Over the past few years, I’ve seen plenty of bank bonuses and other offers — some of which are great and others of which are, well, not. Given my line of work, more often, I come across really attractive offers from FinTech startups, which are so good that they usually don’t seem sustainable. Meanwhile, although big banks may promote bonuses of “up to $200” or so, the requirements to get that top tier are kind of ridiculous (think “when you deposit $20,000 or more”). That’s why I was excited to come across an offer from a well-known company that’s actually a pretty generous deal. Introducing the Schwab Starter Kit.
Let me cut to the chase here: currently, when you open a new Schwab brokerage account and deposit at least $50, you’ll receive $101 worth of free stocks (get it? 101?). By default, this $101 bonus will be issued in the form of five slices of the top five S&P 500 companies. Right now, that means you’d get around $20.20 each of Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, Google, and Apple. However, if those don’t exactly strike your fancy, there seems to be a workaround that Schwab themselves outline in their FAQ. Since Schwab will notify you the night before your Stock Slice orders are set to be placed, you’ll have time to cancel them. If you do, your $101 will still be credited to your account, allowing you to invest it as you see fit.
While this $101 bonus is obviously the star in my book, I should mention that there’s a bit more to the offer as well. Specifically, with the Starter Kit not only be aimed at new Schwab customers to those who are new to investing in general, those who sign up for this offer will also have access to educational resources on a number of topics. Looking around, this includes videos and articles on trading as well as walkthroughs about the Schwab platform itself.
Personally, I signed up for this offer a couple of weeks ago. Sure enough, a couple of days after my initial deposit cleared, I saw the $101 credit arrive. Then, the next day, my five Stock Slice orders were placed. Granted, I went ahead with this plan before I knew about the alternative, but I’ve fine with it either way. Also, I’m not sure how long you need to let your money (deposit or bonus) sit in your account before transferring it back out, but I’m happy to let my new investments sit there.
For more on the Schwab Starter Kit, I actually wrote a more in-depth look at the offer over on Dyer News. But, if you’re already convinced, you can take advantage of this deal by going to the Schwab Starter Kit site or just entering the promo code “SCHWABSTARTERKIT” when opening a new account. Either way, with an easily accessible minimum and double the value in return, I think this is definitely a deal worth considering.