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Schwab launched a promotion this week offering $101 in stock slices when new investors open an account and fund it with $50.
The Deal
- Deposit $50+ in a new Schwab investment account & get $101 in stock slices for the top 5 stocks in the S&P 500.
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
- Must fund your account with a minimum of $50 within 30 days of opening the account to qualify. Once funded, Schwab will deposit $101 in your account to purchase your stock slices.
- Two business days after your account is opened Schwab will begin checking for deposits. Once your qualifying deposit has been received, Schwab will credit the $101 to your account and place your trades the next trading day. We’ll send you an email the night before that happens, so you’ll know when to expect your stock slices and the ability to review your orders.
- Once the orders are placed, you will have a short period of time (from approximately 8:00 pm Eastern Time until approximately 9:25am the next morning) to cancel the orders. To cancel the orders, you will need to go to the Order Status page on schwab.com or to any of Schwab’s other trading platforms or call a Schwab representative at 800-435-5000. If you cancel your orders, you keep the $101 cash bonus and can save or invest it however you want. If you take no action, the orders will be executed shortly after market open the next trading day. You will see the stocks reflected in your account and Schwab will send you trade confirmations.
Quick Thoughts
Many of us already have a Schwab investment account by virtue of having a Schwab Amex Platinum card and/or by opening a High Yield Investor Checking account to take advantage of unlimited ATM fee rebates when traveling.
If you’ve never opened a Schwab investment account though, this promotion is a great incentive to do so. Funding a new investment account with $50 will get you $101 in fractional shares for Amazon, Tesla, Apple, Alphabet (Google) and Microsoft (i.e. $20.20 in fractional shares per company).
If you’re wary of investing in the stock market or would rather invest the $101 in another way, you don’t have to have the $101 invested in those five companies. The $50 you initially fund your account with can remain there as cash or invested however you want. The terms then state you can cancel the automatically-placed orders for the stock slices so that the $101 cash bonus is available for you to save or invest however you’d like. You’ll have fewer than 13.5 hours to do that though, so keep an eye out for emails from Schwab after you’ve deposited your $50 so that you can cancel the orders for the five stock slices.
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All TD Ameritrade customers READ THIS ! … As you may know Ameritrade is migrating into Schwab .. all customers will become Schwab customers starting in February ! It will be a seamless transition .. But what you don’t know is that Schwab has a 101 dollar incentive for new customers called a starter pack ! .. So , if you are an Ameritrade customer and you start a Schwab acct before the transition in Feb where you become a Schwab customer automatically. Instead you will get $101.00 . Look it up under Schwab starter pack !… Go early and get 101 dollars free since you are going to be transitioned anyway ! This is not an advertisement . This is something I learned thru DD ! TD Ameritrade has millions of customers and if all took this advantage it will cost Schwab millions … so jump on the train before they catch this and curtail the free 101 dollars !
Just signed up for this promotion and used chat session to ask about cancelling the order and got this reply Thank you for your patience, Per the rules of the Schwab Starter Kit, you can cancel your stock orders and keep the $101 in your account to save or invest however you want. Once your account is funded, the Schwab credit will post to your account next business day. You will then receive an email of your 5 trades being placed. You will have about 1 hour to cancel these orders to save or invest the $101 in something else…………1 hour…Guess I will be camping out at my computer for the next few days
Hi Stephen, I just finished opening an account using the offer link you included. Will Schwab be sending me the Starter Kit (as pictured)? There was no additional information given about this offer during setup and funding of my account. I was hoping to give the Starter Kit as a gift to my nephew. Thanks!
I’m not certain about this, but I think that’s just a rendering of what it might look like if they did create a starter kit. I think everything with this promotion is just digital.
Is anyone else getting an issue where after entering in the information on the first page, you’re directed to a screen that says “New Schwab user? Create a Schwab login”. Once I’m here, it asks me for a Brokerage Account Number, but I don’t have that yet by this step.
Hi Stephen,
Would it make sense to sign up for the checking account togther and also get the atm card for fee free withdrawal?
Sure, that’d be worth it if you’ll make use of the checking account in the near future. Having said that, at various times in the past Schwab offered a bonus when opening a checking account using someone’s referral link. They don’t seem to be offering that right now, so if you don’t need their checking account right now for ATM fee rebates, it might be worth holding off in case that offer returns.
Would there be a hard credit inquiry to open this account?
They used to do a hard pull, but they stopped doing that a couple of years ago.
I’m almost under 5/24. Would opening this Schwab account influence that?
No – this is a brokerage account rather than a credit card and so it won’t add to your 5/24 count.
is this their best offer offered?
how long do stocks have to stay at Schwab before transferring out?
For most people, this’ll be their best offer. You can get more than $100 when opening a opening a Schwab brokerage account when somebody refers you https://www.schwab.com/client-referral
However, to get a bonus of more than $100 you have to deposit at least $50,000, so getting $101 for a deposit of $50 will be significantly better for most people.
As for how long stocks have to stay at Schwab, there’s no time limit listed. They might frown on you signing up, getting the bonus and immediately withdrawing it all though, so if you’re ever going to want to get the Schwab Platinum card I’d be cautious about doing that in case they don’t allow you to reopen a brokerage account again in the future as a result of that. I have no idea if they would do that, but the Schwab brokerage account doesn’t have any fees and so it’s not like keeping it open with them will cost you anything.
do accounts for minors still get the $101 bonus?
The terms don’t have an exclusion stating they wouldn’t – provided you can open a regular brokerage account for them, I’d assume they’d be eligible for the $101.
Will this be any help in getting a Schwab Platinum?
It won’t necessarily make it more likely that you’ll be approved for the card, but you do need to have a Schwab brokerage account in order to apply for the Schwab Platinum. Opening it now at least means that you’d earn $101.