reqfield

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1386198/

Hey guys, I finally got my 10,000 United Miles today. I funded by account a few months ago. I just looked at the terms of conditions and on the very last line of the small print it mentions: "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item from any account that has received the 10,000 United MileagePlus miles and has either closed their account or withdrawn assets below the minimum qualifying funding level within 180 days of original funding date."

But of course, I'm interested in user experience with this. I would like to withdraw my funds, because right now there are just sitting there and I am done playing in the stock market (lost money). Has anyone else withdrawn their funds from their OptionsHouse account after getting the miles, before the 180 day mark?

Thanks for any help and feedback!

e.g: in anyone's past experience.. will OptionsHouse claw the miles back or actually charge you the value of the miles for withdrawing the funds early?

Night Owl

I'd be more concerned with what they consider the fair market value of the miles to be - you may be unpleasantly surprised.

reqfield

What I mean is I would withdraw all the funds from my account. I already sold all my stocks I initially invested months ago. So the money is just sitting there. Which is why I am eager to move my money to an account to get even a small amount of interest, instead of just sitting there for a few more months at OptionsHouse. Thanks

mahasamatman

You agreed to the terms, you should accept the consequences of your actions. Too many people see "free miles" and don't bother to go any further than that to know that they're never actually free. You should have taken the opportunity cost of the money into account when calculating the offer value. If the cost was higher then the value of the miles, you shouldn't have invested.

golfingboy

The cash sitting in OH (now trade monster) accounts are invested in money market accounts and will earn some, albeit low, interest income. Just leave it there until it hits 180 days (maybe 181 to be safe) before withdrawing.

P.S. I think the fee to withdraw funds is $60.

reqfield

Thanks for the pointless lecture. I'm just looking for a discussion on my question.

reqfield

Okay, thanks. Some people had experiences in the Fidelity United Miles offer with being able to withdraw their funds early without penalty from Fidelity. It sounds like all the advice with OptionsHouse is that they *might* give a penalty. If anyone else has had a different experience.. feel free to post.

savedbyhim01

That lecturer is right. You are just looking for someone to tell you how to abuse Option House's offer. If you break the terms they have every right to take back the miles. You shouldn't have done it if you weren't willing to follow the terms you clicked "I agree" to.

mia

We understand what you would like to do. Night Owl's point is that OptionsHouse has the right to deduct the "fair market value" of 10,000 miles from your withdrawal, and we don't know how much that might be. If they think the miles are worth $0.01 each it would be $100, but if they think the miles are worth $0.025 each it would be $250.

pstravels

I wouldn't risk it. I had a friend who had a offer but not for miles. I think it was something dumb, I forgot what it was. Might have been a necklace or something like that he gave to his girlfriend.

Anyways, they will just charge your acct!

Idk what the amount is, but obv in this scenario they have the discretion to do what they want. If they say its worth X then you are going to have to pay X.

mahasamatman

No, you're looking for validation that you're OK doing something you know is wrong. Since you've probably already made up your mind to do it, why even bother posting here?