Comments (scroll down to add your own):

1. You do find these bonuses very fast, don’t you! At this point, I wonder if ShareBuilder would stop me from earning my *fourth* $50 bonus. A few years ago they were closing accounts of multiple-bonus-earners.

   Comment by Flexo — Oct 8th 2008 @ 4:52 pm

2. You must open the account with a minimum of $2500 to earn the $50 bonus.

   Comment by Huffles — Oct 8th 2008 @ 6:49 pm

3. No Huffles, you’re confused. For the TradeKing bonus you need a $2500 minimum. But for Sharebuilder, there is no minimum. Just open an account and make a trade.

   Comment by nickel — Oct 8th 2008 @ 7:01 pm

4. Can I use Sharebuilder to start my Roth IRA? And with my new Roth will I have access to Vanguard funds? Would there be more fees by going through Sharebuilder instead of going straight to Vanguard?

   Comment by Matt — Oct 8th 2008 @ 8:48 pm

5. I’ve been using sharebuilder for the last 6 years and as with anything else there are pro’s and cons.

   Sharebuilder only offers about 7,000 stocks to it’s investors which is somewhat of a pain when you find something that looks interesting, do your analysis then go to look it up on sharebuilder only to discover you can’t buy it.

   Sharebuilder is also sometimes behind in their quotes. As an example I’ve reserve 10% of my portfolio for speculative (play) investing. Recently I went to purchase AIG shares when it dropped, but the quote I got from sharebuilder was VERY different from my actual market purchase price. It’s irritating to think you are buying at say 3.91 a share, only to look over the trade order and discover you purchased at 5 a share right before it dropped in price.

   The one thing I really like is you can keep money for investing in the account with no minimum balance requirements and they give you a nice little rate that is higher than your bank. For someone in their 20’s who may not have $2500 required to open a no fee/no load money market account its nice to get a slightly higher return than a savings account.

   Comment by twenties money — Oct 9th 2008 @ 8:19 am

6. While my gut tells me it’s a great time to get into stocks when you’re at the bottom, isn’t it weird to get in when it’s going down at the current rate? Wouldn’t it be better to wait it out a little to see where the bottom is?

   I mean, stocks are a risk-based asset no matter when, it just seems like it’s more risky right now.

   Comment by MInTheGap — Oct 9th 2008 @ 10:44 am

7. It’s a great time to buy stocks! When they’re dropping so fast it looks crazy to buy, you know you’re getting a good deal. I mean, at least 90% of investors are sane — so when no sane person would buy, you have little competition.

   More seriously, when you buy a stock you’re buying part of a business. When you buy low, you’re getting part of a business for less, so you’ll do better over time.

   It’s great to see ING and TradeKing encouraging people to invest with the market so cheap. They certainly look better than the mortgage companies that pushed people to buy at the peak.

   Comment by Taxrascal — Oct 9th 2008 @ 10:12 pm

8. Thanks for the heads up about the promo. I signed up yesterday and scheduled a funding deposit for next week from my ING account. Got an email this morning saying,

   “You have met the requirements of the ShareBuilder promotion and will receive your $50 Account Bonus within 4-6 weeks.”

   Hopefully that goes through without me even having to make a purchase. That would be fantastic and save me the brokerage fees.

   Comment by Jon — Oct 10th 2008 @ 9:59 am

9. According to Taxrascal, ”
   ” It’s great to see ING and TradeKing encouraging people
   to invest with the market so cheap. They certainly look
   better than the mortgage companies that pushed people
   to buy at the peak.”

   But I’m reminded of the Wachovia ads that ran between two months ago and two weeks ago, enticing depositors to their bank, full well knowing it was on the danger list of banks. ING in the Netherlands has just bought an Icelandic Bank’s position with respect to British depositors. Perhaps they’re just trying to raise cash to take advantage of the current bargains.

   Comment by Sue Person — Oct 11th 2008 @ 12:40 am

10. I opened an account with the ING thing and after the account was in force I was informed that a purchase had to be made in order to receive the 50.00 bonus (I forget the amont that the purchase had to be, but I did not get the 50.00 ).

    Nic

    Comment by Nic — Oct 11th 2008 @ 9:44 pm

11. This promo code did not work for me. Has it expired? Is it because I am trying to open a Roth IRA?

    Comment by Michael — Oct 28th 2008 @ 3:04 pm

12. On Sharebuilder, there is no minimum opening balance required. I am getting one of my bonuses by simply depositing $10. into my Sharebuilder account. On my other account, I made an express trade and the total cost of the transaction, including price of 2 shares, was $24. If I ever decided to sell, I’ll change brokerage companies first as the sell price is rather high.

    Comment by Rebekah — Nov 3rd 2008 @ 10:32 am

Leave a comment