x712xdamx

Link to deal:
landing.optionshouse.com/united10k


Terms say open a new, non-retirement account (1 per household), deposit $5k within 30 days, and make 10 trades within 90 days to earn your 10k United miles. Trades for stocks cost $4.75 each, so you're looking at $47.50 in fees if you have stuff to buy. Sub $1 stocks will work if you don't actually want to invest. Account has to be open w/original funding for 180 days or they reserve the right to deduct the value of the miles from your account.


I did a similar deal earlier this year where I had to make a deposit and do trades for a free iPad Mini w/retina. Got the iPad. Site works well, and the trade commission is only $4.75 if you want to actually buy/sell stocks!


If you don't already have an Options House account, this could be a good deal for some of you.

There was an old thread on this from 2013, but you used to only be able to trade Options back then and the thread didn't have much info.



Official terms from site:

"(1) The 10,000 United MileagePlus miles promotion applies only to newly funded OptionsHouse customers who initially fund their account within 30 days of completing the application. To be eligible for the 10,000 United MileagePlus miles, you must satisfy both of the following requirements: (1) Fund a new OptionsHouse account with a minimum of $5,000 for a cash or margin account using promo code UNITED10K; (2) Make 10 commissionable trades within 90 days after funding your new OptionsHouse account. Note: Commission-free trades do not qualify toward the 10 trades. Fulfillment of the 10,000 United MileagePlus miles will occur within 6-8 weeks once both requirements are fully satisfied. Limit one promotion per household please. This promotion may not be combined with other offers and additional restrictions may apply. Only individual or joint OptionsHouse accounts, personal trust accounts, and business accounts are eligible. The promotion is not available for retirement accounts including, among others, IRA, Roth IRA, SEP, and SIMPLE accounts; 401(k) and 403(b) workplace retirement plans; UTMAs and UGMAs; fiduciary accounts (including custodial accounts, estate accounts); college investment trust accounts; and 529 college savings plan accounts. OptionsHouse reserves the right to restrict or revoke this offer at any time. This is not an offer or solicitation in any jurisdiction where we are not authorized to do business. Taxes related to OptionsHouse offers are your responsibility. Retail values totaling $600 or more during the calendar year will be included in your consolidated Form 1099. OptionsHouse reserves the right to debit the fair market value of the promotional item from any account that has received the 10,000 United MileagePlus miles and has either closed their account or withdrawn assets below the minimum qualifying funding level within 180 days of original funding date. This promotion expires December 31, 2014."

JamieDee78

Trading stocks. Hmm, excellent way to lose money. I'll stick to my Boglehead way of investing. Thanks

BangkokTraveler

Unless I'm missing something, if you want virtually no risk, you could buy a low priced contact and sell it moments later. That would be 2 trades.

Might be helpful to understand how the market works.

pgary

It appears to me that if you want to buy one stock, you could dollar cost average it by buying 1/10 of your order 10 times over 10 trading days. $47.50 is a very good price for 10,000 UAL miles. .

Despite its name, you can buy stocks via optionshouse in addition to options. Stocks are a very low commission of $4,75 per trade.

Please post here your actually experience with this offer. Thanks.

WAS

Interesting offer, thank you OP.
My one reservation would be holding $5K in the account for 6 months. I don't think this is FDIC insured, is it?

x712xdamx

I did this deal for the iPad mini as mentioned in the OP. That deal I had to make 30 trades. Thankfully, there were actually companies I wanted to buy, so as suggested, I split up orders of shares.

If you're not trying to spend money, just place 10 orders of 1 share of a stock that costs $1 or less and you're looking at $50 or so for 10k miles. YES, you have to leave your money there for the 6 months though. Don't remember if it's insured.

Maayan

http://www.optionshouse.com/faq/acco...ounts-insured/

sfaoffroad

I use optionshouse already. Very good and best rates for stocks I have seen. I'm actually grandfathered in to the $2.95 rate. Great tools too.

Maayan

What is the "fair market value" of 10,000 miles, that they might debit? Perhaps this is a tiny amount that folks would rather forfeit rather than park $5K for 6 months? And if you withdraw and close the account, how will they debit the FMV?

Why would they debit the FMV, rather than pull the miles back? Are they not able to pull back?

deemkaa

agree with sfaoffroad. I think this is an excellent offer for those who want to trade stocks anyway. I am also grandfathered into $2.95 which you can't beat that (comparing to $9.99 at others). $4.95 per order is great too. If you're doing this just for the miles and are concerned about parking $5k for 6 months -don't do it.

deemkaa

I'm sure FMV of 10k United miles would be something close to $376.25 so be careful.

x712xdamx

I think it's $250 actually. They have several deals for tablets and whatnot and 10 trades would fit right in that $200-$250 area.

If you can't float $5k or you don't invest, this deal probably isn't for you.

pgary

Caution on this offer. The terms and conditions say "Taxes related to OptionsHouse offers are your responsibility. Retail values totaling $600 or more during the calendar year will be included in your consolidated Form 1099." So the value of this offer depends on how they value these miles. The most I have ever seen miles valued for 1099 purposes is 2.5 cents/miles (Citibank). But I have seen them valued as much as 4.5 cents/mile for contest winners. Lets all ask optionshouse how they will value the miles, and let them are acceptance of the offer is dependent on their answer.

Maayan

Done.

Maayan