I just had a long call with an Ameritrade Customer Service Agent. I must say that he sounded very young and also sounded like he was almost making up answers as we went along. But, here are the answers that he gave me.

1. You can only have 1 account per social security number. This seems obviously wrong. Perhaps he meant you can only have one bonus per SSN. I didn't press.

2. Minimum Funding means $25,000 for the full 9 months. If you put the $ into stocks and they lose value, the Ameritrade will "take that into account and not punish you."

3. There are no fees to transfer mutual funds to Ameritrade. There are no fees to hold mutual funds at Ameritrade. But, there is a $50 fee to close any Ameritrade account. Is that true from others experience?

4. You can't open an account for anyone under 18. You can't even open a joint account for anyone under 18. I question this answer because I believe that some have reported doing just that.

Frankly, I don't really trust these answers. I'm wondering if an e-mail would get better answers. It certainly would give me something to fall back on if they didn't perform somehow.

For those of you who've done this, are these answers correct?