**FAQs**

**Can You Get a Bonus on an Existing Brokerage Account?**
Probably not. It’s much more common to see bonus offers for new brokerage accounts. Moving funds or securities from an existing brokerage account is an annoying and possibly costly process, especially if you have to sell securities first. So brokerages use bonus offers to entice new clients to do something they might otherwise not bother with.

**How Much Do You Need to Deposit to Get the Bonus?**
It depends on the brokerage. Often, the answer is “not much.” A few of the offers on this list have no minimum deposit or require only a token deposit, like $5. Unfortunately, the best offers ask for a lot more. The best you should expect to do is to earn a bonus worth 1% of your qualifying deposit, but even that’s not guaranteed. A bonus worth 0.2% or 0.3% of the deposit still qualifies as a decent deal.

**Do Brokerage Bonuses Expire?**
Many do. The expiration date usually means the date by which you must open a new account to qualify, so work backward from there. Once the account is open, you’ll need to complete all qualifying activities within a certain period of time. You may also need to maintain a minimum balance beyond the qualifying activity deadline before you can officially receive your bonus.

**Can You Get a Brokerage Bonus If You Have a Bank Account With the Same Company Already?**
It depends on whether the bank and brokerage operate as independent companies or whether the bank account is housed within the brokerage account itself (as many cash management accounts are). If the latter, you might not qualify for the bonus. If the former, there’s a good chance you will, but always check the fine print to be sure.

**What Does “New Money” Mean?**
Most brokerage account bonuses require “new money” deposits that originate outside the brokerage (and in some cases outside its parent company as well). So “new money” means any money that comes from another bank or financial institution. It doesn’t include funds transferred from another account you control at the same financial institution.

**Final Word**

If you’re a satisfied investor, you’d be forgiven for feeling no urgency to switch brokerages. Why fix something that’s not broken? But the prospect of earning hundreds or thousands of dollars in brokerage bonuses is often reason enough. Most of these brokerages take pains to ensure their new-account bonuses qualify as easy money. In many cases, moving assets to a newly opened account requires little more than completing an account application and authorizing an electronic funds transfer or asset rollover, a process that’s quick and painless enough to complete in a spare 15 minutes. Even if you’re not ready to take advantage of these brokerage account bonuses, it still pays to add a review of the top brokerage promotions to your due-diligence to-do list for whenever you’re ready to start investing on a new trading platform.