Sharebuilder will offer you 2500 US Airways miles for registering. (Here’s the offer directly on the Sharebuilder site as well.)
But here’s the kicker:
- I’ve had a Sharebuilder account in the past. I got the miles for ‘renewing’ my account, basically entering my login information, updating my contact information, and linking it up with the US Airways offer.
- I didn’t fund the account or engage in any transactions. I didn’t even link a bank account to do transfers into the Sharebuilder account, I skipped that part choosing to ‘return later’.
A couple of minutes of online forms, not even a new customer, and no money spent … I opened the account on Saturday, October 1 and the miles were there on Tuesday, October 4. And a ‘hit’ in the US Airways Grand Slam promotion.
The terms and conditions of the offer say that it’s for new customers only, and that the miles will be awarded after your first trade. I had heard that in practice that wasn’t the case, and my experience bore that out.
Hi Gary, looks like you forgot the link?
Yeah Gary, the link doesn’t work.
Just tried doing it, but didn’t work for me. Says this promotion is not intended for the Sharebuilder site.
I set mine up a couple weeks ago and also just received a quarterly bonus of 500 miles 🙂
Askia: I got the same thing when trying the promo code under the promotions tab in ShareBuilder
Gary: Before you took advantage of this offer, had you “closed out” your previous Sharebuilder account or was it still open?
Nice one Gary – I just followed the same steps you outlined so let’s see if I reap the same rewards!
@Chris it wasn’t ‘closed out’ though i don’t think there was any money in it. Honestly, when I logged into it during the signup process I didn’t even check. Years ago I think I funded it with $5 to earn some eBay Anything Points which I converted over to Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles…
This deal is a dead duck now. Too bad.
im in will see what happens
I registered yesterday without funding or linking my bank account and 2500 miles posted today. Free hit!
I opened an account 4 years ago and clear it out. Dunno if I actually closed it. But when I try to resign up, it says i already have an account.
Well that should just about kill this deal. Oh well.
DEAD.
James- you can open a new account for 2500 miles. I had a dormant individual account and I opened an IRA . Just to be safe, I transferred a small amount of money to buy one share.
Thank you. I searched FW after I signed up and found this:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1123218/
I wonder if they are combineable?
Actually, this shouldn’t be a problem. When you follow the directions as outlined above, even if you have an existing Sharebuilder account, you are creating a new account.
I created a new account tonight, funded it with a small amount, and got an co-branded USAir and ING e-mail back saying, “congrats for setting up a new account”.
Went through the process, it made me link my bank account, ‘return later’ did not work for me. Will find out in a day or two if the miles post. Thanks Gary.
If anyone is living under a rock and not doing the Grand Slam you might as well register for the Grand Slam and do 11 more hits to get to 12. The first 12 hits will get you 25K bonus miles and cost less than $100.
Whoops, meant to say 16 hits gets you 25K bonus miles.
Kind of strange that the miles would post when the fine print states:
“*Mileage Disclaimer: You must open a new ShareBuilder account to be eligible for the initial bonus miles. Limit one per unique customer or custodial beneficiary. Dividend Miles Members will receive 2,500 bonus miles after opening a new account and purchasing their first security.”
So you are suppose to have purchased one stock prior to the miles posting.
@ Rich – a lot of the Grand Slam ‘hits’ are like that – you get credit for some when you didn’t think you should – – – and you won’t get credit (magazines, insurance quotes, etc.) when you think you should, or even when (in the case of the magazines) the miles get pulled from your account.
Opened my Sharebuilder account on oct 1, got the welcome letter, but nothing has posted yet to US Airways account… waiting, hopefully before it is DEAD.
Seems to work for me the night of Oct. 4. I haven’t had an account before, and I chose to return later to complete bank information. The system created an account for me.
Of course you’re supposed to trade to qualify for the 2,500 miles, so we’ll see if it posts without that.
And not long before it is abused and closed by all the people not FUNDING their accounts.
R the miles worth divulging my social security number?
Opening a brokerage account will probably lower your FICO score by triggering a “hard pull.”
@ Alan – Are you sure this definitely will trigger a hard pull? If so, that should be made clear in the post. I didn’t think it would trigger a hard pull…
Gary, isn’t this one of the “subscription” hits for the Grand Slam that if you cancel within 6 months, you lose all of your Grand Slam points? I guess not funding it is different than closing or canceling it, but still seems important for you to mention if you’re going to promote this as a strategy.
Thanks for the tip. I registered this morning so hopefully I will see the points hit in the next couple of days. I need the hit for the grand slam!!!
This one will now die. Glad I got my miles last night.
Todd — When you open an account with a financial institution — and provide your social security number — some banks and brokers do a “soft pull” and some do a “hard pull.” Someone told me that Sharebuilder does a “hard pull,” but I have no personal experience with them.
Todd — As another example, Scottrade told me personally that they do a hard pull when you open any account with them.
This does create a new account, under an existing login if you have one and enter it, but new brokerage account nonetheless. Costco regularly offers $90 for this signup – what a waste for 2.5k miles. ShareBuilder does detect multiple accounts in the same name and will eventually blacklist you, from ING as well. No hard pull though. It costs money to transfer out securities or close the account, but you can leave it open with zero balance. They also have a promo where they pay you $100 to transfer over $500 from another brokerage, which is combinable with signup promo. The other brokerage will typically charge $50 to $75, but if you’ve got some accounts you need to close anyway (e.g. at Fidelity or TD Ameritrade from prior signup deals), it’s a really good deal.
Don’t sign up for margin, futures trading, etc, and you won’t get a hard pull from most brokerages.
My points still have not posted after 6 days.
Thanks for screwing up the grand slam.
@Nun you really have no idea what you’re talking about. US Airways Dividend Miles folks read the Flyertalk threads on Grand Slam. If you think this post alerted them then you really are quite silly 😉