 per trade isn’t all that competitive.
If you have atleast $2500-$3000 Tradeking or Zecco would be better bets.
Thanks for the update. I opened an account for my daughter for the free $50 but may keep it for periodic investments. I feel better now about missing the ING bonus (having previously opened her account there).
Mike,
How do you know the promotion went through if you just signed up? How do know that ING won’t realize that you have already received a promotional bonus (or 2) and refuse to pay you again. Michael showed that the fine print says “Limit one ShareBuilder account bonus per unique customer or custodial beneficiary.”?
Eric, I got an email from Share Builder telling me that the promotion was accepted. I presume the fine print is just that you can’t use this promotion more than once.
This is what the email said:
“Thank you for opening your ShareBuilder account. To receive your $50 Offer after Deposit, be sure to meet the promotion requirements by 02/04/2012.”
Mike,
I guess it is worth a try since the only requirement is a $50 deposit. When you login to your ING account does it show all 3 Sharebuilder accounts or do you have a separate login for each one?
Eric, all three accounts show up when I login to ShareBuilder or ING. Definitely worth the try, I think.
My experience with ShareBuilder is that it is an excellent service for long term, passive investing – for building shares in stock. I’ve been a customer for 4 years now and have no complaints. Short term traders should look elsewhere though.
I got the $50 bonus today. That was fast! Any idea how long it needs to stay in the account? I can’t see anything about that anywhere.
According to their Service Rates page here (http://www.sharebuilder.com/sharebuilder/Fees/servicerates.aspx), ShareBuilder charges a ridiculous 75$ to transfer your assets out to another brokerage, unless I’m reading this wrong. So buyer beware, this seems like a good deal only if you plan on staying a long-term member of ShareBuilder.
Mike,
How long after making your $50 deposit did you get an email from Sharebuilder about the promotion being accepted? I got an email from them but it only told me that my deposit went through.
Mike,
You never responded to my last post. Please advise if you actually received a bonus 3 times like you claimed. I just spoke with Sharebuilder since it is over 6 weeks since I signed up for the account. The woman informed me that they are not in the business of just giving free money away to people and my promotion was not accepted since I have already received a $50 bonus several months ago. I told her that I understood completely and did not argue. I would have never attempted this if you hadn’t said that you received the bonus more than once. Has anyone else had this bad experience?