$100 from Fidelity for eBay users with $10,000 min. deposit
This has been offered for a while with no expiration date mentioned, but I just got an email from Fidelity saying that it expires in a week. Basically, eBay users (you submit your userid) who deposit $10,000 in a non-retirement brokerage account, get a $100 bonus (which most likely counts as taxable interest) With the amount of money I’m spending on the holidays, any bonus will help. Click here for more information, and also here for signing up and the fine print. eBay Powersellers also get $8 trades.
I have done a bit of research on this, and it looks like a pretty good deal if you have that kind of money available. There are no opening or closing fees. There are no minimums or other annual fees if you elect for all your statements and prospectuses to be sent via e-mail. Which is good, cause some of those suckers are huge. Bonuses have been posting in about two weeks for other users.
Therefore, theoretically you could open an account with $10k, wait two weeks, and take out your $10,100 and walk away. That’s somewhere around 24% annualized return! If you really wanted to be slick about it, get your $10k from a 0% APR credit card. Be sure that you know what you are doing, however. Alternatively, Fidelity has some really low expense ratio index mutual funds (0.10%!!), which are attractive, but they have high minimums and who know how long they will stay that low. Possible bait and switch.
Find more in Deals & Offers | 12/10/04, 9:10am | Trackback
March 8th, 2005 at 8:15 pm
Update 3/8/05: I opened the account with $10k, got the $100 within 3 days, and promptly took the $10,000 out. This account is great! With online statements, there is no minimum balance, and I get free real-time quotes from them. Oh, and it looks like this deal is still good!
June 14th, 2006 at 10:34 am
I did the math, and fidelity pays better than straight interest paid on bank accounts. For example, fidelity mutual funds, like FGRXX (Government securities) pays 4.65% interest, and there is no minimum time committment. They pay dividends and interest (so tax is lower on dividends, 15% versus 35% potentially with interest)