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The Offer
- Charles Schwab is offering a brokerage bonus, there are three different tiers:
- Deposit $100k-$249k of cash or securities into a Schwab taxable brokerage account and get two ski lift tickets at any participating resort
- Deposit $250k-$499k of cash or securities into a Schwab taxable brokerage account and get two ski lift tickets at any participating resort & a $300 gift card to the North Face
- Deposit $500k+ of cash or securities into a Schwab taxable brokerage account and get four ski lift tickets at any participating resort & a $300 gift card to the North Face
The Fine Print
- This offer is valid 10/1/18 through 3/31/19 for individuals who make a qualifying net deposit into a taxable retail Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”) brokerage account within 30 days of enrollment in the offer. Net deposits are assets deposited into the account minus assets withdrawn from the account and transferred out of Schwab. Only assets new to Schwab qualify; assets transferred from affiliates are excluded. Except for accounts pledged to Charles Schwab Bank, you must maintain the qualifying net deposit amount (less any market losses) at Schwab for at least one year or Schwab may charge back the value of the award.
- Upon either confirmation of a $500,000 net deposit or the 35th day after enrollment, whichever comes earlier, you will be sent a redemption code to be redeemed through a third-party provider for the award for which you qualified. Redemption codes will be redeemed through Links Unlimited, Inc. and will expire on 12/31/19.
- The ARV of each lift ticket will vary from $45 to $115 depending on the ski resort, time of year, and other factors.
- This offer is limited to one per client. It does not apply to accounts managed by independent investment advisors, the Schwab Global Account, business accounts, fiduciary accounts, IRA accounts, ERISA-covered retirement plans, certain tax-qualified retirement plans and accounts, or education savings accounts. The value of the award, when combined with the value received from all other offers in the last 12 months, may not exceed $5,000 per household, as defined in the Charles Schwab Pricing Guide for Individual Investors. This offer is not transferable, saleable, or valid in connection with certain other offers and is available to U.S. residents only. Employees, contractors, or persons similarly associated with Schwab or a Schwab affiliate; their spouses; and employees of any securities regulatory organization or exchange are not eligible. Schwab may modify or withdraw the offer at any time without notice. Schwab reserves the right to offer a comparable version of the Product or Event in lieu of the Product or Event described herein. Other restrictions may apply.
- Consult with your tax advisor about the appropriate tax treatment of the offer before enrolling. Any related taxes are your responsibility. The value of all Schwab offers received will be reported as Other Income on your Form 1099-MISC if, when combined with Other Income earned, the value totals $600 or more during the calendar year.
Our Verdict
Looks like the lift tickets are worth about a maximum of $100 (correct me if I’m wrong). On the surface this doesn’t look an attractive as other brokerages (e.g Merrill Edge offers $900 for $200k deposited) but again I’m happy to be corrected. One nice thing is that this will work for existing customers as long as additional funds are added. I’ll like to start posting more brokerage bonuses, so if you know of any good ones or information we should be on the look for then please share in the comments below.
Hat tip to reader Arvind R
In my experience these types of deals are NOT valid for existing Schwab customers. Has anyone called the phone number listed under “Already have an account?” I’d be curious to see what they say.
I’m a huge fan of Schwab and have been a client for many years. But my wife and I have been burned on their deals like this in the past. The language in these promotions generally avoids phrases like “new clients” or “existing clients” and instead talks about “new money” or “new accounts.” But every time we’ve tried to take advantage of a promotion that only required new money or a new account type, we’ve received nothing. We’ve brought it up with customer service every time, but they claim deals like this are only intended for customers who are completely new to Schwab.
We haven’t tried this promotion in particular, but personally I wouldn’t bother.
What about doing Meryl edge promotion on an existing account? If you already did it last time?
I am a client with Merrill and I already have a lot of money invested with them. In the past, I have called in to inquire about my eligibility on their offers, asking if I would be eligible if I opened a new account. They actually allowed me to get the offer applied to my existing account, and said that if I added another X amount of funds to my existing account, the promotion would activate.
On this existing account, I had even gotten the $$$ from promo when I first opened it.
Sounds good. I will ask them if they have anything. Thanks for your help.
I’m an existing Schwab client and I wish I knew about this earlier. Ski season for will be almost over by the time these lift tickets come through.
For those in NorCal, Alpine/Squaw is like $100 each.
I was at Alpine yesterday….$169/day is the current walk up rate. Parking costs money too!
If you buy in advance or at somewhere like Sports Basement, the tickets are significantly less, and parking only costs money if you park at the very very front
Can these ski tickets be easily sold online or are they SOL if not used?
I was thinking the amounts would be much lower as this is not nearly as competitive as other promos. But shit 100k-500k, you think they’d give you a season pass for that.
Schwab will sometimes, or they lead you to believe usually, match offers.
Another DP matched the Merrill Edge offer at Schwab. She was a new to Schwab customer transferring from Merrill Edge. They turned me down on this, but I didn’t have $200K in “new money.” I was just proposing they give me the bonus in order to keep my money at Schwab & not move it to Merrill Edge.
Deer valley single day lift tickets cost up to $169 each, so I guess the tickets could be valuable to some people. Even valuing the tickets and gift card at face value it’s still less than $1,000 on a 500K deposit, so definitely not as good as the Merrill Edge promo.
Ameritrade typically has a $200 for $50K, $300 for $100K, $600 for $250K and $1,200 for $500K – just have to call and ask your rep for the connection. They typically pay gift cards, but they have the good ones (i.e. Amazon, ebay, etc)
for the $200 card, do you know how long you must keep the funds in the Ameritrade account? Do you actually need to trade the funds on the stock market, or can you just transfer funds in and then out? thank you
I did a spreadsheet of all the brokerage bonuses I could find about a month ago. TD’s bonus then was $50/200/500 cash for 10K/50K/100K kept in for 12 months. So no in & out priveledges.
Generally none of the brokerages care if you hold your $ in cash or invest it, but a solid money market fund will net you an extra 2.4-2.5%, is solid like a bank account, often no fees, and they all have them, I believe. Best brokerage bonuses are currently: 1. Chase 2. Merrill Edge 3. Schwab if they match (may need to be a new client) 4. TD Ameritrade. Others are out there but get pretty poor. Best to just rotate among the top best ones.
Schwab matches others? Whats the best offer to request for a match if I am bringing in $30K?