I think it's 9 months not 6

Instead of pulling out, if you can, I suggest you open an account with Fidelity Brokerage, transfer your Ameritrade assets there and add about $14K to get another 25K UAL or American miles.

Did you call?

I opened my account years ago with no bonus. Last fall TD Ameritrade offered to give me the spg bonus if I just increased my account balance. Instead of opening a new account with $25k, add $25k to what you have.

I have couple of questions about this deal.

How long would it take to get bonus miles (United) to be posted into my UAL account? It shows within 6 weeks but I want to know more realistic time-frame. In case of Fidelity (which shows same 6-week), it only takes 3-5 business days.

Also, regarding "Account must remain open with minimum funding for 9 months, or TD AMERITRADE may charge the account for the cost of the miles," what exactly mean by "minimum funding"? I don't think it refers to the initial funding amount. But, according to this thread, most people believe initial funding need to be kept in Ameritrade for 9 month. I want to know if this is true. I couldn't find anything about "minimum funding" (I might call to ask). In Fidelity, I can withdraw the money (not even a minimum funding) at any time.

In case it helps, I did the Starwood promotion and TD Waterhouse posted my points within 1 week, despite what the T&C say.

I'm also interested in what kthan is asking for -- are the "minimum funding" (required to get the point at all) and the "initial funding" (setting how many SPG points you might get after 9 months) one and the same? In other words, do I really have to keep $25K in there if I want to get 20K SPG points, or can I get by with less $$ "locked" for 9 months? Thanks!

I don't know, but I can say that TD Ameritrade posts these manually, with a human involved. So you probably don't want a balance of $1 unless you can get a clear answer on this question.

Opening a joint account with spouse works, that may be your best bet

Also there is more than one type of joint account. Each one qualifies as a "new" account.

Thanks. I never thought of that angle. I have opened one for me, my spouse and joint.

I am wondering if anyone has experience to share for joint account bonus since I heard different stories from different CSRs.

1. Yes, each join account with different "title" can get new account bonus.
2. No. TD Ameritrade trace this by primary account holder's SSN. (So if both A and B got bonus before, A+B won't get bonus)

Also, it is still unclear if you need to keep the money for 9 months to get second half. I read some posts in different forum that even they don't keep the money they still get the bonus. Anyone fail to get the bonus under this condition?

Thanks for anwser.