No, I do not, for the reason suggested later in that thread.

Sharebuilder will give you miles with various programs for opening an IRA, but may charge you fees to haul another IRA over to them. Example: wife and I each opened both a taxable and IRA account during the USAir promotion at Christmas, 3000 miles posted, x4, so 12,000 miles or half a free US ticket.

The promo at Christmas offered to give you 2.5x miles as a bonus, so 30,000 more bonus miles on the way in a couple months.

Voila.

YMMV, but there you go. Be careful of transferring securities in/out of brokers, as they may charge an onerous fee. Better to either sell the securities in your existing account and transfer cash, or perhaps just leave the existing IRA where it is, and use a promo for this year's IRA.

Transfer IRA
 

There is this offer from TD Ameritrade if you want to transfer your IRA to them

http://www.tdameritrade.com/planning...transfers.html

Offer valid for individuals who open a new TD AMERITRADE retirement account or a new Amerivest-related IRA account by 04/15/10 and meet funding requirements within 6 months of account opening. Funding/rollover of $25,000 - $99,999 receives $100 cash, funding/rollover of $100,000 - $249,999 receives $250 cash, funding/rollover of $250,000 or more receives $500 cash. Limit one offer per client per calendar year. Not transferable and not valid with TD AMERITRADE Institutional accounts, internal transfers or with other offers. Cash awards are valid within your IRA only and non-transferable to another existing TD AMERITRADE account. Void where prohibited. Account must remain open with minimum funding for 9 months, or TD AMERITRADE may charge the account for the cash awarded to the account. TD AMERITRADE reserves the right to restrict or revoke this offer. This is not an offer or solicitation in any jurisdiction where we are not authorized to do business.

Getting miles from your broker is VERY thin ice, legally speaking. Apart from the risk that the miles are treated as an indirect distribution from the IRA (subject to tax and the 10% penalty), they constitute "receipt of any consideration for his own personal account by any disqualified person who is a fiduciary [note: that includes the account owner] from any party dealing with the plan in connection with a transaction involving the income or assets of the plan" under sec. 4975. (IRA's are "plans" for purposes of these rules.) That makes it a prohibited transaction, so there's a 15% initial penalty and, if it's not corrected within the tax year, another 100% penalty; it also disqualifies your IRA, so the whole value of the IRA would be taxable (and subject to the 10% penalty) immediately. Prohibited Transaction Exemption 93-1 and 93-3 let brokers give free investment advise, reduced fees for other accounts and some other gifts of nominal value, but don't clearly cover frequent flier miles; if Sharebuilder has their own administrative exemption, they're not saying so very clearly. You're the one facing these huge penalties if the IRS decides to get tough.

TD Ameritrade's frequent bonuses are OK because they get paid to the IRA itself, not to you.

I would guess that these are A shares - in which the sales charge has already been paid. If the funds are already there, you may find that the expense ratios are equal or lower on SOME of the American Funds compared to SOME of the Vanguard funds. Also, obviously compare the performance. Miles are important, very important, but so is cash.

I checked and they are A shares with expense ratio of 0.8% . Spartan index funds have expense ratio of 0.10%, so probably beneficial for me to sell them.

Mileage Checking for IRA?
 

BankDirect has IRA Money Market Account, but no miles. Fidelity bonus miles are for new non-retirement accounts. Where can I find accounts for IRA money that can earn miles or points?

Thanks.

Not sure you can (although things may have changed).

When the IRA accounts were first authorized, Congress required that they not attract "signing bonuses" like teapots for opening an account, and that all earnings be left in the IRA or withdrawn according to law (e.g., after you're old enough) or you pay a penalty.

That put the kebash on miles or other bonuses to open such accounts, or to earn miles by having such an account (because such miles "earnings" would be taxable withdrawals that incur the penalty).

I've heard some claim that there is a way to get around this, either as a consequence of other legislation or because the law left an unintentional loophole, but I'm unaware of any IRA account that actually does earn miles.

Can I borrow from my own IRA and deposit that money into BankDirect and pay myself interests? Any tips or links to do that?

why not talk to the administrator of your ira?....you would want to see the interest rates and make sure the cost was not outlandish....good luck...

You really should check with a compentent tax advisor on this. Lots of rules on IRAs and if you mess up you might find that your IRA is not longer tax deferred and you could end up owing taxes on the full amount in the account.

If you have a 401k, you could take a loan from that account and deposit it in Bank Direct.

Foregoing retirement account investment earnings for frequent flyer miles might not be the best call.

So the interest incurred on the loan from the IRA is the cost of acquiring AA miles from Bank Direct. What does that interest amount to and how does that compute to cost per AA mile?

You cannot borrow from your own IRA.

Your tax advisor can tell you why.

Sounds like I can borrow from my 401k account, but not from my IRA account? Can someone explain the difference to me?

Assuming the custodian doesn't charge a fee for the loan, the interest are paid to myself, makes the retirement grow even faster.