Ameritrade Offer Questions
 

The offer is here:
http://www.ameritrade.com/united/

There are similar ones out there for other airlines/hotels.

Ameritrade refers to the *initial* balance. So is it possible to open an account for $50000, collect the 25000 miles and then reduce the balance to $2000 (to avoid maintenance fees) and keep the account open for the required 6 month?

Has anyone received miles for this offer even though they had an existing account? If this is possible, then why not roll the existing account into the new one after the first miles have posted?

I wonder if you could open ten $5,000 accounts and get 10 X 8,000 miles rather than one $50,000 accounts for 25,000 miles. Or for that matter open 50 $1,000 accounts for 50 X 3000 miles.

Precisely. Minimum funding is not equal to the initial balance. It refers to the $500 minimum balance required to keep the account open with fees or the $2000 balance without fees. At least that's how I read it. If I invested the 5000 in stock and the stock value drops below, I doubt that is a disqualifying event.

Etrade specifically addresses this issue in their offer and disallows withdrawals.

The questions remain:
1. Can someone verify that you can withdraw funds?
2. Does the apply to new accounts or to new customers only (with an existing account)?

The second route would not work because of the fees if your balance is below $2000.

But then with withdraw 10*3000 from the 10*5000 accounts and open another six. Which leaves 4*3000 for another two, etc. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

For some reason, I have my doubts...

I overfunded my account and was easily able to withdraw. After the withdrawal, I was still over the minimum amount to get the offer so I can't say anything about this point. I think I read a post several months ago about someone withdrawing too much money and they either didn't get miles or had them taken away.

As far a service, Ameritrade seems to be ok. Fast trades, decent price on the shares traded, low fees.

I agree Ameritrade's service is pretty good, no complains for the last three years. That's why I am wondering if the offer is open for new customers only.

How long did it take until your first set of miles posted?

[This message has been edited by michaelr (edited 06-11-2003).]

michaelr

I did the SPG offer and the points posted within a few days of the date my funds showup at Ameritrade.

Rules say one offer per client. When you tried to have it posted twice to the same UA/SPG account, they'd probably notice.

My husband and I have a joint Ameritrade account. I received a promotional offer in the mail and called to ask if I would qualify for the promotion by opening a new account. They said yes as long as it is different from the existing account so from what I understand a husband and wife could have a joint account and then one individual account each. The call was not specifically regarding this promotion but rather one I received some months ago.

I'm interested in this promotion. I currently have an account with E-Trade and I'm looking to open a second one with a different broker. E-Trade has some interesting stock and bond funds of their own that are nicely diversified and charge no commission if held for a minimum period. They have very reasonable maintenance fees. Does anyone know if Ameritrade has funds with similar characteristics?

I never got my points from ETrade.

I don't believe so - I'm not even sure you can buy mutual funds with Ameritrade, though I have never tried.

Yes, you can buy mutual funds with Ameritrade.

http://www.ameritrade.com/services/i..._choices.fhtml

I did this last year with Delta promotion and they screwed me and said the account balance had to meet the promotion level at account opening AND 6 months later. So don't open with a lot of $$ and then withdraw it thinking you will get the 2nd half of your miles.