$50 Tradeking Promo Is Back! October 2009

EDIT: This promotion has ended. Their latest promo can be found HERE.

Tradeking is once again having it’s annual Tradeking Promo where you can get $50 when opening a brokerage account. To qualify for the promotion you need to do the following:

• Open a new brokerage account by using the following link –
• Fund the account with $2,500 or more within 30 days of account opening
• Execute any one trade within 180 days of account opening
• NOTE: $2,500 must remain in the account (minus any trading losses) for a minimum of 6 months or the credit may be surrendered

This tradeking bonus ends on October 31st, so be sure to open your account by then! So if you are on the fence about opening an account, getting $50 for free should seal the deal.

For those of you that are not familiar with Tradeking, they offer a flat $4.95 commission on stocks and options. Tradeking was founded in 2005 by the founders of Suretrade.com which was eventually sold to TDAmeritrade. All accounts are SIPC protected, so you can be sure that your money is safe. I’ve had a Tradeking account since 2006 and use it as my primary trading account. Why spend $10 or more for a stock commission with the other guys when Tradeking offers the same service for half as much! There are no account minimums or inactivity fees. (note that in this special case to qualify for the Tradeking Promotion there is a $2500 minimum to get the free $50 but once the 6 months is up, there is no minimum balance). Check out my Tradeking Review for an indepth review of their service.

Some other cool features they offer is an ACH feature where you can move money in and out of your linked checking account. There is also a money market sweep that invests your uninvested money in a money market account that earns interest. They also offer loads of educational material to help you understand the basics of investing with stocks and options in case you are just starting out. I learned how to trade options with Tradeking very quickly using their helpful training tools.

You can also send them any paper stock certificates you have to them and they will add them to your account for free. I had to use this feature once with a stock purchase plan I had for a company I worked at. It was a very simple process and I was able to trade those stocks electronically in less than 2 weeks.

 As a reminder, there is no Tradeking Promotional Code required for this promotion, just click on the link below to see all the details and sign up:

$200 Gift Card from Citi PremierPass Elite MasterCard

Right now when you sign up for a Citi PremierPass Elite MasterCard and make $600 in purchases in the first 3 months, you can get 20,000 Thank You rewards points. You can convert those 20,000 points into a $200 gift card for various merchants on the Citi Thank You Network.

The Citi PremierPass card is a rewards card that has the following rewards payout schedule:

• 2 points for every $1 spent at supermarkets, gas stations, drugstores, commuter transportation and parking merchants
• 1 point for every $1 spent on other purchases — including purchasing airline tickets for yourself and others
• 1 point for each and every mile flown by you and others on tickets you buy on any airline — no other card gives you this!
• Complimentary companion ticket for friends and family

One thing to note, this card does come with a $75 annual feee, so if you get the $200 gift card this effectively makes the bonus only $125, but that is still pretty good for a credit card these days. The Complimentary companion ticket also makes this deal much more attractive.

To get the $200 gift card you need to sign up for the Citi PremierPass Elite MasterCard and make $600 in purchases within the first 3 months. This should be easy since you can charge groceries and gas to the card.

Once you have completed the $600 in purchases, you will be awarded with 20,000 Thank You rewards points in your Citi Thank You Rewards account. You can then redeem those points for a gift card valued at $200. You can also redeem this points for miles or any other of the rewards that the Citi Thank You network offers.

Account Fee Updates

I have had a few people email in about various fees that have seen been quietly added on to their account so I thought I would write a quick post to give everyone a heads up.

Citizens Bank Overdraft Fee – Many have reported that Citizens Bank has added an overdraft protection fee. They are no charging you for the luxury of having your savings account linked to your checking account to avoid overdrafts. If you tend to overdraft the fee may still be worth it, but if you hardly ever over withdrawl your account, call them up to have this feature removed. You may also want to check your previous statements to see when this fee actually started since the rumor is that it started a few months ago depending on the branch your account is held at.

Sears Credit Card Annual Fee – I actually have first hand knowledge on this one. I received a letter from Sears last week notifying me that they are now imposing a $45 annual fee on all their credit cards starting in 2010. What’s great about this is that when you look at the site where you apply for a new card, it still says that the Sears Card doesn’t have an annual fee. I never hold onto cards if there is an annual fee. There are too many free ones out there to pay somone $45 for the luxury of carrying around their piece of plastic. Remeber that before you cancel this card, you may want to redeem any rewards by the end of the year.

Remeber, friends don’t let friends pay fees!

Another Woot Off Going On Now

Woot.com is having another of its Woot Offs right now. It started around midnight central time and will go until they run out of stuff. If you are unfamiliar with Woot.com, they are a site that offers items at a discount. Usually only one item is listed per day starting at 12am Central Time and is listed until it is sold out or 11:59PM Central Time.

A Woot Off, which happens rarely, is a number of products that are for sale on a particular day or successive days. One product follows another as soon as it has been sold out. The number of Woot-Off items, sequence, and quantity will not be announced so an item could take a while to sell out or sell out immediately. Don’t miss a chance to score some items at a steal if you have some money to blow! But remember, that I prefer you really think about saving it.

$100 Bank of America Promo When Opening Checking A New Checking Account

Bank of America is giving out a $100 bonus when signing up for a MyAccess Checking Account. Bank of America’s MyAccess Checking account is free checking account with no direct deposit or minimum balance requirements.

To qualify for the checking account promo you need do the following:

• follow this link and open an MyAccess Checking Account by 11/30/09
• enter the bonus code AOU260909
• deposit at least $500 into the account within 30 days of account opening
• perform on transaction with your new BOA ATM/Debit Card

The $100 bonus will be paid out within 90 days of openening the checking account. This offer expires on 11/30/2009. Also they say that this is only for new customers, but in the small print it says, “The new customer is not eligible for this offer if they were a signer on a Bank of America checking account that was closed within the last three months”. So it looks like as long as you haven’t closed an account with them in the last 3 months, you should qualify. If you are in this situation, you may want to call them and ask first.

$50 Bonus from HSBC Online Payment Account

HSBC is giving away $50 when you open the HSBC Online Payment Account if you currently have an Online Savings Account.

The HSBC Online Payment Account is like ING Direct’s Orange Checking account. It is a checking account geared toward making all your payments electronically without the use of checks. It does come with a debit/atm card that you can use you purchases or to access cash from your account. There are no fees or minimum balances and the current interest rate on your balance is .85%. You only need to open the account with $1.

To get the $50 bonus, you need to do a few things:

• Open an online payment account by September 30th 2009
• Must make three debit card purchases with your HSBC Debit MasterCard with PayPass by October 31, 2009 (note: ATM transactions don’t count

EDIT: It appears that they have updated their site to specify that you needed to have an Online Savings Account open prior to the begining of this promotion, so if you don’t have one open, you can’t open one now and still qualify for the $50 bonus.
If you want the bonus and don’t have an Online Savings account, open one Here then appy for the Online Payment Account through their $50 Bonus Promo Page.

The HSBC Online Savings Account has a current yield of 1.45% with no fees or minimum balances. They have an ACH feature that allows you to move money between your HSBC accounts and accounts at any other bank you may have.

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