TD Ameritrade is offering 25,000 United Mileage Plus miles for opening a brokerage account and funding it with $50,000. You must open and fund the account by March 31, 2009 and keep the account balance at $50,000 for at least 9 months. After the first six weeks of account funding you'll receive the first half of our miles. The second half will be given 6 months after the first posting is made. If you withdraw your money before the 9 months, TD Ameritrade will charge you for the cost of the miles. How they will calculate that cost is unclear.
So is this a good deal? 25,000 miles can get you a roundtrip ticket on United flying anywhere in the continential US. Depending on where you go that could be worth $150-$1,000.
If you took the $50,000 and deposited it into the top 12 month CD rate currently paying 3.5% APY, you'd earn 1,312. It's unclear how taxes are calculated on the miles award but that may make a small difference.
Overall, if you are looking at it from just a rewards perspective, it's better to put your money into a 1 year CD or even a top rated savings account. But if you plan on opening a brokerage account anyway, it's not a bad offer.
Comments
THenry
January 23, 2009
I run a lot of money with TDAmeritrade, and haven't gotten anything out of these guys for years. I saw this and called to ask them to extend the promotion to me and they refused. Banks seems to be so intent on new accounts, they are no longer valuing their existing customers, but you'd do better than TDA anywhere.
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Bernie Madoff
March 15, 2009
Awwww.
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