Free Money: $50 A/C Opening Bonus for a Etrade MMA

* 4.40 % APY for 3 months - no matter what your balance is - $50 just for opening the account-No ATM Fees
* One can use Etrade's QuickTransfer feature to transfer funds between E*TRADE Bank and any institution with a point and click.
* Bonus Link
* Offer expires March 31, 2006

The E*TRADE® Money Market Account is offered by E*TRADE Bank. Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of 4.40% APY is good for 90 days from the date the account is opened and funded. Accounts must be opened by March 31, 2006 to qualify. This offer is only good for new E*TRADE® Money Market Account customers and existing E*TRADE® Money Market Account customers who transfer at least $25,000 in new funds from an external (i.e., non-E*TRADE) account into their existing E*TRADE® Money Market Account. E*TRADE Bank retains the right to withdraw the 4.40% introductory APY from any account at any time if these conditions are not met. Offer applies to one new account per customer. A $100 minimum deposit is required to open a new E*TRADE® Money Market Account and account holders must maintain a minimum average monthly balance of $1,000, or $5,000 in total E*TRADE Bank deposits, by the end of their second statement cycle to avoid a $10 monthly fee. This fee is waived for customers who maintain a combined balance of $50,000 or more in linked E*TRADE Securities and E*TRADE Bank accounts or execute at least 30 stock or options trades during a calendar quarter. To learn more about qualifications, please visit etrade.com. A $10 early closeout fee will be assessed if account is closed within 120 days of opening.

Do they do HARD PULL?

so, If I put 1K for 4 months (1K to avoid monthly charge, 120 days to avoid cancellation fees)..
first 3 months 4.4% (110$),
last month 0.3% (3$)
so total 110+3+50=163$ for 1K, 4 months, 1.6*3=4.8% return, not too hot.
Other thing, you must close after 120 days and put it somewhere else.
If you close in 3 months with 10$ penalty (113+50-10)=143, which is 5.6% return.

In the fine print it says:
"$50 will be credited to your new E*TRADE® Money Market account within 30 days of the account being funded with a minimum deposit of $100. Payments will be reported as interest income. Accounts must be opened by March 31, 2006 to qualify for the $50 offer. Must be a new account opened with new funds."
&
"A $100 minimum deposit is required to open a new E*TRADE® Money Market Account and account holders must maintain a minimum average monthly balance of $1,000, or $5,000 in total E*TRADE Bank deposits, by the end of their second statement cycle to avoid a $10 monthly fee."

So if you open your a/c with $1 you will not get $50 at the end of the month, you need $100 to open the a/c. And if you withdraw your money after you get the bonus & keep the a/c forever, perhaps Etrade will keep charging $10 monthly fees or report it to some credit reporting agency, I am not sure on this part though.
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Paymon said: If I open the account with $1, then withdraw my $50 and just keep the acct forever will i be subject to any fees?

mikesay98 said: The E*TRADE® Money Market Account is offered by E*TRADE Bank. Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of 4.40% APY is good for 90 days from the date the account is opened and funded. Accounts must be opened by March 31, 2006 to qualify. This offer is only good for new E*TRADE® Money Market Account customers and existing E*TRADE® Money Market Account customers who transfer at least $25,000 in new funds from an external (i.e., non-E*TRADE) account into their existing E*TRADE® Money Market Account. E*TRADE Bank retains the right to withdraw the 4.40% introductory APY from any account at any time if these conditions are not met. Offer applies to one new account per customer. A $100 minimum deposit is required to open a new E*TRADE® Money Market Account and account holders must maintain a minimum average monthly balance of $1,000, or $5,000 in total E*TRADE Bank deposits, by the end of their second statement cycle to avoid a $10 monthly fee. This fee is waived for customers who maintain a combined balance of $50,000 or more in linked E*TRADE Securities and E*TRADE Bank accounts or execute at least 30 stock or options trades during a calendar quarter. To learn more about qualifications, please visit etrade.com. A $10 early closeout fee will be assessed if account is closed within 120 days of opening.

I got in a similar deal a few months back and have already received the $50. My question is this: if I moved $25,000 into my existing account and then moved it back out immediately, do I qualify? Or, is there any requirement for this new money ($25,000) to stay in the account for a certain amount of time?

the problem with this offer is that the interest rate goes way down after the 90 days unless your balanace is large. looks like balances of $50,000 or more will earn 3.60%. balances under $1,000 incur a $10/month service charge. also, their customer service is developing a poor reputation on this board.

their introductory interest rate has gone up to 4.75%, though. it's probably not worth keeping the account open after the offer, but judging from what others have posted, it might not be so easy closing the account!

AugustFour said:

I got in a similar deal a few months back and have already received the $50. My question is this: if I moved $25,000 into my existing account and then moved it back out immediately, do I qualify? Or, is there any requirement for this new money ($25,000) to stay in the account for a certain amount of time?


I think the $25K transfer into an existing account only qualifies it for the now 4.75 for 3 month APY, not for an additional $50 rebate. But be prepared for etrade customer service to completely mishandle your request for the rate increase as was done with mine when the increased the rate to 4.4%. It took several phone calls with long waits to get this fixed and to get the correct interest amount applied. And their current website does not really indicate to current accountholders that the 4.75 is only a promo rate.

FIREFinance said: The calculation you have done is incorrect. The correct calculation is as follows :
4.4% APY = 4.4% for the year and not per month.
$1000 for 3 months at 4.4% APY will yield an interest of : [(4.4/100)*(1000)]*[3/12] = $11
$1000 for 1 month at 0.3% APY will yield an interest of : [(0.3/100)*(1000)]*[1/12] = $0.25
Bonus on $1000 in 4 months : = $50
Total earnings for $1000 in 4 months : $[11+0.25+50] = $61.25
APY for $1000 : [[(61.25/4)*12]/1000]*100 = 18.375%

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To check for correctness of above calculation, if you back caculate:
An APY of 18.375% on $1000 for 4 months will give an interest of: [(18.375/100)*(1000)]*[4/12] = $61.25


Yes, thanks buddy, it was my mistake. Should grab this one then.

Shows 4.75% APY now. Will try. Thx OP

thanks op.

i opened this as much out of spite as to get the $50! this pathetic company has cost me so much money that it's about time that i take back some (albeit, just a bit) and close it on day 121.

word of warning to anyone who doesn't know: etrade has the worst customer service on the planet. plenty of threads talking about it. if you ever need to talk to a human being, an hour wait is the VERY best you can hope for; greater than 2 hours is not uncommon- seriously. not a good thing when their system is messed up and you can't trade your option positions. alternatives?... since etrade has bought/ruined everyone else, your best well known option with real customer service is fidelity- esp. if you qualify for active trader pro.

Westapher317 said: Does anyone have any experience with opening an ETrade MMA under one of these offers, getting all of the goodies, then closing it, and then opening another account with a similar offer? I just finished the first round (opened in Nov., closed last week), and I'm wondering if, since ETrade's service is so sloppy, whether they would notice if I tried to double dip?
I'm planning to close mine soon. Could you please advise how you closed it (email, phone, regular mail)? Thanks!

Our experience with Etrade had been smooth. We opened one MMA account in last week of October 2005 with $1100 from another bank. There is early account closure fee if a/c is closed within 120 days. That implied we could have closed in last week of February 2006. However, to be on the safe side, we called customer service and closed the account in second week of March 2006. We were on hold for less than a minute on the phone call. Alternatively, one can also log in online and send an email request to close the account. Within about 5 business days we received a bank check of approximately $1162. Please note interest rates are higher now. At the time our account was opened the APY was definitely lesser than what is being offered now. No hassle $50!

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AugustFour said: Westapher317 said: Does anyone have any experience with opening an ETrade MMA under one of these offers, getting all of the goodies, then closing it, and then opening another account with a similar offer? I just finished the first round (opened in Nov., closed last week), and I'm wondering if, since ETrade's service is so sloppy, whether they would notice if I tried to double dip?
I'm planning to close mine soon. Could you please advise how you closed it (email, phone, regular mail)? Thanks!

Westapher317 said: AugustFour said: Westapher317 said: Does anyone have any experience with opening an ETrade MMA under one of these offers, getting all of the goodies, then closing it, and then opening another account with a similar offer? I just finished the first round (opened in Nov., closed last week), and I'm wondering if, since ETrade's service is so sloppy, whether they would notice if I tried to double dip?
I'm planning to close mine soon. Could you please advise how you closed it (email, phone, regular mail)? Thanks!

Closed mine by phone - yeah, I know the long wait sucks, but you will get someone eventually. Having a real live person say "Your account is closed" seems to be safest to me. One tip - close it in the middle of the month, so there will be leftover interest not yet credited to your account. They should, and probably will, send you a check for the remaining amount, even if the CSR on the phone makes it sound like they won't. Now, the check will only be for a small amount (mine was $0.13), but this is proof that your account is in fact closed. They also said that I should receive a March statement in the mail, showing the final month and closing for the account. We'll see if that comes. Hope things go smoothly for you.

Is there another way besides using the phone? Waiting on hold for 1 hour is not really a viable option for me out here...

So for those of you who jumped in, does the account reflect the correct interest rate (to be found at Banking & Credit Cards / Bank Account Details / Balances / Account Overview)? Mine shows 1.33 % APY.

Well, I jumped.

As for "Minimum average monthly balance of $1,000," does that mean I'll be okay with having $100 in the account from days 1 to 59, as long as I have $1000 in the account by day 60?

diljs said: b0mbrman said: Well, I jumped.

As for "Minimum average monthly balance of $1,000," does that mean I'll be okay with having $100 in the account from days 1 to 59, as long as I have $1000 in the account by day 60?

That's not what an average balance is at all.

How long did it take for the account to show up online? Been over a week and no sign of it online yet.

nonchalant said: How long did it take for the account to show up online? Been over a week and no sign of it online yet.Mine showed up the very next day.

dbdn145 said: dbdn145 said: nonchalant said: How long did it take for the account to show up online? Been over a week and no sign of it online yet.
Same for me. They have withdrawn the money from my other bank already.

I called CSR and got the answer.
When you login--> click on Banking & Credit Cards tab --> in the middle of the page look for "just opened a new account", click on the link. This will ask for SSN,A/C # and zip code.
Good to go.

Thanks, only problem is I don't have an account number yet. Opened this 2 Fridays ago.

I supose its just the mail being slow.. I'll hang on a few more days

E*Trade Bank account's Statement is generated at the end of each month.
But how fast would the Statement become available for viewing online? - a couple days or much longer?
Any one can speak from your experience? TIA!