Updated: The SaveYourself Plan and partnership with TD Ameritrade appears to have ended.
Suze Orman is still offering her “Save Yourself Plan” in conjunction with TD Ameritrade, although the offer is not as good as it was before. Previously, you had to open a new account at TD Ameritrade and put in $50 per month for 12 consecutive months. The default FDIC-insured interest rate also started a 2.78% APY. You were effectively making over 35% interest annualized, albeit on a limited amount of money.
With the current offer, you must now deposit $100 a month for 12 consecutive months, and the FDIC-insured interest rate on cash is only 1%. This works out earning about a 16% annual interest rate. Still not bad, if you have never had an Ameritrade account. As compared to keeping your money in an online savings account at 3%, after a year you’ll be ahead by about $80 in extra interest.
Plus, once we receive your first deposit, you will receive free online access to Women & Money—the book that launched Suze’s Save Yourself movement. And that’s not all. You will receive emails of support and encouragement from Suze…
I wouldn’t trade there, though. Just take the bonus. For more value, here are the brokers that I would recommend for starting an IRA.
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I’m making the last of my 12 deposits for the original offer this month. Hopefully the credit shows up soon. 🙂
did it show up?
i did it also and never got my 100usd, and after couple of years they closed my account 🙁
I will have to think about this. We are currently not able to save any money but I do have to put over $100 into savings every month in anticipation of future upcoming bills (like auto insurance). We currently pay for our insurance in six month increments, so I don’t know if I could part with $100/month up to $1200. I’ll have to see. My husband’s secured credit card has been set up for one year, with $600 limit. I was told after one year, we just have to ask them and they’ll make the card into an unsecured credit card and release the $600. Maybe I could swing something like that. Thanks for the information on this. Don’t know how useful Suze online would be, but would be interesting to check into. Thanks again.
Eric, my last deposit will be next month. Keep us posted on when you get your $100.
Suze is terrible and people really need to stop listening to her and giving her credit. She is not an expert on anything except how to market herself into tricking others into thinking she is an expert.
I agree with Josh. She’s no more of an expert than Dr. Phil is a doctor.
Mark and Josh…got a problem with intelligent women? 🙂 Telling people to pay off their debts, save money and be more frugal is advice that many people need. If she’s helping people to survive this economic mess, let her be.
Rhonda sorry that you are offended by the rather accurate statement that she is no more of a doctor than Dr. Phil is. Maybe this will make you feel better — Suze Orman is the Jerry Springer of the financial world! 🙂
Nothing against women – if you are inclined to listen to only a woman for your financial advice, try following Carmen Ulrich instead.
Rhonda,
I don’t have a problem with intelligent women – my wife is one. She has a masters degree from Columbia. I have a problem with people who position themselves as “experts” in a given field when they clearly are not. It seems I’ve wasted ten years of my life getting my PsyD, when the single most important credential any person can have in their respective field is an appearance on Oprah’s talk show. S.Orman is just regurgitating common sense financial advice that can easily be found for free online and charging $20 for it. I wonder about the people who need to buy a book that basically just tells them to stop spending money. It seems contradictory to me.
@Rhonda
I’ll try to remember to post back here! My last deposit cleared a few days ago so I’m not quite sure how long it’ll take for the bonus money to come through. I vaguely remember the site saying up to 4 weeks though I’ve heard of people getting their money quicker. But hopefully the sooner the better.
I signed up for this deal and am somewhat confused. Do I have to manually transfer the money each month myself or,since I have signed up, will Ameritrade automatically take it our of my account. If anyone here could elighten me I would greatly appreciate it. Ameritrade does have my account details and will dudct the first 100 but I am not sure whether or not they will automatically take the next installment. Thanks in anticipation – greatly appreciate this site.
You have to set up the deposit to be automatically withdrawn each month on a certain date. This deal only works if you do automatic deposits. If you do it mannualy, it won’t be recognized as part of the deal.
I participated last year. After my 12th automatic deposit, I was sent an email informing me that the $100 was deposited into my account. It does work.
Thanks Rhonda — I eventually received an email requesting me to set up auto-pilot payments. I am now in the process of doing this. Initially I did not anticipate a second que for the auto set up and thought it should have done in the first application. However, thanks for your input — greatly appreciated.
i’m just making my 12th payment this month also. I am slightly confused about the initial deposit. It seems like I Should have 12 months of deposits when I hit $600, but I’m not sure if they’re counting the initial deposit, so I’m doing another month just to be sure. Sure will be nice to have a goodly lump sum.
I got a message saying my $100 was deposited. I logged into TD Ameritrade site and sure enough the $100 were there. I wish there are more such offers around.
@ Rhonda (and anyone else who cares)
Since my last comment, I finally got my $100 deposited on February 24th. So it did end up taking about a month or so but the good thing is that it’s in. Now I have exactly $705 sitting pretty. (I can’t believe 12 months and I got a measly $5 of interest outside of the bonus.) Anyhow, I’m closing the account and shipping my money out elsewhere.
Good luck to anyone else still waiting. 🙂
Mark – I love it! You are right she is charging folks to tell them them common financial principles to saving and getting out of debt. This information is free and if she is so concerned with helping people get out of debt, her advice should be as well. She is not an expert, just speaking common sense with a bit of sass and not to mention getting paid!
Yes it works! Her information has encouraged me to save even more… in addition to learning more at TD Ameritrade and other financial institutes. Don’t listen to the haters…if they had information worthy of people paying for it, they would do it too! Basically you’re always paying (degree or no degree) because somebody did your homework…you paid $20, but you made $80, Duh! And you will probably save more than you ever have if you stick with a plan, be it Suze or anyone elses free or paid for info. Get Smart Guys You Pay Everyday! Just make more & save more than you pay out!
Oh Yeah…not only did you make $80….you also got you $20 back…so you really got your info for free..Suze Haters! Easy
$100 bucks at the end of 12mos.
I like Suze. She may be getting a good deal out of this herself but she has helped me to keep a little emergency fund. Believe me it is not easy but nice to see it at end for what you need coming right up the road. I would like to do another. I have been successful with two promotions but none as of now available.