Update 5/4/24: Available again
The Offer
Direct Link to offer| another link
- Open a new Merrill Edge account with promo code 1000PR and transfer between $20,00 and $250,000 in assets to get the following bonus tiers:
- Transfer $250,000 or more and get a $1,000 bonus (standard is $600)
- Transfer $100,000 or more and get a $400 bonus (standard is $250)
- Transfer $50,000 or more and get a $200 bonus (standard is $150)
- Transfer $20,000 or more and get a $100 bonus (this is the standard)
There are also higher tier bonuses available via a Merrill agent.
The Fine Print
- Offer valid for new individual Merrill IRAs or Cash Management Accounts (CMAs).
- Offer is limited to one CMA and one IRA, with no more than two enrolled accounts per accountholder.
- Cash bonus offers, in the aggregate, are limited to one CMA and one IRA per accountholder.
- Eligible Merrill Edge IRAs limited to Rollover, Traditional, Roth and Sole-Proprietor SEP only. The Merrill IRA or CMA may be a Merrill Edge Self-Directed account, Merrill Edge Advisory Account or Merrill Guided Investing account.
- You may be eligible for a different or better offer. Please contact us for more information.
- This offer does not apply to business/corporate accounts, investment club accounts, partnership accounts and certain fiduciary accounts held with Merrill, or to any types of accounts (including IRAs or CMAs) held with other business units of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated (MLPF&S).
- Merrill reserves the right to change or cancel this offer at any time, without notice. This offer may not be used as an inducement to sell any kind of insurance, including annuities.
- You must have the qualifying balance
18090 days after funding. - Must fund your account within 45 days with funds originating outside Bank of America and MLPF&S. Funds cannot originate from 401(k) accounts administered by MLPF&S.
- For purposes of this offer, qualifying net new assets are calculated by adding total incoming assets or transfers (including cash, securities and/or margin debit balance transfers) from external accounts, and subtracting assets withdrawn or transferred out of the account within the preceding 52 weeks.
- Your one-time cash reward will be deposited into your IRA or CMA within two weeks following the end of the
18090 day period. If your account is enrolled in an investment advisory program, such as Merrill Edge Advisory Account, Merrill Guided Investing or Merrill Guided Investing with an Advisor, any cash reward deposited into your account will be subject to the program fee and other terms of the investment advisory program. - Â The value of this reward you receive may constitute taxable income. In addition, Merrill may issue an Internal Revenue Service Form 1099 (or other appropriate form) to you that reflects the value of this reward. Please consult your tax advisor, as Bank of America Corporation and its affiliates and associates do not provide tax advice.
Our Verdict
The standard Merrill Edge offer is to get between $100-$600; with this offer it’s $100-$1,000. It’s been a really long time since we’ve seen this offer publicly (I believe it was end of 2016); since then we’ve seen similar offers targeted to those who attended a specific expo or a slightly worse $900 offer. This one looks like an ordinary public offer with a public landing page which anyone can do by entering the promo code.
Truth be told, Merrill agents might always be able to apply this $1,000 offer manually, but it’s easier to do when it’s a public online offer and you don’t have to make requests. Note that the standard $600 bonus offer only requires holding the funds there for 90 days while this $1k offer requires 180 days. Another note: if my memory serves me right, when I did a Merrill bonus a number of years ago, I did not get a 1099 form for the bonus (despite the terms).
There are lots of brokerage bonuses, but an additional reason a lot of us are interested in using Merrill Edge is due to their Preferred Rewards structure which can give you a regular 2.62% earnings on all spend and other nice earning opportunities. The 2.62% rate works both on the Premium Rewards card and on the Travel Rewards card. Keep in mind, you do need also a Bank of America checking account to qualify for Preferred Rewards.
Please do you own research or ask your financial advisers before making a change in your investment plans. It won’t be right for everyone, plus there are tax implications if not done properly (you need to ‘transfer in kind’ to avoid taxation event). We’ll add this to our List of Best Brokerage Bonuses.
Post History:
- Update 10/15/23: $750 bonus link here
- Update 7/29/23: There are also higher tier bonuses available via a Merrill agent. Details here.
- Update 9/22/22: Offer is back to $1,000 at this link. Valid through 5/26/23. For Preferred Rewards members only; you must enroll as Preferred Rewards within 90 days of funding in order to be eligible for the increased bonus amounts.
- Update 5/27/22: The $1,000 offer isn’t around anymore, but there’s a new offer at this link for up to $750 when using promo code 750ME. Might be worth waiting for the $900 or $1,000 offers to come back; this is still better than the standard $600 offer. Interestingly they added a lower tier of $50 bonus with $5,000 invested and they also increased the next tier bonus for $20,000 from $100 to $125. They also lowered the investment period to 24 weeks instead of 52. (ht Chase-ing UR Points)
- Update 1/15/22: Deal is back and valid until May 22, 2022. (Some other tier details changed slightly as well, updated below. Seems to only need 90 days now, not 180.)
I received this offer in an emailer, but I found no expiration date at all in the offer. I have an existing account with them, but I believe I qualify if I transfer new assets without opening a new account.
I read some comments to the effect that there’s a 12 months cool-down since the last rewards payment (not account opening); however, my offer mentions only the 24 weeks rule as follows:
For purposes of this offer, qualifying net new assets are calculated by adding total incoming assets or transfers (including cash, securities and/or margin debit balance transfers), and subtracting assets withdrawn or transferred out of the account within the preceding 24 weeks.
Unlike other brokers, I have never seen a 12 month waiting period (or any length of waiting period for that matter) for Merrill Edge offers. However, I have been told more than once by my Merrill rep that I would not qualify for a bonus since I had received one in that last 12 months. I would check with your rep before initiating any transfer.
I just called Merrill to link code 1000PR to my existing IRA before ACATing $250K from an outside account.
Registered Rep A talked to me for a few minutes and did something to the account, then transferred me to the back office for further processing. The back office rep seemed mostly clueless about linking the code to my existing account and transferred me to Registered Rep B.
Rep B told me that, because I had received this offer in the past (more than a year ago, and this is round 3 or 4, I think) I was ineligible for the $1000 for $250K bonus. She conferred with someone else and said I could get the $600 bonus for $200K. I took it and will ACAT the money this week.
The assets I transfer will serve the dual purpose of meeting the requirements to keep Platinum Honors status which expires at the end of August.
I would have just used the link and opened a new IRA account. Then contacted Merrill via email or secure message to verify that the code was applied to your account before doing the ACAT. When the 90 days had passed and the $1,000 bonus had posted, transfer the assets in the new account to the old account.
I have never been told that the $1,000 offer could only be used once per lifetime. I suspect that it was once per account and if you had opened a new account, you would have qualified for the full $1,000. Taking action first and then verifying has always worked better for me than calling to find out.
In hindsight, that probably is the better approach. I’m not going to sweat not getting $400 that wasn’t mine to begin with. We’ve already made over $7,500 on new account/transfer bonuses in this year, alone.
Platinum Honors expires? I thought one you had >$100K assets in place, you were good to go for the duration (unless value/balance falls below $100K). Why does your expire?
Because I moved all but $250 out after they confirmed PH status at my last anniversary. You keep the status until the next anniversary. I need to get the balance up by then to qualify again.
Wait so to get the 1k bonus you need to be a preferred rewards member – does that mean you need a BoA checking account and not just a ML investment account?
Yep
Would you need to open a brand new BoA checking account or just use an existing checking account you already have?
Existing is fine
If I open a CMA account and an IRA account a few days apart and fund each with \$100,000, can I receive a \$400 bonus for each of these accounts?
Or, are the funded amounts in the two accounts combined and treated as one total, so that only a single $400 bonus is given?
You should get $400 in each, independently.
The site doesn’t mention any churning rules outside the 24 weeks look back so called in and was told there’s a 12 months cool-down since the last rewards payment (not account opening). That I can apply (their system won’t block me) but won’t be eligible.
My personal data point says the 12 month cool down is either incorrect, or is interpreted in their systems as calendar year.
I was paid out on 5/12/25 for my latest churn of this bonus after last receiving a bonus payment on 9/6/24. I actually didn’t look at my notes to realize I ran afoul of the 24 week lookback so I just transferred in more than the required assets and hoped for the best. It worked out in my favor this time but I won’t be attempting to tempt fate again on purpose.
Did you open a new CMA account?
Was the old one closed or still opened?
Thanks!
I signed up late January for this latest churn. Yes I opened a new CMA account just so that I could apply completely online, versus having to call in for an existing account.
I still have a few old accounts opened with zero balance, and what I consider my “main” account with assets in it. I can’t figure out how to actually close any of my old churn accounts though.
How long ago was the last activity in the $0 accounts? I had an IRA and a CMA that I emptied 12/2023, and just happened to notice a few months ago that they had been disappeared.
How did you empty your IRA? Merrill does not charge a fee if you do a partial transfer out but charge a fee if you do a complete transfer out.
I am considering to open an IRA, transfer in to get the bonus, then transfer most of them out to churn another place, but leave something there to avoid the transfer fee
the high tiers listed here are still available if you call in, I just did, they prep an application with the bonus attached and have you fill it out
Does anyone have more details on how to enroll in the so-called Preferred Rewards? It seems to be the key here to get the full bonus.
https://www.merrilledge.com/preferred-rewards
I’ve never done it this way but seems you could:
1) Fund $20,000 within 45 days to get clock rolling
2) Wait until close to day 90 after funding the $20,000 and fund the remaining $80,000
3) Still get $400 bonus?
Will you be able to qualify for Preferred Rewards?
If not, then it’s only $250 bonus.
I think you only need $25k for preferred rewards, no?
Need at least $20k for the “3-month combined average daily balance”.
I’m not sure what the formula they use for determining the 3-month average daily balance. So there’s a lot of ambiguity here I wish there is a way to further clarify.
Your combined (across all eligible BoA and Merrill accounts) average daily balance (sum of all end of day balances in a month divided by # of days in the month) is calculated for the previous month on the third business day of the current month. The three previous months are then averaged together in order to determine your preferred rewards tier. If you’re a new customer, they will use your 45 (or could be 30) day balance (could be average balance, don’t remember exactly) to give you your tier early without having to wait for the 3-month average.
Found the requirements for new customer to get early rewards tier in the footnotes of the page I linked:
You can satisfy the combined balance requirement for enrollment with eiter:
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Offer valid for new and existing individual Merrill IRAs or Cash Management Accounts (CMA).
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(1) If you have an existing CMA account already, you can just open a second new CMA account to take advantage of this offer. Is that correct?
(2) How do you enroll in the Preferred Rewards program?
(3) You can move your funds out after getting the bonus (~90 days). Is that correct?
1- yes
2- https://www.merrilledge.com/preferred-rewards
3- yes
Does anyone have experience with delaying adding funds to an existing account? I have an existing IRA with a small balance. If I enroll in the new money bonus program, do I have 45 days to add funds to my existing account, as is true for funding a new account?
If you haven’t had major transfer outs of ME in the last year, then call them, and you have 45 days to fund it once the offer is added to the account.
What if you had major transfer out of ME in the last year? I am currently not in that position yet but expect to be in that situation in about a year. Thanks!
“For purposes of this offer, qualifying net new assets are calculated by adding total incoming assets or transfers (including cash, securities and/or margin debit balance transfers), and subtracting assets withdrawn or transferred out of the account within the preceding 24 weeks.”