Brokerages compete aggressively for your money. One way to do this is to offer competitive bonuses that you can add directly to your brokerage account. Knowing the best deals is important so you can decide if it’s a good time to open a brokerage account and take advantage of what is often risk-free money.
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A photo of the Charles Schwab brokerage building
Here Bankrate tracks the best brokerage account bonuses to help you compare active offers.
Best Brokerage Account Bonuses in October 2021
- Charles Schwab: $ 100 to $ 1,000 (personally referred friend offer)
- Ally Invest: $ 100 to $ 3,000
- M1 Finance: $ 250 to $ 2,500
- eToro: $ 50 (personally sponsored friend offer)
Charles Schwab: $ 100, $ 300, $ 500 or $ 1,000 (if referred by a friend)
Schwab is offering personally sponsored friends the opportunity to earn up to $ 1,000 when they use a referral code, given to you by a current Schwab customer, and open an eligible Schwab account.
To receive the bonus you must:
- Receive a referral code from a friend or family member.
- Be a new Schwab customer and make a qualifying net deposit within 45 days of joining Schwab and opening a qualifying retail brokerage account.
You are limited to one per account and one account per customer when you receive a referral.
Schwab retail brokerage accounts and IRAs are eligible for this offer. This includes accounts enrolled in Schwab sponsored investment advisory programs, such as Schwab Smart Portfolios, Schwab Managed Portfolios, Schwab Managed Account Select and Connection, as well as Schwab Private Client.
You will receive your bonus approximately a week or two after the end of the 45 day period if you have made a qualifying deposit by becoming a new Schwab customer and signing up for the referral offer.
Schwab can re-invoice his bonus if the taxable accounts are not kept with Schwab for at least one year.
Here are the bonus levels for this offer:
- To receive a bonus of $ 100, deposit $ 25,000 to $ 49,999.
- To receive a bonus of $ 300, deposit $ 50,000 to $ 99,999.
- To receive a bonus of $ 500, deposit $ 100,000 to $ 499,999.
- To receive a bonus of $ 1,000, deposit $ 500,000 or more.
Read Charles Schwab’s review of Bankrate to find out more.
Ally Invest: $ 100, $ 250, $ 300, $ 600, $ 1,200, $ 2,000 or $ 3,000 bonus
New Ally Invest clients can earn up to $ 3,000 in cash bonus if they open a new account before December 31, 2021. Qualifying deposit must contain funds outside of Ally Financial, and a person cannot obtain the offer only on one new Ally Invest. Securities LLC account. As an added incentive, Ally will credit your transfer fee from another brokerage, up to $ 150 as long as you bring at least $ 2,500 to the new account.
Ally Invest verifies your deposit 60 days after opening your account to determine the total eligible deposit. You will receive your cash bonus within 10 business days of this review.
To receive a cash bonus you must:
- Deposit at least $ 10,000 into a new Ally Invest account.
- Be a US resident.
- Not be an existing Ally Invest account holder or a former Ally Invest account holder (this includes former TradeKing Securities LLC account holders). You are not eligible to receive the cash bonus if you have closed any of these Ally Invest accounts within the last 90 days.
You must use the “Open an account” button associated with this offer on the Ally Invest website to open your account to be able to benefit from this offer.
Here are the bonus levels for this offer:
- To receive the $ 100 bonus, deposit or transfer $ 10,000 to $ 24,999.
- To receive the $ 250 bonus, deposit or transfer $ 25,000 to $ 99,999.
- To receive the $ 300 bonus, deposit or transfer $ 100,000 to $ 249,999.
- To receive the $ 600 bonus, deposit or transfer $ 250,000 to $ 499,999.
- To receive the $ 1,200 bonus, deposit or transfer between $ 500,000 and $ 999,999.
- To receive the $ 2,000 bonus, deposit or transfer $ 1 million to $ 1,999,999.
- To receive the $ 3,000 bonus, deposit or transfer $ 2 million or more.
Once you have received your bonus, the cash bonus and your qualifying deposit (less any trading losses incurred) cannot be withdrawn for 300 days. A withdrawal may cause Ally Invest to revoke your bonus.
Read Bankrate’s Ally Invest review to find out more.
M1 Finance: $ 250, $ 500, $ 1,000 or $ 2,500 bonus
You can earn a cash bonus at M1 Finance if you open a retirement account or taxable brokerage account. Your account must be funded before December 31, 2021.
To receive the bonus you must:
- Make a direct transfer of at least $ 100,000 from your broker to M1 through the ACATS transfer system.
- Open your new account with funds or securities from accounts outside M1.
- Make a qualifying transfer within 60 days of opening a qualifying retail brokerage account.
- Have an individual or joint taxable account to receive the premium payment.
This offer is not valid for money deposited from an ACH bank account transfer, wire transfers or direct 401 (k) rollovers. The cryptocurrency is not eligible for ACATS and all securities not supported by M1 will be liquidated.
The bonus will be paid approximately 90 days after the end of the qualifying transfer. To hold the bonus money, you will need to hold the new account balance (minus trading losses) for at least 60 days.
Here are the bonus levels for this offer:
- To receive a bonus of $ 250, deposit $ 100,000 to $ 249,999.
- To receive a bonus of $ 500, deposit $ 250,000 to $ 499,999.
- To receive a bonus of $ 1,000, deposit between $ 500,000 and $ 999,999.
- To receive a bonus of $ 2,500, deposit $ 1 million or more.
eToro: $ 50 bonus (for referrals of eligible friends)
You and a friend can both earn a $ 50 bonus on eToro if you refer a friend who signs up with the broker.
To receive the bonus you must:
- Log into your eToro account.
- Copy your referral link for the promotion or share button.
- Send the link to your friends and family.
- Make (or have made) transactions totaling at least $ 100 within the first 30 days of opening the account.
Your referral must be a new customer who has never registered with any of the eToro applications before. Your referral must register within 30 days of the first click on the bonus link.
To receive this award, you and your downline must live in one of the eligible states or territories. And within 30 days of registering with eToro, you and your referral must make a first deposit to an eToro account and complete one or more transactions totaling at least $ 100.
A referred friend can receive this promotion once, while a referrer can receive it up to 10 times. Those who receive a reward must not attempt to withdraw the reward within 30 days of receiving it.
- To earn the $ 50 referral bonus, you and your referred friend must open an account and complete transactions worth at least $ 100.
Read Bankrate’s eToro review to learn more.
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