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Bonuses usually depend on the transferred balances. The discount brokers will all do that. Merrill Edge officially offers up to $600, but exceptions for large accounts could be made.
The above site is updated monthly. However there are a lot of bonuses out there that aren’t mentioned above. For instance, Fidelity will pay you $2500 to transfer a million dollars and over 2 million you can negotiate for more. TD Ameritrade will match offers from competing firms. You have to keep your money at these firms for a year or some brokerages will take back part of the bonus if you leave earlier. Also many firms will pay you a bonus if you threaten to move your account elsewhere. I have thought about getting $2500 from Fidelity while at the same time keeping part of my money at TDAmeritrade and getting another $2500. It almost sounds unethical though.
Not looking good. My accumulated dividends from Scottrade have not been credited to my TD Ameritrade account. With Scottrade dividends were always in your account prior to open on the first trading day of the month. Either that is not the case with TD or there is a problem with moving the dividends from Scottrade. I don’t look forward to a day wasted on the phone with them.
The above site is updated monthly. However there are a lot of bonuses out there that aren’t mentioned above. For instance, Fidelity will pay you $2500 to transfer a million dollars and over 2 million you can negotiate for more.
Fidelity is particularly stingy with cash, and AFAIK hasn't made a cash offer in the past nine months. The last time I was in Fidelity (to get docs notarized for another brokerage), I got the usual suggestion about consolidating at Fidelity. What I didn't get was a response to my remark that I was waiting for the next cash promotion.
The above site is updated monthly. However there are a lot of bonuses out there that aren’t mentioned above. For instance, Fidelity will pay you $2500 to transfer a million dollars and over 2 million you can negotiate for more. TD Ameritrade will match offers from competing firms. You have to keep your money at these firms for a year or some brokerages will take back part of the bonus if you leave earlier. Also many firms will pay you a bonus if you threaten to move your account elsewhere. I have thought about getting $2500 from Fidelity while at the same time keeping part of my money at TDAmeritrade and getting another $2500. It almost sounds unethical though.
I wish I had $2 million and could strong arm brokerages for bonuses.
The above site is updated monthly. However there are a lot of bonuses out there that aren’t mentioned above. For instance, Fidelity will pay you $2500 to transfer a million dollars and over 2 million you can negotiate for more. TD Ameritrade will match offers from competing firms. You have to keep your money at these firms for a year or some brokerages will take back part of the bonus if you leave earlier. Also many firms will pay you a bonus if you threaten to move your account elsewhere. I have thought about getting $2500 from Fidelity while at the same time keeping part of my money at TDAmeritrade and getting another $2500. It almost sounds unethical though.
I wish I had $2 million and could strong arm brokerages for bonuses.
@All - "Broker Diversity" is term copyrighted by Yours Truly. I thought that was obvious. And YES, I am paranoid. I've been paranoid ever since I was a victim of identity theft and went through 2 years of hell. In my life before that my mother's money was stolen from her by all her friends and relatives. Luckily for her she was armed with an education and still single handed raised 3 kids.
So I'm indeed fearful of some "database record" at a financial institution including entries in all its co-related ledgers getting erased all at the same time. Paranoid? You don't know what Paranoid is. You need to talk to me.
@Roy - Yeah I have always wondered how when you transfer your IRA from ABC to XYZ, XYZ is allowed to add $50,$100, whatever to your IRA account. Basically XYZ is making a contribution to your IRA, and I'm not sure whether it is included in cost-basis, whether XYZ gets to write it off from taxes it owes government, etc. etc. But I know it's a thing somehow.
Hi @Roy The below is all at this time; although subject to change any day. Obviously, May 2018 is not far away, if Fidelity chooses to use the cash program again. I suppose they look at cash flows into funding accounts from rollovers and such; perhaps as well, are folks who fund ROTH's before the end period of 2017 contributions on tax day. The link below may be saved for periodic checking or type "Fidelity promotions" into your browser to discover what is found. A phone call is also a simple means to verify any current offers.
Free trades are the only current 2018 promotions for moving money to Fidelity that I find. However (last year), up to May, 1, 2017; actual cash was a promotion. I recall a similar promotion in August of 2017, but can't find this date to verify. Perhaps these same offers will appear again for 2018. https://www.creditdonkey.com/promotions/fidelity/
Here's a long (18p) active thread at boggleheads about broker bonuses. I've only skimmed a few pages, but some posts there are similar to my experiences, and there are other useful comments (if one can wade through everything). https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=196884
One question raised there: If you got a bonus for moving an account to Scottrade, and you're still within the period you agreed to keep the money there for the bonus, can you move the account now that it is at TDA? Or are you still bound for the whole period?
One of the Merrill Edge links w/$1K bonus found there (good through March); its default promotion is $600.
Most brokerages will treat a bonus in an IRA account as earnings (like interest, dividends, etc.) within the account, so it's not reported as income. A few years ago when I asked Fidelity about transferring an IRA (when they still gave cash bonuses), they refused, saying that they couldn't give the bonus for tax reasons. (A few brokerages report the bonus as contributions.) Fidelity seems to have changed its tune since then, but I'd double check first.
Finally, after a lot of digging, I found a link on another site to a Fidelity cash bonus promotion. Seems to be an active promotion. Downside - as Junkster described, it starts at $1M. And they have a schedule of payments up to $5M, so while they give more for $2.5M, it doesn't seem so negotiable. https://rewards.fidelity.com/offers/cashdepositbonus
Invest with us and we'll give you up to $5,000
Receive a cash bonus when you fund a new or existing IRA or brokerage account today.
How it works Deposit amount Cash bonus $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 $2,500 $2,500,000 to $4,999,999 $3,500 $5,000,000 or more $5,000
The transition was rocky primarily because of the dividends accumulated while at Scottrade. More specificically, on positions closed out in February while at Scottrade that had accumulated dividends, instead of the dividends going to our cash account, they appeared as new positions in the closed out funds. That necessitated selling those positions to get the dividends back in cash where they should have been in the first place.
Otherwise, I have been extremely pleased with with their private client services elite division. No waiting on the phone and always immediate connection to a representative. I am rethinking a move of my IRA to Fidelity, albeit my smaller taxable account is already there. I have heard conflicting reports on Fidelity’s enforcement or lack there of on the frequent trading of funds in their funds network i.e. non Fidelity funds.
The transition was rocky primarily because of the dividends accumulated while at Scottrade. More specificically, on positions closed out in February while at Scottrade that had accumulated dividends, instead of the dividends going to our cash account, they appeared as new positions in the closed out funds. That necessitated selling those positions to get the dividends back in cash where they should have been in the first place.
Otherwise, I have been extremely pleased with with their private client services elite division. No waiting on the phone and always immediate connection to a representative. I am rethinking a move of my IRA to Fidelity, albeit my smaller taxable account is already there. I have heard conflicting reports on Fidelity’s enforcement or lack there of on the frequent trading of funds in their funds network i.e. non Fidelity funds.
What's the minimum dollars with TD and cost to be have access to the Private Client Services Elite Division?
The etransition was rocky primarily because of the dividends accumulated while at Scottrade. More specificically, on positions closed out in February while at Scottrade that had accumulated dividends, instead of the dividends going to our cash account, they appeared as new positions in the closed out funds. That necessitated selling those positions to get the dividends back in cash where they should have been in the first place.
Otherwise, I have been extremely pleased with with their private client services elite division. No waiting on the phone and always immediate connection to a representative. I am rethinking a move of my IRA to Fidelity, albeit my smaller taxable account is already there. I have heard conflicting reports on Fidelity’s enforcement or lack there of on the frequent trading of funds in their funds network i.e. non Fidelity funds.
What's the minimum dollars with TD and cost to be have access to the Private Client Services Elite Division?</
I thought it was $2,000,000 but in contacting them specifically regarding your question found out it is $1,000,000. Apparently it is simply now referred to as Private Client Services and the Elite monicker is from the past. Your calls are handled by more experienced reps in national call centers ( the main one being in Omaha) and you bypass your local office. Again, very pleasantly surprised by their level of customer service. Of course Fidelity is noted above all others for superb customer service. I’ve had good experience with them albeit they seem so big and you deal with so many different reps.
I think I get that if I make a sell/trade to get money in my account, then I try to make a buy using that money. It's not smart enough to look at your balance before making the trade, seeing you do have enough money.
My wife and I have 5 different accounts that are linked at TDA and I can easily go from one account to the next and buy & sell without signing in to each account. I access each account easily from the account tab at the top of the page.
Maybe the type of accounts held and linked make a difference? Ours are IRA's (Traditional & Roth), SEP-IRA and a joint account.
The transition was rocky primarily because of the dividends accumulated while at Scottrade. More specificically, on positions closed out in February while at Scottrade that had accumulated dividends, instead of the dividends going to our cash account, they appeared as new positions in the closed out funds. That necessitated selling those positions to get the dividends back in cash where they should have been in the first place.
Otherwise, I have been extremely pleased with with their private client services elite division. No waiting on the phone and always immediate connection to a representative. I am rethinking a move of my IRA to Fidelity, albeit my smaller taxable account is already there. I have heard conflicting reports on Fidelity’s enforcement or lack there of on the frequent trading of funds in their funds network i.e. non Fidelity funds.
At least for me, the final verdict is I am 100% behind TD Ameritrade. A series of recent experiences there since the changeover from Scottrade has me pleased as punch. Hopefully I can be there till my final breath.
I can't sell fund I've held for years with Scottrade without $49.99 fee. The fund was NL and NTF at Scottrade. The fund is only NL at Ameritrade. Big effing deal it is NL, like I was going to purchase a load fund in the first place.
All I can say is those who stay with TDA deserve it. And that includes me because I was just lazy and let my accounts transfer. I'm going to look for an exit. Can't take this anymore.
Both Schwab and Fidelity let you sell any fund without a transaction fee. These could serve as places to dump your position if you can't find another broker where the fund is NTF.
Keep in mind that buying a TF fund at Schwab will generally cost $76 per buy (nothing to sell).
At Fidelity, the initial TF buy will usually cost $49.95 (but could be as much as $75 for families like Vanguard). Costs nothing to sell. Once you have a position there, you can buy more for $5 (using their automated investment system).
Until they work out the computer glitches for Scottrade customers, it is cheaper for me to trade transaction fee funds at TD Ameritrade than NTF. Example, it costs me $17 to purchase a transaction fee fund and $17 to sell. While on a NTF fund it costs me 0 to buy but $49.99 to sell. Then again, I like to leg into positions so that is a lot of $17 fees as opposed to 0 legging into NTF funds.
Against my religion to pay transaction fee for Mutual Fund. Especially when those fund have 12b-1 fee already. Makes no sense.
The fact that TDA would screw customers out of their NTF positions when fund already has 12b-1 fee is hardly beyond belief. But like I said, I blame myself more.
Comments
The above site is updated monthly. However there are a lot of bonuses out there that aren’t mentioned above. For instance, Fidelity will pay you $2500 to transfer a million dollars and over 2 million you can negotiate for more. TD Ameritrade will match offers from competing firms. You have to keep your money at these firms for a year or some brokerages will take back part of the bonus if you leave earlier. Also many firms will pay you a bonus if you threaten to move your account elsewhere. I have thought about getting $2500 from Fidelity while at the same time keeping part of my money at TDAmeritrade and getting another $2500. It almost sounds unethical though.
https://www.creditdonkey.com/promotions/fidelity/
Fidelity is particularly stingy with cash, and AFAIK hasn't made a cash offer in the past nine months. The last time I was in Fidelity (to get docs notarized for another brokerage), I got the usual suggestion about consolidating at Fidelity. What I didn't get was a response to my remark that I was waiting for the next cash promotion.
And YES, I am paranoid. I've been paranoid ever since I was a victim of identity theft and went through 2 years of hell. In my life before that my mother's money was stolen from her by all her friends and relatives. Luckily for her she was armed with an education and still single handed raised 3 kids.
So I'm indeed fearful of some "database record" at a financial institution including entries in all its co-related ledgers getting erased all at the same time. Paranoid? You don't know what Paranoid is. You need to talk to me.
The below is all at this time; although subject to change any day. Obviously, May 2018 is not far away, if Fidelity chooses to use the cash program again. I suppose they look at cash flows into funding accounts from rollovers and such; perhaps as well, are folks who fund ROTH's before the end period of 2017 contributions on tax day.
The link below may be saved for periodic checking or type "Fidelity promotions" into your browser to discover what is found. A phone call is also a simple means to verify any current offers.
Free trades are the only current 2018 promotions for moving money to Fidelity that I find. However (last year), up to May, 1, 2017; actual cash was a promotion. I recall a similar promotion in August of 2017, but can't find this date to verify. Perhaps these same offers will appear again for 2018.
https://www.creditdonkey.com/promotions/fidelity/
Take care,
Catch
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=196884
One question raised there: If you got a bonus for moving an account to Scottrade, and you're still within the period you agreed to keep the money there for the bonus, can you move the account now that it is at TDA? Or are you still bound for the whole period?
One of the Merrill Edge links w/$1K bonus found there (good through March); its default promotion is $600.
Most brokerages will treat a bonus in an IRA account as earnings (like interest, dividends, etc.) within the account, so it's not reported as income. A few years ago when I asked Fidelity about transferring an IRA (when they still gave cash bonuses), they refused, saying that they couldn't give the bonus for tax reasons. (A few brokerages report the bonus as contributions.) Fidelity seems to have changed its tune since then, but I'd double check first.
Finally, after a lot of digging, I found a link on another site to a Fidelity cash bonus promotion. Seems to be an active promotion. Downside - as Junkster described, it starts at $1M. And they have a schedule of payments up to $5M, so while they give more for $2.5M, it doesn't seem so negotiable.
https://rewards.fidelity.com/offers/cashdepositbonus
Otherwise, I have been extremely pleased with with their private client services elite division. No waiting on the phone and always immediate connection to a representative. I am rethinking a move of my IRA to Fidelity, albeit my smaller taxable account is already there. I have heard conflicting reports on Fidelity’s enforcement or lack there of on the frequent trading of funds in their funds network i.e. non Fidelity funds.
My wife and I have 5 different accounts that are linked at TDA and I can easily go from one account to the next and buy & sell without signing in to each account. I access each account easily from the account tab at the top of the page.
Maybe the type of accounts held and linked make a difference? Ours are IRA's (Traditional & Roth), SEP-IRA and a joint account.
But as @Roy, had no problem linking them, working on them individually or jointly.
All I can say is those who stay with TDA deserve it. And that includes me because I was just lazy and let my accounts transfer. I'm going to look for an exit. Can't take this anymore.
Keep in mind that buying a TF fund at Schwab will generally cost $76 per buy (nothing to sell).
At Fidelity, the initial TF buy will usually cost $49.95 (but could be as much as $75 for families like Vanguard). Costs nothing to sell. Once you have a position there, you can buy more for $5 (using their automated investment system).
The fact that TDA would screw customers out of their NTF positions when fund already has 12b-1 fee is hardly beyond belief. But like I said, I blame myself more.