2010 Brokerage Promotions

Now that the new year has begun a lot of new brokerage promotions have popped up to get people to open a new account. The Dow Jones is hovering around 10,000 so we are still a little off of the high from 2 years ago. If you have some extra cash to invest, now is the time to get it working for you.

Here are some of the current brokerage promotions that offer some kind of cash bonus or free trades:

• OptionsXpress Promo- OptionsXpress is offering a $100 bonus when you open a new account with them. (See post for more details)
• Tradeking Promo- Get $100 when referring a friend to Tradeking. There is no limit to how many $100 referral bonuses you can get (see post for more details)
• Optionshouse Promo- Get 100 free trades when you open a new account, with $2.95 flat rate stock trade commisions. They have one of the lowest stock trading commissions out there. (see post for more details)
• ETrade IRA Promo- Open an ETrade IRA and get 100 free trades. (See post for more details). Open that 2009 IRA by April 15th, 2010.
• Zecco Promo- Zeccobrokerage gives you Get 10 free stock trades every monthif you $25,000 balance or make 25 paid trades each month. Otherwise the commission is only $4.50 / trade which is one of the lowest out there. (See more details here)
• Firstrade Promo- Firstrade is giving away 5 free trade when you open a new account. (See post for more details). Firstrade offers a low $6.95 commission per trade.

If you know of any others, please add them in the comments and I will add to this post.

Sharebuilder IRA Promo – Free Trades For All Of 2010

If you are looking to move that old 401k to an IRA, you may think about moving it to a Sharebuilder IRA as they are offering free trades for all of 2010. They are offering 1500 automatic investment plan credits if you open a new IRA before tax day (4/15/10) this year.

Sharebuilder, which is owned by ING Direct, allows you to invest on a regular investment schedule. They offer over 7,000 stocks and ETF’s. It is also important to know that not all stocks can be purchased through them, but they do off the most of the common ones. Every Tuesday your trades are executed and they need to be set by 5PM Eastern the previous day.

I have used Sharebuilder before as a regular brokerage account, however I have never had an IRA with them. This is a pretty good deal if you are thinking about focusing a little bit on your retirement as avoiding stock trading commissions just helps your investments grow that much faster. Another nice feature about Sharebuilder is that you can easily transfer money through their ACH feature, but even better, if you have an ING Direct Savings or Checking account the money moves the same day, so it is very easy to move money in and get trading.

Details:

• Open a Sharebuilder IRA by 4/15/10 to receive 1,500 Automatic Investment Plan credits.
• The trade credits will be posted to your account the next business day and will expire on 12/31/10
• AIP credits for mutual fund purchases apply only after the minimum investment has been met
• This offer applies to Individual Retirement Accounts only

$50 Bonus When Opening ING Electric Orange Checking Account

ING is giving out a $50 bonus when you open a new Electric Orange Checking Account and making 3 signature based purchases with your debit card in the first 45 days of opening the account. Note that signature based purchases are not the same as when you enter your PIN during a transaction. In most cases you just treat this as a credit card and swipe and sign.

Open an Electric Orange high-yield checking account and enter the code EM423 into the Reference Code box in the application.

After applying you will receive an Electric Orange MasterCard Debit Card. Activate it and use it for 3 signature-based purchases within the first 45 of opening your account.

Your $50 bonus will be deposited into your checking account 50 days after you have completed your 3 purchases.

I can’t seem to find an expiration date on this offer, so get in while you still can as they just tend to disappear after a while.

Link to Application Page

State Farm To Offer Free TurboTax for 2009 Taxes

As it has done for the past 2 years, State Farm is giving away Intuit’s Online TurboTax Free to its customers. Like last year, must have a banking product with them such as a credit card or checking/savings account. Just having insurance isn’t good enough to have access to the free Turbo Tax.

They are giving you free access to TurboTax Basic and Deluxe along with free eFilie. If you need to use the Premeri of Home & Business version you must pay $20 and $40 respectively.

To get access to the free versions, you need to log into your StateFarm.com account. Once you are on your account summary page, you should see the following icon below:

Click on it and it will then take you to the TurboTax.com home page.

Since the discount is based on the URL that you use to get to TurboTax.com I beleive you only need to click on that link the day you are actually filing, but to be sure, I reccomend you go through the State Farm link each time you need to access your returns just in case.

Since I have a State Farm Visa card, I qualify for this. I really think this is a nice perk since filing my taxes would have cost around $45 normally, so this can be considered a State Farm Visa Bonus that keeps giving every year!!

If you are not a State Farm customer, check out TurboTax.com to file your taxes as their prices are still very reasonable.

$125 Chase Checking Account Bonus

If you currently have a user id that will let you log into chase.com then you can get a $125 bonus when opening a new Chase Checking account and set up direct deposit.

Once you log into your chase.com account, paste this URL into that same browser window:

https://www.chase.com/ccp/index.jsp?pg_name=ccpmapp/shared/marketing/page/chase_checking_011510_112911&ID=0000010110&WT
.ac=DSO10110_banner&jp_aid=DSO10110_banner&jp_avt=35794&jp_ai=&jp_aoc=HNW
&WT.mc_id=DEC09_125chk_dso_card&jp_con=HNW.MyAccounts.Sec_banner&jp_cnv=oao/
applicationdecisionresult.aspx&jp_lid=000010110&jp_oid=000018688&jp_mep=DEC_125chk
&WT.pi=/MyAccounts.aspx&WT.pn_sku=chk

If the above doesn’t work for you, right click on this link and select “copy shortcut” in IE, or “copy link location” in FireFox, then paste it into your brower.

This should direct you to the checking account promo screen. Just complete the account application, make a minimum deposit of $100, then setup direct deposit within 60 days of the account opening. (NOTE: You can use a credit card for the initial $100 funding. I used a credit card and made a deposit of $1000 so I could get the cash back from my card. I used a cash back mastercard which was treated like a purchase)

The $125 account bonus reward will be deposited into your new account within 10 days after the initial direct deposit has posted to your account. The checking account must remain open for 6 months otherwise you may forfeit the bonus. Limit one personal checking account-related reward/premium per customer, per calendar year.

The Chase Checking account has no fees if you set up direct deposit or make five debit card purchases each month and has the following features:

• FREE access to over 15,000 Chase ATM’s nationwide
• FREE Online Bill-Pay – including our Online On-Time GuaranteeSM
• FREE Debit Card with Zero Liability protection
• FREE Account Alerts sent by phone or e-mail to help you avoid fees
• MORE THAN 5,100 Chase branches

You can get checks for this account, note that the initial order is not free. It will cost you around $20 if you want to order checks from them, but you can get them cheaper from Walmart and other online check printing sites.

3 Free Nights with Starwood American Express Card

Earn 3 Free Nights at a Starwood Hotel after signing up for the Starwood American Express. After your first purchase your Starpoints account will be credited with 10,000 Starpoints which is enough for three nights at a participating Starwood Hotel Brand:

You will also earn one Starpoint for every dollar of eligible spending and double Starpoints at participating Starwood properties and retail outlets using this card.
The one thing to keep in mind is that there is a $45 annual free, however it is waived for the first year.

What you need to do: Sign up for the Starwood American Express Card
Obligation: None
Initial Reward (if any): 10,000 Starpoints after your first purchase (enough for up to 3 free nights)
Money to get started: $0 ($100 in purchases if you want the $100 gift card)
Annual Fee: None the first year, $45 thereafter
Things to Note: There will be hard credit inquiry applied to your credit report when applying for the card

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