Updated March 12, 2009.
Last month, I praised ShareBuilder for its low fees in a list of the best true discount brokerages. In the past, ShareBuilder has offered free money in the form of account opening bonuses to attract new customers, but these promotions have been missing since ING Direct purchased the brokerage.
ShareBuilder has introduced a new $25 bonus, only applicable for new customers. In order to qualify, open a new account, use the promotion code 25WCFA, and make a trade by July 31. After the first trade, the $25 will be deposited within four weeks.
Note: To use this code, on the account opening screen, select the box next to “I’m responding to a promotion.” The website will prompt you for your promotion code. If you enter the incorrect code, ShareBuilder will let you know and not let you proceed to the next screen. If the code is valid, you will be able to proceed to the next step, but there is no immediate acknowledgment of the code’s acceptance.
My strategy would be to open an account with this promotion code, transfer $25 into the account, purchase an exchange-traded fund or a stock. The purchase will require a $4 fee, so you will be buying $21 worth of the investment. Wait for the bonus to deposited into your ShareBuilder account, and transfer the $25 back to your savings or checking.
Following this plan, you will have $21 in your investment without having spent any of your own money. ShareBuilder does not currently charge account maintenance or inactivity fees, so your free money will only be eaten away by the poor performance of your investment. I hope that your ShareBuilder investments perform better than mine have, though.
Thanks to Consumerism Commentary reader Sarah for informing me about this new promotion.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I just tried to use the promotion code and got a “The Promotion Code you entered cannot be found. ” message.
Megan: I had a typo originally, try ING25JULY08.
I have a question:
My wife and I have a joint ING account, but only I have sharebuilder (we just got married). She received the promotional email. If I added her to my account is there any way we could get that $25? Or would she have to create her own account?
Thanks! I’ve been thinking about signing up, but essentially being able to start investing for “free” sounds great. I wonder what I should invest that $21 in!
Excuse me for my ignorance but will withdrawing the bonus trigger any tax implications? I know if there are any, then they’ll be minor but it’s nice to know. I was under the impression that taxes only come to play when you sell your stocks but I’m unsure……
EN: The bonus is taxable income, probably as interest, but ShareBuilder hasn’t included it on their 1099s in the past. The income occurs when the bonus is deposited into your ShareBuilder account, not when you withdraw it into your funding source.
Ryan: Your wife should create her own account for the safest way of earning the bonus. You might be able to earn a bonus by opening a second ShareBuilder account under your existing ID, though. That has worked in the past. The company did stop some people from earning multiple bonuses while others didn’t run into any problems.
It looks as if current account holders can qualify for this bonus as well, just by opening up a separate account linked to your original account information. But don’t hold me responsible if they don’t award you the bonus, if they retract the bonus, or if they freeze your new ShareBuilder account. They advertise that this bonus is for new accounts only, so I would stick to that to be on the safe side.
$50 bonus’s:
50GO28
50CITIZENS
I almost lost this one from this morning’s e-mail, but the latest code for getting $25 for opening a ShareBuilder account is BIGBILLS08. I may just open one this time.