How recent is your Fidelity experience? The issue isn't that the offer doesn't say anything about getting miles for adding to existing accounts, it's that both the large and the fine print expressly exclude it. When I spoke with Fidelity last year about it, they said there was no way for existing customers to get miles.

I did the Starwoods 20,000 deal last year. After 6 months ,when the second batch of 10,000 points posted , I removed the money. I 've just noticed the following small print on their offer :

"†Offer valid for new Individual or Joint accounts opened and funded by U.S. residents with $2,000 or more by 01/31/05. Not transferable and not valid for IRAs, internal transfers, current Ameritrade clients, or with other offers. Limit one offer per client. Account must remain open with minimum funding for 9 months, or Ameritrade may charge the account for the cost of the Starpoints"

Anyone think that this is going to be a problem ?

When did Ameritrade make this change from 6 to 9 months?

Does anyone know exactly what kind of fees you would be charged if you closed the account prior to 6 and/or 9 months?

I have been a Fidelity customer for over 15 years. When this promo with UAL first came out, I called Fidelity to see if I could participate. The rep. said that although I would normally be ineligible, they made an exception and let me participate. A few weeks after I did the transfer into Fidelity, 15,000 points showed up on my United MP statement.

Fidelity is truly an incredible company - top notch customer service.

With regard to Starwood/Ameritrade promotion, two points:

- What matters is the terms when you sign up. I don't have my paperwork with me, but I'm pretty sure there was nothing in it anywhere about 9 months.

- The new language that mentions 9 months seems to contradict itself. It still talks about 6 months to get the 2nd half of the points. I suppose both could be correct, but why bother? Ameritrade just recently updated their entire web site, maybe the 9 months is a typo.

I am looking into the Ameritrade offer with UA or DL miles. Same rules & structure: $50K gets you 25K miles, half within 6-8 weeks of acct opening, remaining half 6 months after first mileage posting. Must keep min. balance for 9 months.

The last 2 conditions don't contradict themselves. You get all the miles 6 mos + 6-8 weeks (i.e. 7.5 to 8 months) after acct opening, and if you don't maintain the balance for the first 9 months, they reserve the right to levy a charge to your account. That's how the t&c's read to me - pretty clear and standard, though a 9-month hold fund period is longer than before.

It's not a typo. I did this last year and those were the terms. I used the online chat in November to ask if I could close the account online and after explaining that I only opened it to get the points, the rep asked if it had been open for at least 9 months.

Do you recall what the penalty was for closing the account prior to 9 months?

My guess on the extra three months at Ameritrade is that they are responding to all of the mileage junkies out there (like us).

Agreed you can read it that way, but my point is why bother to post the miles and then a short time later try to take them back? Much easier (and customer friendly) to make the posting of the second half concurrent with the minimum holding period.

I don't think they meant to take the miles back if we don't hold the min balance for 9 months. I think they'd charge for the miles at a predetermined rate (e.g. $500 for 25K) if we don't fulfill our 9 month requirement. I used to help a multi-national bank with the design of exactly this type of policy, and that's how we used to do this - charge a fee equivalent to the gift if the customer doesn't keep the min. balance for the min. holding period. Of course this would be clearly spelled out in the T&C.

In this case, their T&C does not spell out their fee and when and how they'd levy it, so I'd be interested in hearing if anybody has actually asked them about this or been charged the fee (maybe not, if it hasn't been 9 months since they changed the policy).

In reality, unless they have the system and procedure in place to catch people who drop below the balance or close their account before 9 months, there's always a chance we may not get fined. But I would err on the conservative side when figuring out if this promotion is worth it in your particular case.

To keep the speculation going, they say they will charge for the "cost" of the *points. Which would be a lot less than $500. Not sure how much *woods charges large partners for *points, but the fact that they use this terminology makes me think they're not serious about it yet. (They probably have a non-disclosure agreement with *woods on how much they pay for the *points.)

The 9-month penalty line is just a drop-in to the old terms and I still think the language is somewhat contradictory, i.e. it immediately afterwards gives you different parameters for "qualifying" for the 20k *points. How can they penalize you for something you qualified for according to their terms? The onus for clarity is on the provider, not the consumer.

Has anyone been able to get the Ameritrade deal as a 2nd account? I've had an account with them for years with only a few grand in it and I would be happy to transfer $25k to it or open another account for 20k starpoints.

I have opened 4 separate accounts:

Flyer Jon
Mrs Flyer Jon
Mr & Mrs Flyer Jon
Number 1 daughter & Flyer Jon

I closed the last one in the middle of December 04 (opened in Jun04). Nothing was deducted. They even sent an extra $6 interest separately.

I was able to open two accounts using the same ss# but one was individual, the other, joint. As number 1 son is 18, I will open another one soon.

I don't recommend trying to transfer into an existing account -- I tried and they said "no points" so I opened the joint account. You are better off trying to open a new one.

Was the new accounts the same as one of the old one's i.e. Flyer Jon or were all the new accounts different "owners"?

I did 7 accounts:
myself, wife, son, daughter, Joint Tenants, Tenants in Common, JT right of surviorship for 140,000 starwood points.

If I close these and try to open a new account in a year will they give points?