Transfer/deposit offer has been extended though March 2023. Tastyworks is a discount brokerage targeted at active options traders, as they are cheaper than the big brokers for options trading while also having the full fancy options interface. Right now, they have a up to $2,000 ACAT transfer bonus with referral code TIERED_2023 and you must keep the initial funding there for 12 months.
New customers who open and fund a tastyworks account with $5,000 or more in cash or by an account transfer (ACATS) and enter TIERED_2023 into their referral code field when initially registering with tastyworks will receive a cash bonus. The bonus amount is dependent on the initial funding amount. There is a 12-month withdrawal hold on the initial funding amount to retain the cash bonus. You can find each tier’s funding threshold and resulting payout in the table below.
- $100 with $5,000 – $24,999 in transferred assets or deposits
- $500 with $25,000 – $99,999 in qualifying new money
- $2,000 with $100,000+ in qualifying new money
Eligible account types include individual (cash or margin), joint (cash or margin), LLC, Partnerships, S-Corp, C-Corp (cash or margin), and Autotrade enabled accounts. IRAs, trust accounts, and international customers are not eligible. Promotion extended to March 31st, 2023. Note their definitions:
WHEN WILL I SEE THE AWARDED CASH IN MY ACCOUNT?
Awarded cash generally gets delivered to an account 1-4 business days after the initial deposit settles.WHEN DOES THE 12-MONTH HOLD PERIOD START?
The date starts the day the awarded cash is delivered to your account.AM I ELIGIBLE FOR THE TIERED OFFER IF I AM ALREADY AN EXISTING TASTYWORKS CUSTOMER?
The tiered offer is only open to new tastyworks customers. Unfortunately, if you already have an open and funded tastyworks trading account, regardless of account type, then you are not eligible for this promotion.
Brokerage Asset Bonuses vs. Bank Deposit Bonuses. There is an important difference between brokerage asset bonuses and bank deposit bonuses. A bank deposit bonus pays you extra interest for holding a certain amount of cash with them. A brokerage asset bonus requires you to transfer over your existing investments like index funds, individual shares of Apple or Berkshire Hathaway, individual shares of REITs, and so on. You still own the asset and it’s still doing its thing. The brokerage bonus is on top.
In this example, if you really wanted to compare it directly against an interest rate, you should at least assume you will be holding a T-Bill ETF like SGOV, GBIL, or BIL (current SEC yield over 4%) and then adding 2% to that yield. However, the real benefit for patient, long-term investors that you can just keep your existing assets and earn yourself a nice “self-management fee”.
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Stay away from Tastyworks, they will find a way to make all the money back that they gave you.
I used your website for years but this is a big no no.
Interesting, I’ve already gotten a previous bonus from them and walked away with no issues.
So that’s a maximum of 2% bonus (if you’re at the minimum end of those ranges… closer to 0.5% if you’re near the top of a tier) , and you’re locked in for one year. That’s a nice perk if you want to do your options trading with them, but otherwise you’re better off parking the money with SoFi at 2.5% interest, for instance.
this is simply a 2% offer, or less. You can get double that with a one year treasury. However, sadly, they really have little competition because brokerage firms as a general rule offer nothing to hold your savings or have obscene requirements to get a bonus. Mine is held at Ally Savings paying 2.25%, which is not great, and I transfer it to Ally Invest when i feel like getting my head bashed in in the market. The one year commit is troubling as well. Side note is I just saw today that Ally is offering up to a $500 bonus for new money. I have no connection to Ally other than being a long time customer. Oh and the terminology withdrawal hold is troubling as well. it’s my money not theres. Id expect a penalty for withdrawing early. Not a hold. 100K for waving goodbye to my money for a year long hold paying 2% interest is not for me.
There is an important difference between brokerage asset bonuses and bank deposit bonuses. You just transfer over your existing investments like index funds, individual shares of Apple or Berkshire Hathaway, shares of REITs, or or whatever. The brokerage bonus is on top. People get excited when an index fund cuts its expense ratio by 5 basis points. This is 200 basis points!
If you really wanted to compare it against an interest rate, you should assume holding a T-Bill ETF like GBIL or BIL (current SEC yield roughly 2.5%) and then adding 2% to that yield.
You can buy money market funds at brokerages that return more than those advertised rates. Fidelity has SPRXX that has a 7 day yield of 2.9% no minimum. Would be interesting to know if Tastyworks has something like that.
The link for the offer says the amount has to be deposited, there’s nothing on the offer page about an ACAT qualifying? “The Promotion is available to (1) all approved new customers (as determined by Tax ID) who fund their tastyworks account with $5,000 USD or more, and (2) existing customers who have never funded any tastyworks account prior to the start of the Promotional Period, and who fund their existing brokerage account with $5,000 USD or more (each, a “Qualified Account”).”
Ah, thank you, now I see the source of confusion. I fixed the link to include the FAQ which clearly includes ACAT transfer amount as counting. I didn’t notice the nicer landing page didn’t include acat transfers. This is their official terms and FAQ:
https://support.tastyworks.com/support/solutions/articles/43000678965-tiered-opening-promotion-2022
Jonathan, as far as I can tell whoever had an account with them before is not eligible to be a ‘new customer’: The Promotion is available to (1) all approved new customers (as determined by Tax ID) who fund their tastyworks account with $5,000 USD or more…
I got the $500 back in 2020 and closed my account this year.
Do you agree with my reading of their offer?
I’m not sure how far they look back, but I would probably agree that if you are a recent customer then they won’t give you the bonus.
“AM I ELIGIBLE FOR THE TIERED OFFER IF I AM ALREADY AN EXISTING TASTYWORKS CUSTOMER?
The tiered offer is only open to new tastyworks customers. Unfortunately, if you already have an open and funded tastyworks trading account, regardless of account type, then you are not eligible for this promotion. “