Brokerage accounts
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- Last Updated: Tuesday, 28 January 2025 01:54
- Published: Friday, 12 November 2021 22:47
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Buying and selling stocks in USA is relatively simple. You need to open a brokerage account with any of the brokerage firms, and you are good to go.You can't trade stocks with a bank account. Usually large banks have a brokerage arm too, and they will allow you to link everything from same banking site, so that it's easier for the customer.
Brokerage firms:
Good news. Almost all big brokerage firms in USA do not charge any fees for buying or selling stocks/etf/mutual fund etc. They also do not change any annual fee or inactivity fee. On top of that, brokerage firms may give you bonus on opening an account. However, in my experience, smaller fintech firm (financial firms with a dot com mania in it) usually pay a lot of bonus since they have VC's money, and they are looking to cash out big by going public.You should expect to get atleast $500 for opening any new brokerage account. My target is to get $500+ bonus for $50K-$100K, $1000+ bonus for $250K. Once you get to $1M+, they start offering you bonus of $3K or more, but those limits are harder to meet for 99% of the people. I'll post the best deals below.
Interest rate: Brokerage firms offer you some interest on your cash in the account, but it's close to 0% as of 2021. So, no point leaving cash in there, except to get these bonuses. So, when you are moving cash to get a bonus, close that account fast after getting the bonus, as the bonus works out to < 1% interest rate.
NOTE: Most of the brokerage don't charge you anything for moving money (cash) in and out of your account. However, most brokerage firms charge you money for moving securities to another brokerage firm. so, you will have to be careful of such firms, especially if you plan to eventually close your account. This is called ACAT fees, and it's usually charged by the firm from which you are transferring out. Therr is partial transfer fee and full account transfer fee. This usually ranges from $25 to $100. The bonus you earn from transferring accounts may get wiped out by the transfer fees. It's all done electronically, and you don't have to sell any stocks. You can always sell stocks and then transfer the cash to avoid paying this fees. But then you will incur a tax bill (which is a big NO). If you read thru my other sections, you know that the best time to sell your stocks is "NEVER". If you buy stocks, you never sell it, unless the company goes bankrupt.
These are few Brokerage firms to consider. They offer bonuses for opening an account, but bonus varies through out the year. For transferring brokerage accounts or assets for one brokerage to other brokerage firm, never go for any bonus < $500, as it's decent amount of work involved, and trnasfer fees (i.e ACAT fees) may eat up some of this.
1. charles schwab: It's a big brokerage firm. Never had any issues. Trades are all commission free. However, they give you only $100 bonus for opening an account, which is lot lower than what you can get elsewhere. However, if you open an account through a referral, then you (NOT your referrer) can get up to $1000. This is the link:
https://www.schwab.com/referral
As of 2021, depositing $100K gets you $500, which is doable (since it can be in securities or cash). Depositing $500K+ gets you $1K, which is hard to do, also lot inferior to what others offer. You need to deposit the amount in cash or securities within 45 days. There is no reason to open an account without a referral code, since it's free money that you get. Referrer has no incentive in referring you, so most of the times it's family members referring each other. You will be asked to provide the Schwab client's referral code during the account open process. Use that code or you won't get the bonus money. If you are married, you can open your spouse account using yourself as a referrer.
If you can't find referral code, use this link for referral: https://www.schwab.com/client-referral?refrid=REFERQFF39K8B
Also, make sure to enter the promo code: REFERQFF39K8B when asked for the promo code. Take screenshots as proof. You will get the entire bonus (I get nothing, nor do I know any details about you). If for some reason, schwab denies your bonus using the above code, email me, and I can investigate that. Hope it works out for you.
UPDATE (Jan, 2023, Dec 2024): Schwab's $101 offer for new accounts opening with "Schwab starter kit" is still ongoing (see below in deals) and can be stacked with this referral offer. Open your account using the ""Schwab starter kit" link below and then add the Referral promo code when asked for it. It's still active as of Dec 2024.
UPDATE (Jan, 2022): T.D. Ameritrade, another brokerage firm, has been bought by Charles Schwab, so any bonus offers that are there with Ameritrade will go away pretty soon. so, take advantage of those offers.
2. Merrill Lynch from bank of America: Their brokerage service is as good as their banking service (inferior than Chase). Trades are all commission free. I haven't tried them yet, so not sure how good the service is, but they do offer up to $1000 for opening the account. Their offer varies through out the year. Their usual offer is $600 for depositing $250K+ (used to be $200K+ as of Apr 2021, but increased as of June 2021), so don't fall for that. You need to deposit $250K or more to get that $1000 bonus, when the $1000 bonus comes along. If you transfer brokerage account from other firm to Merrill, they will reimburse you for ACAT fees that the other firm charges you (just chat or call Merrill cust service)
https://www.hustlermoneyblog.com/merrill-edge-promotions/
- 05/20/2024: Merill has $1K bonus on transferring $250K or more of assets. Not as lucrative as 1% offer from Robinhood and Webull, but the holding period is shorter (3-6 months).
3. J.P. Morgan Chase Wealth Management: Chase bank has a brokerage arm too. You can expect top notch customer service as with other chase products. They have bunch of options, but Chase Self Directing investing accounts seem the one to go for. Trades are all commission free. Their usual offer is $625 bonus for $250K+ in new money (securities or cash).
https://account.chase.com/consumer/investing/KC37942
However from time to time, they offer higher bonus. Last one was at $725 for transferring $250K+ that expired Nov, 2020,
4. Etrade: etrade is one of the biggest players in brokerage business. They also have decent offers to lure you into bringing your money to them.
UPDATE 2023: As of 2023, etrade has terminated all promo offers/bonus for bringing in new clients. Time to take your assets out of etrade and park it somewhere else.
5. Fidelity: Fidelity is the biggest name in brokerage and is best known for retirement brokerage accounts. It is a fine brokerage firm, similar to other firm, but may charge you fees, etc for maintaining an account, so always watch out for that. It has few offers from time to time, but pretty weak offers (i.e $500 Apple GC for $150K+ or similar offers), so best to look at other brokerages.
There was a recent offer for $100 in bonus to both existing and new customers:
6. Vanguard: Vanguard has long been known for its wide range of in-house index funds and ETFs, which have very low expense ratio. All other brokerage firms offer Vanguard's ETF and Mutual funds to buy/sell, so having an account an Vanguard is not essential. It does offers wide brokerage services to buy/sell stocks, options, bonds, etc. However, I don't know of any bonuses they provide, so best to avoid them.
7. Misc: Other brokerage forms as Robinhood, Webull, M1 Finance and thousand of other small brokerage firms (known as Fintech firms) pay out $100 or more. Anything < $500 is not worth the time and effort involved in opening a brokerage account. I go for these accounts when I get $1K or more. These fintech have lots of VC money to urn before they go public, so sometimes you find insane offers. Wait for such offers to move your assets in them.
- WeBull => Big name in Fintech. Lots of offers as of 2023. Also get free stocks around $50 or so. Referral bonus is also ongoing, where both referrer and referee get these $50 worth of free stocks. Many special referral offers going on at all times. You need to be in the app to see the referral offer. Many times, you can get $100+ worth of stocks by referring someone.
- Robinhood => Since going public in 2021, Robinhood had a lot of on and off offers. They offer unlimited 1% bonus on brokerage account transfers from other firms. See below for offers.
- M1 Finance => Big name in Fintech. Lots of offers as of 2023.
- TradeStation => Many offers year round.
- 10/25/2023 => $500 for $100K+ transfer. $3.5K for $1M+. Wait for better offer. Link => https://www.tradestation.com/promo/cash-reward-tv/
- TastyTrade (previously known as TastyWorks) => Many offers. However, their language for new customers specifically mention "Tax Id is used to determine new customer". So, unlikely you can churn this.
SIPC Protection at Brokerage firms:
SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation) was formed in 1970. It's a government entity just like FDIC. It's purpose is to protect assets of people's in a brokerage account (whereas FDIC protects assets in event of bank failure). SIPC limits are $500K in securities protection (of which only $250K in cash is covered) per account. This means that if your brokerage firm goes insolvent, and it had used your money or securities in some way, SIPC will make you whole upto the limit. As you can see that the limit is very low at only $500K. Most of the top 1% have assets exceeding $10M, and it might be risky to put all of that in one brokerage firm. To safeguard against that, big brokerage firms take extra insurance which protects for assets up to $100M or so. It's rare for a big firm to offer only upto $500K of protection. However inquire with your brokerage firm. TD Ameritrade, Schwab, Etrade, etc all have proivate insurance of > $100M per account. Also, it's rare for a brokerage firm to lose your money, as they are not allowed to touch your account for any purpose. Your securities and cash is only under your control. Mostly in an event of fraud is where you may lose cash/securities in your brokerage firm. Banks carry real risk of losing your money as they lend that money to other people who may not pay back.
You can read more here: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/buying-stocks/articles/brokerage-account-insurance-is-your-account-safe/
Accounts at brokerage firms:
The account that you open at a brokerage firm is called a brokerage account or security account. It can be individual brokerage account, 401K account, IRA brokerage account, etc. 401K account can't be opened by you at a brokerage firm, they are usually opened by your employer at their choice of brokerage firm. However you can open a IRA brokerage account at any brokerage of your choice, if you meet income thresholds.
Margin account:
Margin accounts allow you to borrow money to leverage. All Brokerage allow you to have a margin account. Your personal brokerage account can be converted to a margin account and vice versa at any time by signing a piece of paper. Once you have a margin account, you could borrow an amount of money slightly less than the amount of equity (stocks + cash) you have in your account. Some firms allow you 100% leverage, while others may allow only 50% leverage or so on. They charge you nominal interest rate on this leveraged money loaned to you to buy stocks (some such as "M1 Finance" charge as low as 2% as of Dec, 2021). These brokerage firms make money on interest without taking any risk. All risk is yours. They have stop gaps in place, where if the value of your holdings fall below a certain percentage, they will issue you a margin call, implying either you put in more cash in the account or sell your shares. So, a margin account is very risky, as you may be forced to less stocks even though you may not want to. So, why would anyone want to have a margin account, when you already have leveraged ETF (look in stock investment section) to achieve the same result, without worrying about margin calls.
Margin calls come at the worst time when stock markets fall 20% or more. At those times, you are already lean on cash, and depending on how much your stocks have fallen, you may be asked to put large amount of cash in your margin account. This may make things very difficult, and the brokerage firm may liquidate your holdings at the bottom of the market. Playing with margin is playing with fire. Yet government with it's stock market ponzi scheme of insane positive returns lures millions of people into margin game. When S&P500 has fallen by more than 40%, that may be the only time to even think about margin.
Personal Loans:
One of the biggest perks of having a brokerage account and "investing in stocks" is the personal loan feature. You can take out a personal loan for any reason from your brokerage firms. The only restriction to that money is that you can't use it to buy stocks (as margin account is already there which allows you to leverage).
The max amount of this personal loan is usually somewhere between 30% to 50% of your portfolio with that brokerage firm. The best part is that this loan doesn't get reported anywhere, not even to credit bureau agencies. It's just you and your brokerage firm that knows about it. So, you can use this money to buy a house, buy a car or make down payment on your new house (although bank lenders will look at your bank statement, and as soon as they see this large cash in your account coming from brokerage firm, they may not accept it as form of down payment). In such cases where you know you are going to be buying a home 6 months down the line, get a loan from brokerage firm at least 6 months in advance and keep it for 6 months. Mortgage lenders usually check only last 3 month's statement docs, so this may not be noticed by them. This personal loan can be a life saver in many circumstances where either you are not able to get a loan, or you are getting a loan, but at very high interest rates. The interest rate on these loans thru brokerage firms is also among the lowest (it matches or beats to what you get on a 30 year mortgage). So, it's the cheapest loan out there.
The loan is basically a line of credit, and you can withdraw money from that credit line for whatever term you want. you don't have to lock in any period. You just get charged the interest monthly?? for however long you have money withdrawn from that credit line. Line of cedit is established within a couple of days, and depending on the value of securties in your account, the credit line will keep getting adjusted??
I'll put specific links below as to how this process works at different brokerage firms:
1. Charles schwab: It's called Pledged asset line.
2. etrade:
3. Misc:
Transferring money:
When transferring money to brokerage firms from your bank a/c, there's a loophole that allows you to earn interest on the same money at both your bank and your brokerage firm, while your money is in transit. Let's say you want $10K to be transferred from your bank to brokerage firm. You initiate an ACH at your brokerage firms to pull funds from your external bank into brokerage firm. The money is available immediately at your brokerage firm, which you can use to buy SGOV ETF which pays you interest on a daily basis (the price of SGOV goes up every day, which is the equivalent of interest). You initiate the transaction on a friday, so that even if the funds land on Monday, you are guaranteed 3 days of interest on $10K at both places. At 5% interst on $10K transfe, that amounts to $5 in double interest over a 3 day weekend. So, free $5, not too bad !! More details here:
Transferring Brokerage Funds/accounts:
When transferring funds from one brokerage a/c to another, there's usually ACAT fees that outgong firms charge. You can request the incoming firm to reimburse you for that money, once you show the statement with the ACAT fees. Most of the incoming firms will reimburse you. But sometimes they will refuse. One trick that works for a lot of outgoing brokerages is that they don't charge for partial transfers, only for full transfers (i.e when you are closing the account). People usually leave $1-$100 in cash or so to avoid this fees. If you really want to close then just transfer this cash to your bank a/c via ACH, and then close the a/c. Then you won't get charged by the outgoing firm, as there's no ACAT happening at time of closing.
Below are various brokerage frms which do free partial/full xfer.
- Schwab => Free for partial xfer
- Merill Edge (by BofA) => Free for partial xfer. Min needed in a/c is $1 for taxable a/c and $50 for IRA a/c.
- Fidelity => Free for both full and partial
Brokerage Deals (from 2025 onwards):
These are all the brokerage account deals. I used to have these deals in separate section before 2025, but will now have it in this section. For deals before 2025, see in section "Deals until 2024" later below. These deals seem to come and go, or the bonus amounts keeps changing. So, keep checking as I may not have updated the details.
- 01/26/2025: Offered by FirstTrade. IT offers 2% boost (i.e match) for IRA a/c transfer with max bonus of $20K (implying max assets of $1M to get the max bonus). Holding period is 5 years. No match for regular brokerage. This is inferior to 3.5% match offered by Robinhood and Webull, but 2% seems to be new industry standard. It's an OK offer if you don't have any other bonuses going on for your IRA a/c.
- 01/03/2025: Offered by citi Wealth Management. Offer as been continuing and has now been extended to 03/31/2025. Multiple bonus tiers with highest bonus of $5K for $2M+ in cash/securities. Knowing Citi, it's not 100% guaranteed :(
- 01/01/2025: Offered by M1 Finance. 0.5% bonus with max bonus capped to $25K (for $5M+). You need to hold funds until 01/31/2026 (at least 1 year hold). Not too shabby as 1% and 2% bonuses from other firms required 2+ yr hold time. Retirement a/c (IRA, 401K, etc) are not eligible. Expires 01/31/2025.
Deals until 2024:
2024:
10/10/2024: Robinhood (RH) Brokerage Offer of 1% (or 2%) bonus on total assets transferred (3% bonus on IRA transfers) - Valid from 10/16/24 to 10/27/24
This is the same offer as from 2023 and 2024 that kept getting extended. It comes and goes. 3% IRA transfer offer is back. For regular Brokerage you can get additional 1% (for a total of 2%) by having a settled margin balance that is $10,000 or more). Basically they want you to open a margin account. Not a big deal, as you can close the margin account later. It's worth getting that extra 1%.
Link => https://www.doctorofcredit.com/robinhood-hood-week-10-16-10-27-2-brokerage-bonus-3-ira-match/
UPDATE Jan, 2025: IRA transfers are back to 2% bonus (instead of 3%). Link => https://www.doctorofcredit.com/robinhood-gold-3-ira-transfer-bonus-unlimited-cash-bonus/
Look in earlier post for more details.
09/28/2024: TradeUp Brokerage Bonus Offer => $2K bonus for $100K+ in brokerage account transfer => expires 31st Dec, 2024 31st Mar, 2025
$2K on transferring $100K+ (~1.2%/yr return). You need to have funds parked for a year and half. Best to have SGOV or some similar ETF transferred, so that you can liquidate at time of closing (to avoid $50 ACAT out fees)
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/tradeup-brokerage-1000-2000-bonus-with-50k-100k-transfer/
FREE STOCKS: If you transfer in $50k you’ll also get around $40/$80 in free stock. If you transfer in $100k you’ll get around $50/$100 in free stocks.
08/01/2024: Sofi Brokerage Bonus Offer => 1% bonus for conversion and transfer from 401K rollover account to IRA account => expires 15th Sept, 2024
Link => https://www.doctorofcredit.com/sofi-401k-1-rollover-match/
This is a trap offer, as Sofi wants to convert your Rollover 401K account to IRA a/c. There are a lot of tax implications, and it's not in your interest to do the conversion. If you were already planning to do this, then this offer is for you.
07/18/2024: WeBull Brokerage Bonus Offer => up to 3.5% match for IRA transfer and 2% for regular Brokerage account transfer (ymmv extra 3% APY on cash)=> various expiry dates
UPDATE 10/10/2024 => All 3 offers still active. They come and go, so check often if you have missed it.
This is THE highest offer for an IRA transfer. It's better than the previous one, as this time, they specifically say that the bonus will be deposited in the IRA account, so no taxes. Looks like bonus i capped at $100K, so no more than $5M transfer please !! Terms same as last time. Various promo ongoing.
NOTE: With webull, you have to claim the rewards in Webull app, whenever you get the reward. You have 30 days to claim it in the app, or the reward is forfeited. Also, you have to call/email them about the reward, else they may claim that they already gave the rewrd, but you never claimed it. So, keep reminders on your calendar, and be on top of it, when it's reward payment time.
- IRA transfer: 3.5% paid over 5 years. Most links online still refer to old promo. New promo distributes bonus money in IRA brokerage account. They advertise in emails sent that there's NO tax to pay. Runs from July 17 - Aug 15.
- Link => https://www.webull.com/offers-promotions/ira-transfer-promo
- TERM: An Eligible Customer who satisfies the Offer Requirements is eligible to receive a “Deposit Bonus” consisting of a payment to their IRA Account of an amount equal to 3.5% of the Eligible Customer’s Net Qualifying Deposit Amount as of the First Deposit Bonus Payment Date.
- Regular transfer (2%, used to be 3% in March/April of 2024. This is the best we have now, unless the promo of 3% returns. This Promo runs from July 5 thru July 31.
- Boosted Cash APY of 5% + 3% (extra) for 180 days => Targeted 8% APY (extra 3% APY on cash) to selected accounts Looks to be NOT a public offer. Transfer by Aug 9th. Extra interest starts from Aug 9. NOTE: they may reduce their base rate from 5% to some lower number, but extra 3% should still keep it higher than everyone else.
07/03/2024: Charles Schwab Brokerage Bonus Offer of upto $6K for new/existing accounts => expiry unknown
This offer for bonus has been around for a year, but they have higher tiers now. $1M of new assets gets you $2500, while $5M+ gets you $6K. Not sure if you become ineligible for new offers within some time frame, if you bite on this bonus.
05/31/2024: Etrade Brokerage Bonus Offer => $5K bonus for regular brokerage account transfer => expires 31st July, 2024 31st Jan, 2025
Link => https://www.doctorofcredit.com/etrade-up-to-3500-brokerage-referral-bonus-25000-1000000-required/
$5K on transferring $1.5M+ (~0.33%/yr return). Other smaller tiers too. $600 bonus on $100K (~0.6%/yr) is next best tier. You need to have funds parked for a year.
UPDATE 10/02/2024: Now $2M gets $6K in bonus. Higher offers for Morgan Stanley clients (with $12.5K for $10M+). See link in the Doc Post
05/25/2024: WeBull Brokerage Bonus Offer => 1.25% bonus for regular brokerage account transfer => expires 30th June, 2024
Link => https://www.webull.com/offers-promotions/transfer-promo
This is THE highest offer for a regular brokerage transfer, better than 1% from Robinhood. However they are provided in 2 installments, 50% at 1 yr anniversary, and other 50% at 2nd year anniversary. So, riskier comapred to Robinhood, where you are paid 100% of bonus upfront within a couple of days. Account needs to be open for at least 2 years.
02/27/2024: WeBull Brokerage Bonus Offer => up to 4.5% match for IRA transfer => expires 30th Apr, 2024
This is THE highest offer for an IRA transfer. However, you must have received a push notification from webull in order for you to be eligible for the offer, else you won't qualify for the bonus. You get 3.5% for all IRA transfers and contributions. You have to hold the transferred assets at Webull for 5 years. You get paid 1/5th at the end of every year. Robinhood is giving only 3% IRA match, but they pay you upfront, so you can invest it right away and make extra 25% return in the next 5 years, netting you 3.75%. So, RH looks better. However, Webull also gives an extra 1% match when you complete a referral or receive a referral. Now this part is NOT clear =>
- If you are referred by someone, do they need to have an IRA account too? Also, who gets paid = is it the referred person, or is the person who referred you? Looks like both get paid on their transfers.
- If you refer someone to open an IRA account, then do you get paid on what they transferred in their IRA a/c, or do you get 1% match on your own transferred assets? => Looks like both get paid
- In both cases, a unique referral link is needed from an existing Webull Brokerage account holder. May need to be an IRA a/c holder, not sure?
- In both cases, when does this extra 1% get paid?
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/webull-up-to-3-5-ira-match-4-5-with-referral/
2023:
11/21/2023: WeBull Brokerage Bonus Offer of up to $18K for IRA transfer => expires 19th Dec, 2023
This was THE highest offer for an IRA transfer, until Robinhood and then Webull came with matches of > 3% for IRA Transfers. It offers 3X the regular bonus during the promotion period, however you need a referral code from an existing Webull IRA account holder. You need to hold the funds for a year. With $1M transfer, you get $18K in bonus, while with $500K+, it is $9K in bonus. It amounts to 1.8% extra return, which is unheard of. Anything < $500K in transfer is not worth it, as it pays max of $1.8K, which you can get elsewhere. Most difficult part is finding someone with referral code.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/webull-up-to-18000-ira-bonus/
11/01/2023: Fidelity Starter Pack + Fidelity Bloom Offer of $230 - expires Dec 11, 2023
2 offers with Fidelity $100 each:
- Open Starter Pack and get $100 if you deposit $50 or more:
- Open Fidelity Bloom Save and Spend Account. It holds your uninvested cash paying you 5% APY on it. It's an app, so you need to download it. Open this once you have opened the above starter pack. You get $100 bonus for depositing $50 or more in this. You also get 10% match annually on up to $300 in deposit (easy $30).
- Direct Fidelity Link: https://www.fidelity.com/mobile/bloom
- On bottom of page, under "Cash rewards", it says "Get a 10% annual savings match from Fidelity® on up to $300 of deposits to your Save account."
Easy $230. It's a below avg offer, since we look for at least $500 for any such account. However, this doesn't have any DD req or any other hoops to jump thru, so easy money.
10/28/2023: Robinhood (RH) Brokerage Offer of 1% bonus on total assets transferred (3% bonus on IRA transfers) - expires Dec 8, 2023 expires Apr 30, 2024 (1% bonus offer extended to June 28, 2024)
This is the best offer seen so far from any brokerage. In addition, sign up for new account at RH using Rakuten cashback website (see in cashback section on how to get cashback) to get $50 extra. They have an outgoing ACATS fee of $100 (which you can most likely get reimbursed by the brokerage you transfer RH account to).
There are 2 offers, and are valid for both new and existing members:
- IRA (non taxable accounts) brokerage transfer offer: This is an earlier offer, which has been extended. Here you get 1% bonus (Now 3% bonus as of Jan 2024) on total assets transferred (no cap). However, assets need to remain at RH for 5 years. So, this is basically 0.2% per year, which you can get elsewhere depending on the amount of assets transferred. This is not that lucrative. There is no expiry date mentioned.
- Link => https://www.doctorofcredit.com/robinhood-launches-robinhood-retirement-ira-with-1-match/
- UPDATE 2024: Now the offer is for 3% IRA match instead of 1%. This is insane offer, as $1M transferred will net $30K in retirement account. This will be non taxable as it goes to retirement account as contribution. You need a gold subscription though, which will cost $7*12=$84 for 1st year, and cancelled after that.
- There is a separate 3% contribution match for IRA accounts (for Robinhood Gold members). This is if you contribute money to your IRA account while at Robinhood, they will match your contributions as = 3% for Gold members and 1% for everyone else. Since, you pay $84 for yearly subscription, and you are limited to $7K in contribution into your IRA account (for year 2024), you can make free $210-$84=$126 for Gold members and free $70 for everyone else.
- Non IRA (taxable accounts) brokerage transfer offer: Transfer your brokerage account to RH, from October 23 through December 8, 2023, and get 1% on total assets transferred. There is no max cap on bonus. Assets need to remain at RH for 2 years from date of transfer. So, this works out to 0.5% per year, which is one of the highest payout bonuses.
This is one of the highest bonus for transferring non IRA accounts to RH, especially if you have > $1M+ in assets.
UPDATE 09/10/2024: The offer keeps on getting extended. It has been extended several times, and is still valid in 2024. It has ben extended to Oct 01, 2024.
UPDATE 05/15/2024: 1% bonus offer for regular brokerage account transfer extended to June 28, 2024. 3% bonus on IRA transfers is dead. More info on their help center – https://robinhood.com/us/en/support/articles/account-transfer-bonus-faq-may-2024/
10/20/2023: TastyTrade (previously known as TastyWorks) Brokerage Bonus Offer of $2K for $100K+ - expires Mar 31, 2024. Ongoing as of July, 2024
This is only for new customers who transfer their assets via ACAT. One of the best offers for $2K bonus on $100K+ transfer from other brokerage (about 2% return). For $5M+, bonus is $25K which is unheard of for such a large amount (0.5% return). Need to leave it there for at least 12 months. In order to be eligible for this Promotion, the Referral Code of “MYNEWBONUS” is required to be entered in the REFERRAL CODE FIELD when applying for an eligible account. This account does not look to be churnable as TAX ID is used to determine new customer). However, not sure if people who had previous account with tastyworks (NOT tasttrade) will qualify or not. Need to clarify => possibly not.
UPDATE (July, 2024): Max bonus at $5K for transferring $1M+. Link => https://www.doctorofcredit.com/tastyworks-brokerage-bonus-fund-with-2000-earn-200-bonus/
UPDATE (Nov, 2023): Looks like the highest tier of $5M+ is gone, so max bonus is $5K. If you have > $300K+ to transfer, then Robinhood offer listed above is a better offer as that gives you 1% bonus with no cap.
10/15/2023: WeBull Brokerage Bonus Offer of $2400 - $8000 for depositing $100K+ in securities and/or cash => expires 30th Oct, 2023
This is one of the most generous offers. The best offer you can get anywhere is 1% on your assets (i.e Public Brokerage offer from 2022 offered $10K on $1M). This gets pretty close to that. It would be unwise not to take advantage of this.
There are 3 separate offers, and you combine all of them to get the best value:
- Free Stock offer: Open a WeBull Brokerage account and get 6-12 free fractional shares. No code needed. Deposit any amount in the brokerage account via ACH, ACAT, etc. Most likely you will get 6 shares of about $5 each (fractional share,) of mediocore companies. Sell them and pocket around $30-$50. This offer expires on 31st Oct, 2023.
- Link (current as of Oct, 2023): https://www.webull.com/activity
- Link (old from 2022, but has lots of useful comments): https://www.doctorofcredit.com/webull-fee-free-brokerage-sign-up-get-5-free-stocks-10-for-referrals/
- Brokerage account transfer offer: Once opened, you can get Securities or cash transferred from your other brokerage account. Depending on the value transferred, you can get bonus from $100-$5K Useful ones are $1200 bonus for transferring $100K, or $3K for transferring $500K. This offer expires on 30th Oct, 2023.
- Link: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/new-webull-brokerage-customers-can-get-bonus-of-up-to-5000/
- Total amount of securities/cash is determined based on total amount of deposits MINUS total amount of wthdrawals as of Jan 29th, 2024.
- VERY IMP: Offer rewards + ACAT transfer fee reimbursement will be posted in rewards section of webull app on Jan 30, 2024, and have to be manually claimed on that date, or they will expire. NOT sure as this seems such an insane requirement.
- VERY IMP: Do NOT open a margin account, as lots of people have run into issues where they don't qualify for the CM bonus (see below) anymore. Just open a regular "cash account".
- Enrollment in Cash Management (CM) feature: On top of opening the account, and transferring stocks/cash, you can enroll in CM feature of the brokerage account. This is where your uninvested cash sits. They pay you 5% on this. Depending on cash that you have in this, you can get bonus of $100-$3K. Useful one is $100K of cash which gets you $1200 in bonus. This offer expires on 30th Oct, 2023.
- Link: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/webull-cash-management-account-5-apy-cash-bonus-of-up-to-3000/
- Total amount of cash for bonus purposes is determined based on total cash deposited by Oct 30, 2023 MINUS total amount of cash withdrawn by May 7, 2024. Looks like once the cash is in, you can just invest in stocks or buy an ETF (like SGOV which pays you 5.5% interest). As long as you don't withdraw the cash out of your account, you should be good to get this bonus.
- Margin accounts don't have CM feature, so they don't qualify for CM bonus. So, just open a regular "cash account" in step 2 above.
- This reward will be paid automatically on May 8th, 2024. Nothing to manually do for this one.
All in all, if you transfer $100K of cash into the brokerage account(via ACATS), you will get $1200+$1200 = $2400 in bonus. Some readers have suggested that same cash can be used for satisfying both offers: #2 and #3. This has been confirmed via chat by multiple readers. I also confirmed via email. This is the response from Webull: "In addition, the transfer of $100k via ACAT will qualify you for both bonuses of $100k, you will be able to use the funds to trade. Venessa, WeBull Rep".
Best offer is to deposit $100K in cash via ACATS and then buy SGOV ETF with it. You will get $2400 as bonus (2,4% extra return). Other best offer is to transfer 500K in cash via ACATS, which will net you $3K+$5K=$8K in bonus (1.6% extra return).
10/01/2023: M1 Finance Brokerage Bonus Offer of $250-$15000 for transferring stocks - expires Nov 15, 2023
https://m1.com/transfer/promo-15k-aug23/
This offer is same as what was offered in Dec 2022, but now it's open for both new and existing customers. Any new funds that they transfer will get a bonus depending on the amount. We look for 1% bonus, but here the max is 0.4% across any tier, The only tier that looks doable is $250K which gives $1K in bonus (only 0.4% bonus). Also, for incoming transfers not sure if they reimburse the ACAT charged by the other firm. If they don't, then this offer may not be worth doing. They do charge $100 or so for transferring securities out, in case you want to close your M1 account in future. So, be aware of that future loss.
01/05/2023: Public Brokerage Bonus Offer of $600 for depositing $100K+ => continuation from 2022 => still active as of Oct, 2023 => again active as of Dec 18, 2024
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/public-brokerage-up-to-10000-bonus/
This is a much reduced offer from last year where they offered $2K for depositing $100K. Highest tier was $10K for $1M, now it's $10K for $5M. This offer is available to both new and existing customers. I was hesitant last year. Comments say everyone got the bonus paid. The service is bad, so current offer is not worth the trouble. Wait for a better offer in future.
There is also a swagbucks offer for $16, so get some SB while you sign up.
UPDATE 12/18/2024 => IRA added too for bonus. IRA do have 24 month requirement.
01/02/2023: TD Ameritrade Brokerage Bonus Offer of $500 for depositing $100K+ => continuation from 2022
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/td-ameritrade-up-to-1000-brokerage-bonus-nc1000/
https://www.tdameritrade.com/client/referral/index.html
This offer is continuation of the offer from 2022. The lower tier offers are better, but higher tier offers are worse. Best offer is $300 for $50K. Best to go for higher offer of $500 for $100K, resulting in 0.5% APR, which is an OK offer. However, since TD Ameritrade is going to get bought by Schwab and integrated into Schwab sometime in 2023, this might be the last chance to dip into both schwab and Ameritrade bonus offers. It says CODE is NC1000, it's automatically entered for you if following the referral link above (else you have to enter it manually, or you may not get the bonus)
2022:
12/30/2022: M1 Finance Brokerage Bonus Offer of $250-$10000 for transferring stocks - expires Feb 28, 2023
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/m1-brokerage-bonus-up-to-10000/
This offer is same as what was offered in Jan 2022, but now the bonus amount is lower for transferring $50K. However, if you can transfer $250K, then you get $1K in bonus (About 0.4% return in a year). They do charge $100 or so for transferring securities out, in case you want to close your M1 account in future. So, be aware of that future loss.
03/16/2022: Charles Schwab Brokerage Bonus Offer of $101 for new accounts after depositing $50+ => expiry unknown. Still active as of 12/23/2024
Link: https://www.schwab.com/investing-starter-kit
This is free $101 on top of referral of $500 that you can get. This is for new accounts only. This is the time to open an account at schwab, if you haven't opened it yet.
UPDATE 12/23/2024 => This is still active. Link => https://www.doctorofcredit.com/charles-schwab-101-brokerage-bonus-easy-requirements/
01/25/2022: TD Ameritrade Brokerage Bonus Offer of $500 for depositing $100K+ => expires Mar 31, 2022. Extended to May 31, 2022. Still valid as of June 10, 2022
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/td-ameritrade-up-to-1000-brokerage-bonus-nc1000/
https://www.tdameritrade.com/client/referral/index.html
Best offer is $500 for $100K, resulting in 0.5% APR, which is an OK offer. However, since T.D. Ameritrade is going to get bought by Schwab, this is the last chance to dip into both schwab and Ameritrade bonus offers. It says CODE is NC1000, it's automatically entered for you if following the referral link above (else you have to enter it manually, or you may not get the bonus)
01/15/2022: Merrill Edge Brokerage improved Bonus Offer of $1000 for transferring $250K+ => expires Apr 22, 2022
https://www.merrilledge.com/offers/pr1000
This is improved offer. Std offer is $600. This is $1K in bonus, but you need to be a preferred rewards member or need to signup for one after opening a bank account with them (otherwise you get std $600 bonus).
01/12/2022: M1 Finance Brokerage Bonus Offer of $500-$5000 for transferring stocks - expires Feb 18, 2022
https://www.m1finance.com/earn-up-to-5000
On top of the bonus amount of $500 for opening the account (posted below from 2021 and still live), M1 finance is also offering a generous bnous of $500 for transferring $50K worth of stocks from other brokerage. $500 seems best as it's 1% of free money on your investment, They do charge $100 or so for transferring securities out, in case you want to close your M1 account in future. So, be aware of that future loss.
01/08/2022: etrade Brokerage Bonus Offer of upto $3500 for transferring $1M - expires Dec 31st, 2022
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/etrade-up-to-3500-brokerage-referral-bonus-25000-1000000-required/
This is the best offer for bonus at around 0.35% cashback on $1M transfer. If you don't have $1M in securities+cash, then $1K bonus for depositing $250K is also not too bad.
2021:
11/10/2021: M1 Finance Brokerage Bonus Offer of $500 - expires Dec 31st, 2021
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/m1-finance-500-brokerage-bonus/
You have to deposit $50K in cash (NOT securities) to get $500. If you end up buying securities with cash, you will have to pay $100 for transferring it to other brokerage firm.
11/01/2021: Tastyworks Brokerage Bonus Offer of $500 - expiry unknown
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/tastyworks-brokerage-bonus-transfer-10000-earn-500-bonus/
Need to deposit $10K and leave it there for at least 3 months. Not bad. In order to be eligible for this Promotion, the Referral Code of “GIVE_ME_FIVE_2021” is required to be entered in the REFERRAL CODE FIELD when applying for an eligible account.