E*TRADE IRA and Brokerage Account Bonus: Free Trades and Up To $2500 In Cash

This post is part of our series on IRA & Brokerage bonuses. Every Tuesday we share another bonus with you.

The Offer

E*TRADE is offering a tiered deposit bonus in the form of 60 days of free trades and cash bonuses of up to $2,500 for customers who open a new E*TRADE Securities Individual, Joint, or Retirement account and fund it with qualifying deposits.

60 days of free trades are available for deposits of $10,000 or more, while a combination of cash and free trades are offered for deposits of $25,000 or more.

Note that while the offer link page will indicate that this bonus is up to $600, the fine print at the bottom of the page clarifies the complete bonus ladder of up to $2,500 for higher deposits. E*TRADE customer support also confirmed this. If you plan to deposit $500,000 or more and would like additional confirmation that the higher bonus would be honored, it is advisable to contact E*TRADE prior to pursuing this offer.

Free Trades and Deposit Bonus Up to $2,500

Direct link

To receive the cash bonus you must do the following:

• Open an E*TRADE Securities Individual, Joint, or Retirement account by 12/31/2015 and make a qualifying deposit or transfer of new funds or securities (including rollovers) from external accounts within 45 days of account opening.

Rules:

• Accounts must be opened by 12/31/2015 for offer eligibility.
• You will not be compensated for unused free trades.
• Offer not available to current E*TRADE associates, non-U.S. residents, or for Unincorporated Organization or E*TRADE Bank accounts.
• You must maintain the qualifying funds or securities in the account (minus trading losses) for a minimum of six months to avoid forfeiting the credit.
• Limit one per customer.
• Receive up to 500 free trade commissions for each trade initiated within 60 days of the funds being made available for investment.
• You will pay $9.99 for the first 149 stock or options trades and $7.99 subsequently, up to 500 stock or options trades (plus 75¢ per options contract). Your account will be credited for trades within a week, after paying the standard commission charge.
• Eligible IRAs are Rollover, Traditional, Roth, and E*TRADE’s OneStop Rollover. The OneStop Rollover allows you to open a new Rollover IRA with E*TRADE and deposit your old 401(k) directly into an Online Managed Investment Portfolio.
• Prior to investing in a managed account, E*TRADE will obtain information about your financial situation and provide you with a detailed investment proposal, investment advisory agreement, and program brochure. It is recommended that you read these documents before participating in E*TRADE’s managed account program.
• You can invest in mutual funds through E*TRADE Securities’ no-load, no-transaction fee program without paying loads, transaction fees, or commissions. E*TRADE charges an Early Redemption Fee of $49.99 on redemptions or exchanges of no-load, no transaction fee funds that are held fewer than 90 days. Direxion, ProFunds and Rydex mutual funds are not subject to this Early Redemption Fee.

The Verdict

E*TRADE’s $200 cash offer at the $25,000 deposit tier is only matched by the Capital One ShareBuilder promotion. However, E*TRADE has a leg-up on ShareBuilder at this deposit tier due to its additional offer of 60 days of commission-free trades. For E*TRADE, this may be a valuable option, as their standard pricing structure for stocks, options, and ETF trades is $9.99 for 0-140 trades per quarter. The rate is reduced to $7.99 for 150+ trades per quarter, and $6.99 for 1,500 trades per quarter. Therefore, you would have to be quite an active trader to take advantage of the lower trade fee at E*TRADE. The ShareBuilder rate is just $6.95 for online trades, regardless of number of trades executed.

As with TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE has a large selection of no-load, no-transaction-fee funds – over 1,300+. However, if for any reason you should opt to select funds with transaction fees, E*TRADE would be more cost-effective than TD Ameritrade in that respect as their trading fee is $19.99 for transaction-fee funds, versus $49.99 for transaction-fee funds at TD Ameritrade. E*TRADE also has a number of commission-free ETFs, but note that E*TRADE (as well as TD Ameritrade) charges a short-term trading fee on sales of participating ETFs in order to discourage short-term trading.

E*TRADE continues to be cited in Kiplinger’s list of Best Online Brokers. In 2014, E*TRADE came in third in Kiplinger’s list in the category of research insights, for utilizing eight top research firms including Credit Suisse, Thomas Reuters, and Market Edge.