Open an Etrade account and earn up to 25,000 United Mileage Plus miles.*

Open/transfer w/ US$1,000, get 5K mi.
10,000, get 10K miles.

*Offer is good until April 30, 2000. Sorry, excludes existing Etrade customers and non-US residents.

Please use my name, DIOSDADO ONG, as referral, so I can earn 5K miles. Thanks.

Check it out at
Http://trading.etrade.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/applogic+Ipmasterpage?SCS=VUN7RI9&RID=8357202 9



[This message has been edited by pirarucu (edited 04-05-2000).]

I am new to flyertalk, but would caution you about dealing with Etrade. I signed up for their 25K deal by depositing $50,000 last fall. The mileage was to be credited to my UAL account within 8 weeks. Now, six months later I am fighting with them because I never got the mileage. They are arguing that my account balance did not stay at the $50,000 level for the whole six months required under the promotion, although there is no minimun stated in the fine print.

Borabound - Not to try to cause you any difficulty, but the sign-up documents that I received stated that "Your E*TRADE account must remain open and funded and minimum balance maintained (less trading losses) for at least six months." In addition to that, just to make sure that I understood that point, I called E*TRADE and asked their representative about this one issue in particular. She said that if your portfolio even temporarily went below the $50,000 in market value, that the sky miles would be lost. My plan is to put it in an interest bearing account (where the money sits between trades), and just leave it there. The program doesn't say that you have to make any trades, merely that you open an account. Hope this helps.

PilotAtHeart:

"...Your E*TRADE account must remain open and funded and minimum balance maintained (less trading losses) for at least six months...if your portfolio even temporarily went below the $50,000 in market value, that the sky miles would be lost..."

I have been considering moving money into an E*Trade account just for the miles. I am not sure what your post means. If I open the account by transfering $75,000 of stock, and the shares drop in value to $49,999.99 (not too difficult considering the recent volatility) then does that mean that I would loose the FF"Your E*TRADE account must remain open and funded and minimum balance maintained (less trading losses) for at least six months." In addition to that, just to make sure that I understood that point, I called E*TRADE and asked their representative about this one issue in particular. She said that if your portfolio even temporarily went below the $50,000 in market value, that the sky miles would be lost..."

I have been considering opening an E*Trade account just for the F/F miles. However, per your post, does it mean that if I open an account by transferring $75,000 of shares, and the value of the shares drops to $49,999.99 (not too difficult considering the recent market volatility) then does that mean I will lose the F/F miles?

What does the "less trading losses" mean? Does this mean that if I churn my account (and generate them commissions) and lose my shirt, I can still keep the F/F miles. But if I don't make a single trade, but the stock drops in value, then I lose?

Not too good a deal considering market volatility. It would be terrible to transfer in funds and on the day before I get the miles, the market has a 500 pt drop, but fully recovers the next day!

onedog - Your summary statement is correct per my understanding. If the market value of your portfolio ever drops below the $50,000 during the first 6 months, then you would lose the miles. But my observation would be to leave the money in a money market account instead of actually investing it (where the money sits between trades). Then you would be guaranteed that your balance would always stay above the $50,000 because you are earning interest with no downside potential. You could argue that you could take the $50,000 and make better money by investing in aggressively rather than the low money market account interest, so that you could pay for two to three tickets with the investment profits. Depends on if you believe in this market's ability to not fluctuate. I don't. But my scenario of leaving it in the money market account with E*TRADE will work, I think. I'll let you know, because I am going to be talking to a rep tomorrow. Hope this helps.

Let me agree - getting your miles from E*Trade is a long, time consuming, frustrating mess. It me nearly 9 months and now I cannot wait for another company to come along and offer me a deal to move.

I am sorry to hear your experience with ETrade was extremely negative. I must admit I experienced some frustration. I signed up for two US$10K accts w/c qualified me 20K mi. Etrade originally credited only 15K mi, but I did get the 20K mi properly credited to my UAL mileage plus acct with an add'l 5K mi.

My suggestion, tell etrade you no longer can stay with them if the mileages are not properly credited to your UAL acct.

Per E-TRADE: Market value of account cannot go below $50,000 original investment "ever" during first 6 months.

The way to handle this is to keep it in an interest-bearing account for the first six months, like a money market or government bonds, etc.

There are no required trades. Just opening the account and maintaining the $50,000 for 6 months guarantees the miles are yours. SO I'M IN !!!!!

Not vouching for being able to get the miles from E-TRADE though. After my experience, I will post how long it took, trouble, etc.

Have a good one everybody.

make a note of the day you open your account and the period when they are supposed to post the miles. i opened an e*trade account and they did not post the miles, i referred someone who opened an acct and they did not post the miles. i had to complain in both instances to get the miles posted. in fact the person that i referred did not get all the miles posted and had to complain also.

[This message has been edited by dubbdc (edited 04-07-2000).]

Just another data point: I had the
extreme misfortune of having opened an
ETrade account literally days before I
saw the first ads for the UA 25K mile
deal.

I called ETrade and asked to be credited
the miles. They said "Sorry, had to be
requested at account creation time". Long
story made short, we went several rounds
before my patience finally ran out and
I gave up the fight.

This was several months ago. Subsequent
to that, I have had trade and site related
probs with ETrade on several occasions.
So, unfortunately for them I suppose, my
money is now at Charles Scwhwab. Now if
only Schwab would offer some miles!!!

I opened an Etrade account in March with $1000 to get 5K miles and never received the miles. I sent a complaint to Clickrewards and they are investigating but no response yet. Etrade keeps sending me different "open an account" offers and I think they are playing dumb about the miles.
Before opening the account, I called them to verify the terms and also wrote "this is the Clickrewards address" next to my e-mail address on the application form.

I don't think the 25,000 miles are worth the hassle from E*Trade. If you put that much money in a money market account, or any other account that would prevent your balance from slipping, you would be losing so much potential profit by holding up $50,000 for six months that you wind up paying a ridiculous sum for the miles.

For example, if you would normally expect a 10% return on your invested money in 6 months, then you would be paying $5,000 for 25,000 miles. That's a heck of an expensive free domestic ticket!

The better deal with most brokerages, IMHO, is to sign up for a cash bonus for starting an account. You can get $150 for opening a $1000 E*Trade account, if you open it through gomez.com, for example.

For a list of cash sign up bonuses for brokerages and bank accounts, go to www.signupmoney.com and click on the appropriate link on the left side of the page. Other good offers include opening a $500 online savings account at Citibank for a $100 bonus (I just did that one. 20% with no risk is a good investment to me.) Between those two offers alone, you should have enough money for a free domestic leasure ticket and you've only tied up $1500.

Good luck,

Matthew

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get a $5 bonus and $5 per referral to send payments by email, at paypal.com

[This message has been edited by matthewdolbow (edited 04-07-2000).]

Matthew, the current Etrade offer for Hilton miles is 50,000 for opening a $50,000 account. I just opened three and I think it is a terrific deal. Thats 150,000 Hilton miles which when combined with a couple of other promotions I did will get me nine or ten nights at Hiltons in Australia on a trip I'm planning. I assume when you say you can "normally expect 10% return onyour invested money in six months" you have not been watching the markets lately. My choice was to put 55,000 in Etrade accounts via the Vanguard Long Term Corporate Bond Funds earning 7.4% and with little principal valuation change so I don't have to worry about dipping below 50,000. This is a fund I already owned so changing to Etrade costs me nothing. As far as the other offers you mentioned....can't you do them in addition to the Etrade deal?

How do you open three accounts?

SteveB,

For twice the miles that were mentioned earlier, the deal certainly does get better, especially if you normally would investin a lower-risk fund.

But for a person who would normally tolerate higher risk and reward, the cost of the miles increases. For example, to earn the 150,000 miles in the promotion you brought up, a person would pay about $8500 in lost returns at the 7.4% annual rate you mentioned, again assuming they would normally get a 10% return elsewhere in six months. IMHO, this is a reasonable target for growth stocks, given their performance over the past thirteen years. Of course, whether a person would normally invest in growth stocks or the bond funds you mentioned would depend on their age, risk tolerance, and other factors.

The point is that the higher the return a person would typically aim for, the higher the cost of the miles, because E*Trade's policy requires you to invest so as to limit risk and reward. For people who usually invest lower-risk/lower-reward, the promotion is a good deal. But for people who would normally tolerate more risk and see higher gains, the cost of the miles rises.

MSD

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get a $5 bonus and $5 per referral to send payments by email, at paypal.com