I've determined that for my amount of spend, BofA Preferred Rewards is not worth it, even with Platinum Honors.
I'm far better off dropping the checking account, wait a year and hit the new checking account bonus again, currently $300. Also hit the Merrill Lynch bonus again for $1000.
New checking account SUBS along with new investment account money are far more lucrative than CC SUBS and don't have any effect on credit score or the same scrutiny. Currently received the $400 new checking account SUB at Wells Fargo and now going for the $2500 SUB for Premiere checking account upgrade with $250k in new money/assets brought over. Cha Ching!!
Aven:
@ElvisCaprice wrote:I've determined that for my amount of spend, BofA Preferred Rewards is not worth it, even with Platinum Honors.
I'm far better off dropping the checking account, wait a year and hit the new checking account bonus again, currently $300. Also hit the Merrill Lynch bonus again for $1000.
New checking account SUBS along with new investment account money are far more lucrative than CC SUBS and don't have any effect on credit score or the scrutiny. Currently received the $400 new checking account SUB at Wells Fargo and now going for the $2500 SUB for Premiere checking account upgrade with $250k in new money/assets brought over. Cha Ching!!
Let me get this straight: you're moving a quarter million dollars into a checking account making .01% (basiclly zero) and tying it up for a few months for a 1% SUB return? Help me understand your reasoning here. You'd earn about the same (probably more) just letting it sit in a HYSA or CMA and you'd earn way more by investing that for the time you are churning. What am I missing?
@Varsity_Lu wrote:
@ElvisCaprice wrote:I've determined that for my amount of spend, BofA Preferred Rewards is not worth it, even with Platinum Honors.
I'm far better off dropping the checking account, wait a year and hit the new checking account bonus again, currently $300. Also hit the Merrill Lynch bonus again for $1000.
New checking account SUBS along with new investment account money are far more lucrative than CC SUBS and don't have any effect on credit score or the scrutiny. Currently received the $400 new checking account SUB at Wells Fargo and now going for the $2500 SUB for Premiere checking account upgrade with $250k in new money/assets brought over. Cha Ching!!
Let me get this straight: you're moving a quarter million dollars into a checking account making .01% (basiclly zero) for a 1% SUB return? Help me understand your reasoning here. You'd earn way more than that just letting it sit in a HYSA or CMA. What am I missing?
Regular brokerage account and/or an IRA account. Just move over your current investments. Also, at Wells Fargo pick up that juicy Fidelity institutional money market fund, FNSXX, for your IRA along the way for those moments between investments, parked in cash ( Fidelity is my home base).
I should include a link for those interested @doctor of credit,
Wells Fargo Premier $2,500/$3,500 Bank or Investing Bonus (Requires $250k-$500k In Cash/Assets)
So, you're not putting the money into their checking account, but rather into an investment fund earning 4% or better? Got it. Still, and maybe it's just me, but it seems like a lot of hoops just for a 1% SUB. And it's Wells Fargo we're dealing with. Yikes.
@Varsity_Lu wrote:
So, you're not putting the money into their checking account, but rather into an investment fund earning 4% or better? Got it. Still, and maybe it's just me, but it seems like a lot of hoops just for a 1% SUB. And it's Wells Fargo we're dealing with. Yikes.
Correct, there is no need to keep money in the Premier checking account other than the bare minimum to keep it open. For the brokerage account, whatever investments you hold, they are making the same gains regardless of what brokerage house is holding them in your name. So why not make a little extra cash moving them around while they do their thing.
I despised Wells Fargo from past dealings. But I have to say, today, they impress me, smooth fast transactions, so far and the technology has no hang ups. Security is just the right level, not overly burdened.
Top of the key hoops to some, layups to others. I think credit card rewards/SUB and the approval process are far more budensome for far less gain.
@Varsity_Lu wrote:
So, you're not putting the money into their checking account, but rather into an investment fund earning 4% or better? Got it. Still, and maybe it's just me, but it seems like a lot of hoops just for a 1% SUB. And it's Wells Fargo we're dealing with. Yikes.
What's wrong with Wells Fargo? They've been great imo. It's a big bank, so branches and features like coin machines aren't important to them, but their app is awesome.
@Gregory1776 wrote:
@Varsity_Lu wrote:
So, you're not putting the money into their checking account, but rather into an investment fund earning 4% or better? Got it. Still, and maybe it's just me, but it seems like a lot of hoops just for a 1% SUB. And it's Wells Fargo we're dealing with. Yikes.
What's wrong with Wells Fargo? They've been great imo. It's a big bank, so branches and features like coin machines aren't important to them, but their app is awesome.
I mean, every big bank has some issues, but Wells Fargo (along with Bank of America) really go out of their way to be deceptive and crooked. And they don't have any history of changing their ways, either. They have a long list of problems, far and above all the other major banks. It's not even close how crooked they are comparatively speaking.
The way I see it, even if you hate Wells Fargo, you should still do it as you're handing them a $2,500 loss since they're not making much by being custodian for your stocks over the 6 months or whatever the holding limit is before you transfer them back to Merrill for the BofA Merrill bonus.
If you ACAT stocks and ETFs from one brokerage to another you're still invested in the same companies without any transactional taxation, so you may as well get the bonuses.
Brokerage bonuses can be pretty massive compared to the couple hundred here and there you get from checking account bonuses, but there are only a limited number of brokerages that pay these larger amounts so you're kind of stuck moving between the same ones.
Haven't been able to find much info on specifically what Wells Fargo Premier gives you in terms of enhanced credit card point bonuses whenever I've checked - just vague mentions of the fact that you will get enhanced credit card points.
Just a heads up that some of those new brokerages paying SUBs like Robinhood will try to rip you off with fees later, like charging you $150 or more to transfer your stocks back out later. SoFi's brokerage was charging people $50 just for not logging in with a certain frequency.