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.

Too bad they don't say it in the offer. Always a catch.

The SPG offer says in bold:

Please allow 6-8 weeks from account funding for the first half of Starpoints to appear in your Starwood Preferred Guest account. Account must remain open with minimum funding of elected tier level for 6 months; at that time allow 6-8 weeks for the second half of Starpoints to appear in your Starwood Preferred Guest account.

Might not have been clear then, but it looks pretty clear now.

Hmmm, now let's take a look at the United offer. The decisive words 'elected tier level' are conspicuously absent as of 6/12/03 10.05pm CST anyway.

"Offer valid for new Individual or Joint accounts opened and funded between 11/01/02 and 07/31/03. Please allow 4-6 weeks from account funding for the first half of the miles to appear in your United account. Account must remain open with minimum funding for 6 months; at that time allow 4-6 weeks for the second half of the miles to appear in your United account."

Edited for change of emphasis.

[This message has been edited by michaelr (edited 06-12-2003).]

[This message has been edited by michaelr (edited 06-12-2003).]

They updated the language the day after I spoke to the CEO's secretary. It used to just say "Minimum level of funding" which inferred the $2,000 level.

I would print a copy of the wording current whne you submit your paperwork to open the account. "Just in case" it changes after the fact.

I had no problem getting the 25,000 Delta miles. The second half posted in April, even though the value had dropped below $50,000.


[This message has been edited by flowerchild (edited 06-14-2003).]

How long ago did you open the account? I did the NWA 2500 points Etrade deal and got the poiints on May 3rd for an account opened on April 2nd

Did it drop because you withdrew money or because the market value of your investments fell?

My understanding was that it was fine if your minimum balance fell because of market conditions but not if you withdrew cash from the account.

on Etrade, they had very loose offer language and then some fine print on the confirm screen, which I printed out but did not read until I wrote to complain 6 mos later.

It's confirmed.

1. You can collect the first 4000 bonus miles even if you already have an account with Ameritrade.
2. My miles posted about 2-3 weeks after I started the application.

I did transfer new money into the account and then transfered stock from the old into the new and now I am withdrawing the 'new' money.

We'll see if the remaining 4000 will post. I'd be surpised if they didn't. Ultimately, I just did it to top off my account to get above 50000 miles.

I opened a first time account on July 9th with $5000. My 4000 miles just posted this evening (July 18th). I'll probably leave the money there for another month or more, but not sure yet if I will wait out the six months for the other 4000 miles or not. Still, I'm quite happy with how well it has worked so far http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I have been waiting over six weeks for the first 10,000 points to post. It seems you always have to work for the points/miles!

any spg offers for current account holders?

Opened the account with Ameritrade and sent them the money about 10 days ago - $25,000 for 20,000 Starpoints. Got the first 10,000 today. They said 6-8 weeks, but it was only 10 days! God Bless FlyerTalk! :p

I did this about a year ago, kept the initial amount in for the full 6 months, and then closed it down. Got the points at the beginning and the end with no problems. In my case, I just let it languish in a tax-free money market fund.