As pointed out in "New Trading Accounts" thread, the deal was available. But you had to do this right, on first try - offer is DEAD now
(4/9) Now, since everyone who had 30/60/90k to spare and wanted to take advantage of unusual bonuses - did so; this topic should fair better. There were people, who doubted deal existed - just because it was never listed...
We are trying to compile score in this format (results did vary slightly, and it may be offered next year): 1. How much bonus resulted ($1,000 or $1,100 or $950; possibly $2,000, $3,000 within household?) 2. How many days (following funding) before bonus credited (0, 1, 2, 5 days, ?) 3. What choice of fixed-income elected/considered (rypqx, GMAC 9mo-CD, ?) 4. Was there any loss that reduced yield (trading loss, service charge, some fee, interest foregone for # of days) 5. Any Apex, Starwood Points perks/strategy 6. Any footnotes
(as of 4/18) There is another special that I'll be e-mailing individually
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This guy is trying to do fatwallet a service by commnicating a killer deal which is like a 7+% APY, $30k 9 month CD.
But someone keeps doing fatwallet a disservice. They keep complaining to the moderator that "because the deal is not published on the internet, it must not exist" and the moderator keeps on deleting the thread.
Well here is a thought: at least hear him out. You can call up TDA and verify the validity of the promo code yourself before pulling any trigger, or making any commitment.
All SinglePapa may be asking for (and IMO I think he deserves) is that you IM him for the details on how to get the deal, and if you go for it, that you put his userid in the "referred by" field so you throw him a bone (at no cost to you) if you benefit by the help that he gives you.
Please cut him some slack because this is not the first time he's tried posting this. I'm sure if the moderator allows the thread to continue, he can post some more details about it.
Can you imagine spending a lot of time posting a detailed thread and having all the work get flushed by the thread being deleated? And then that happening over and over?
The main hoop is the possible lack of time remaining to jump on it.
Requires tieing up $30k for 9 months. (Perfect for a recently completed 12-mo 0% BT!) In an emergency, the money can actually be withdrawn, but the $1k bonus will be forfeited.
Maybe excludes people with current TDA accounts - not sure. (Perhaps -but check with new accounts- an existing TDA customer can just open another account.)
And I can't remember if being a US citizen was a requirement, but your answer is a phone call away from TDA new accounts: 800-454-9272
Electronic funding via ACH from savings or checking after online application is instant.
Update - my $1k bonus posted already! And get this, they didn't even charge me for the earlier "free" trades I did, or take back the $100 bonus that I got first from the initial account opening sign-up promo.
Now, the $100 bonus and 1 month free trades promo IS advertised on their web site, here
But getting both promos ($1100 sign-up bonus) and not having to pay for the five trades to get the $1k is seriously sweet.
Day 1, AM applied from this offer link, ACH funded $30.1k (entered routing & account number), verified I had an account number and able to log in Called TDA and asked them to "apply promo code 517, which I got from new account department, to my account"
Day 1, PM TDA balance = $30.1k busy work day - didn't get my trades in, and boy do the daytime trading hours end early when your in pacific time zone!
Day 2, AM The $100 bonus was now showing up; TDA balance = 30.2k I executed five (buy 1 share BSC, sell 1 share BSC, buy 2 shares BSC, sell 1 share BSC, sell 1 share BSC.) My account balance was now about $1.50 poorer, and the "500 free trades" at top now showed "495 free trades" Called up to make sure the promo code application was going through correctly. Was told it would go through by promo department by the end of day.
Day 2, PM The $1k bonus was now there; TDA balance = approx $31,198 "495 free trades" blurb at top of my login is now no longer to be seen. But I haven't been charged for the 5 trades I did earlier.
total time from application to $1k = less than 48 hrs for me; maybe could be done quicker
Next step for me is: Where to invest in TDAmeritrade the $31.2k for 9 months?
I am currently scheduled to have uninvested balances go into a "TD Asset Management Money Market Class A" automatically, but it's got a near 1% expense ratio which to me seems high. weekly yield as of yesterday was 2.28% APY. A TDA investor with 250k assets can get a .4% APY break on expenses (bumping yield up to 2.68% APY.) The prospectus discloses there is a possibility of value loss (but seems like would be very extraordinary. Invests in treasuries and reputable bonds.) I wonder if there is a better MMF alternative (with no load / no cost preferably) with lower expenses, better yields and low risk?
There are FDIC insured bank CDs available (including from Wa Mu), 6 months or 9 months (but can't be purchased until end of the month), and they are yielding about 3.4%. I haven't checked on fees involved to get into one. I've got some time to decide, because CD purchases generally "close" at the end of the month.
Treasuries are available, but don't seem very attractive due to current, yield to maturity of about 1.x% over the same horizon - about 2% less than a CD!
No matter what, NEVER buy T-bills and have them held at your brokerage. Besides low yield, they may FALL OUT of segregated funds regulatory broker protection. This sounds counter-intuitive; but your cash must be held segregated, your T-bills don't have to be - i.e. broker is allowed to invest for his own risk/gain against your T-bill; but not against your cash.
Also regarding buying CDs - I found that the "fee" was already built into the CD APY quoted by the brokerage. That seems like news that bodes well for the CD.
Maybe that explains why Wa Mu online is selling a 4% APY 6 month CD, while TD Ameritrade version of same Wa Mu CD is 3.4x% APY. Their "fee" is the .5x% APY difference.
There are also some funds (but many do not qualify) with no transaction fee and no load. There is a fee if you don't hold for 90 days. Still searching for prospective mutual fund candidates.
I think I need to look at "safe" money market funds, but haven't figured out how to get the TDA mutual fund search tool to give me those.
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