The promos from the various brokerage houses have going on for a long time…years, in fact. Thing is, I recently took advantage of one of the promos for the first time, so I thought I’d share the details with you. MrsMJonTravel and I had been discussing our options regarding where to place vast holdings of stocks and bonds (OK, I’m kidding about “vast”) for a while. A few months ago, I just happened to stumble across this post on TM Travel World. It seemed Fidelity’s mySmart Cash account might be a great option for us, so I did a little research on this and other options, and finally narrowed things down to Fidelity. Just a few things that attracted me to the Fidelity mySmart Cash option.
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It’s with Fidelity
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Your cash is FDIC insured and held at a bank
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You can use the account like a checking account, complete with ATM and billpay
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Fidelity reimburses your ATM fees for using any ATM
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The ATM card only charges a 1 percent foreign transaction fee
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And I got miles for the deal
What’s not to like? A little judicious googling revealed few (in my opinion) complaints on the part of other Fidelity users, so I was sold. After discussing with MrsMJonTravel, I registered us for the mileage promotion at http://www.united.com/fidelity, and set things up. I funded the account with the necessary cash, and transferred our stocks from our old broker to Fidelity. All of this was done with inspiring ease. I assumed I would need to wait weeks for the miles. But after opening the account on Monday afternoon online, I was pleased to see that the bonus miles had posted to my Mileage Plus account this morning! It only took 5 days.
There may be better deals out there, and Lord knows, don’t consider this investment advice please! But if you are looking around for a brokerage account, don’t forget to check your favorite airline’s promotions page for possible bonus miles with certain brokerage houses.
