Author Topic: Merrill Edge incentives getting temporarily increased 50% in 1Q. Free $900.  (Read 5299 times)

TomTX

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Just as a heads-up, Merrill Edge (the personal brokerage arm of Bank of America) will be bumping up their standard incentives by 50%, likely starting tomorrow.

I moved my IRAs a couple of months ago, wife got told about the upcoming bonus bump when she called in and got approved for it early.

This means if you move $200k of investment over to Merrill Edge, you will get paid $900. It's super simple to keep the account fee-free with ETFs. Plus you will get ramped up in their customer loyalty program over a couple of months, which  means 100 free trades a month, and a 75% bonus on some of the BoA cash back credit cards.

I wasn't even out of the market, since they did an in-kind transfer of my VTI. Phone representatives have been very competent.

Note: If you are moving multiple accounts to total $200k, they can manually link them for the bonus. Default is to just look at each account individually.

kpd905

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How long do the funds need to stay there?  I'd like to try some brokerage/IRA bonuses, but didn't know if they would be worth the effort.  How long does it generally take the complete the whole process?  We made $6,000 from checking and savings bonuses in 2017, so I am looking to try this, but thought it might be a bit more complicated.

TomTX

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Funds need to stay 3 months. Figure setup and transfer might take a couple of weeks.

Actual hands-on time is just a couple of hours to set up the account(s) and set up the transfer.  If you're in an ETF, it's an in-kind transfer so you won't miss any market moves in the meantime.

Basically free money for little work. Some brokerages will have account closure fees - watch those.

inline five

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They gave me $1,000 last year. I don't trade so the free trades are/were meaningless. But so far for the free $$ and perks by being a BoA customer I like it. They just babysit your holdings.

Waaaay better than Scottrade where I came from. I like Fidelity also, but the Merril Edge side is the more online DIY brokerage side of their stuff.

inline five

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How long do the funds need to stay there?  I'd like to try some brokerage/IRA bonuses, but didn't know if they would be worth the effort.  How long does it generally take the complete the whole process?  We made $6,000 from checking and savings bonuses in 2017, so I am looking to try this, but thought it might be a bit more complicated.

That's awesome. How much did you have on hand to produce $6k? Did you do direct deposits? If so any way to do it without changing your work deposits?

kpd905

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That's awesome. How much did you have on hand to produce $6k? Did you do direct deposits? If so any way to do it without changing your work deposits?

The most we had to deposit for savings bonuses was $15,000.  We could move that same $15,000 around to hit four different bonuses.  And we did lots of direct deposits, luckily I can change mine online at work in about 30 seconds.  However, some banks recognize an ACH transfer from an outside bank as a direct deposit, there is a list of data points at Doctor of Credit.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/knowledge-base/list-methods-banks-count-direct-deposits/

Right now I would only qualify for the $250 tier, so I don't think it would be worth the effort if it takes multiple hours.  Unless I can convince them to give me $450 or so since I am close to the next tier.

inline five

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That's awesome. How much did you have on hand to produce $6k? Did you do direct deposits? If so any way to do it without changing your work deposits?

The most we had to deposit for savings bonuses was $15,000.  We could move that same $15,000 around to hit four different bonuses.  And we did lots of direct deposits, luckily I can change mine online at work in about 30 seconds.  However, some banks recognize an ACH transfer from an outside bank as a direct deposit, there is a list of data points at Doctor of Credit.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/knowledge-base/list-methods-banks-count-direct-deposits/

Right now I would only qualify for the $250 tier, so I don't think it would be worth the effort if it takes multiple hours.  Unless I can convince them to give me $450 or so since I am close to the next tier.

That's interesting as I can change it online too. Hmm. I did reach about the ACH stuff but to make it easy I was investigating opening a business account and how to send my own direct deposit monies to other accounts. Didn't get very far because I wasn't totally sure what I was doing. 2018 might be a year I look into this more.

TomTX

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They gave me $1,000 last year. I don't trade so the free trades are/were meaningless. But so far for the free $$ and perks by being a BoA customer I like it. They just babysit your holdings.

Waaaay better than Scottrade where I came from. I like Fidelity also, but the Merril Edge side is the more online DIY brokerage side of their stuff.

Yes, those $1k offers are notionally for people who attend particular Expos and such - my wife tried it with just the code, no luck.

dragoncar

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Thanks for the tip!

inline five

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They gave me $1,000 last year. I don't trade so the free trades are/were meaningless. But so far for the free $$ and perks by being a BoA customer I like it. They just babysit your holdings.

Waaaay better than Scottrade where I came from. I like Fidelity also, but the Merril Edge side is the more online DIY brokerage side of their stuff.

Yes, those $1k offers are notionally for people who attend particular Expos and such - my wife tried it with just the code, no luck.

I found the code online and called after I opened up my account. I basically told them, you can give me the money now or I will just shut this account and open up another...for the extra $400 I will do whatever gets me that money. They fixed it :).

dividendman

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interesting... 900 seems worth having another account

Huffduf41

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Don’t forget about Uncle Sam...is $900 * .7 still worth it?

undercover

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Don’t forget about Uncle Sam...is $900 * .7 still worth it?

For a few minutes of your time...yeah?

dividendman

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Plus, now that I'm retired, I won't have much income since I'll be in a low bracket.

Hrm... on the Merrill Edge site it still only shows $600 for a $200k account opening.

TomTX

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Plus, now that I'm retired, I won't have much income since I'll be in a low bracket.

Hrm... on the Merrill Edge site it still only shows $600 for a $200k account opening.

I saw that - you should be able to get the $900 when you call in. Wife got that offer, and she called in at the end of December.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!