Author Topic: Free money from brokers  (Read 2626 times)

zoro

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Free money from brokers
« on: July 31, 2017, 09:36:06 PM »
i purposely divide our portfolios between several brokers to diversify the risk of one of them going bust (yes i know they are insured) / being hacked / having my money stolen etc. i think it is a 0 cost way of removing a real non 0 risk from my life.
anyhow two that i use are ameritrade and scottrade. they announced they are merging, so i called the "private client" person at Ameritrade up to tell him i was moving the account to fidelity. 15 minutes later they called me back and offered me $4000 to stay. So i called Scottrade, and they offered me $4500. At the end of the day I had an offer from both of them for $5500. i have to stay with them for six months, but im 10k richer (before tax) it seems irrational behavior on their part, but if you have an account with them you may want to give them a call and see what they can do for you.

Kalergie

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Re: Free money from brokers
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2017, 04:18:42 AM »
How large is your portfolio or how much do you trade for any broker to think it is worthwhile spending that kind of money to keep you?

zoro

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Re: Free money from brokers
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2017, 05:28:57 AM »
Ameritrade is 1.1M and Scottrade is 1.7M. I had 0 trades in Scottrade last year, and 19 trades at Ameritrade. I have free trades with both of them so my spending is zero. They seem to be incentivized to keep assets for some reason?

Kalergie

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Re: Free money from brokers
« Reply #3 on: August 01, 2017, 06:22:44 AM »
Yes now it makes sense. I guess the saying is right. The rich get richer :D well done!

kpd905

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Re: Free money from brokers
« Reply #4 on: August 01, 2017, 06:22:59 AM »
I'd like to start getting into brokerage/IRA bonuses, but with my current balances it would pay about as much as I can get for a checking account bonus, with probably much more of a headache involved.

This site maintains a list of the best bonus offers: http://www.hustlermoneyblog.com/best-brokerage-bonuses/

Mighty-Dollar

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Re: Free money from brokers
« Reply #5 on: August 02, 2017, 03:32:09 AM »
$4,000 and $4,500??!!! Wow!
Home Depot recently knocked off like $45 from my checkout if I simply signed up for a credit card and held on to it for at least 4 months. But I've been outdone.

StudentEngineer

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Re: Free money from brokers
« Reply #6 on: August 02, 2017, 10:19:51 AM »
i purposely divide our portfolios between several brokers to diversify the risk of one of them going bust (yes i know they are insured) / being hacked / having my money stolen etc. i think it is a 0 cost way of removing a real non 0 risk from my life.
anyhow two that i use are ameritrade and scottrade. they announced they are merging, so i called the "private client" person at Ameritrade up to tell him i was moving the account to fidelity. 15 minutes later they called me back and offered me $4000 to stay. So i called Scottrade, and they offered me $4500. At the end of the day I had an offer from both of them for $5500. i have to stay with them for six months, but im 10k richer (before tax) it seems irrational behavior on their part, but if you have an account with them you may want to give them a call and see what they can do for you.

Wow thats really incredible.  I'll have to add that to annually calling cable/cellphone/internet providers to see if I can get some kickbacks.  However my portfolio is much smaller so I hesitate to think it would be successful.

Do you think you can do this annually?

How long have you held accounts with both brokers?

ChpBstrd

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Re: Free money from brokers
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2017, 02:21:55 PM »
I wonder how much of your balance is in money market funds. Those "funds" are basically free loans to your broker. It could explain some of their behavior - but not all.

I suppose this is rationalized as being cheaper than marketing/sales.