Total newbie: BoA free trading 25k+ ?

GoldenBears · #1 08-10-2007, 10:45 PM

I'm 21 and have never invested my own money before. I'm reasonably familiar with the market itself, and I did an I-banking internship a couple of summers ago and have reasonable knowledge of the business world. However, I am a total newb when it comes to investing my own money and how to do it.

I have about 35k-40k saved up from the last couple years of poker and sports betting and I am looking to invest some of it in a few mutual funds and about 10 different companies' stock.

Bank of America has this thing where if you have 25k+ in BoA accounts (including trading, savings, checking, CD's, etc.) then you can make 30 trades per month for free. How common is this sort of thing? Is this as good of a deal as I think it is? Do I need to be concerned about anything? Since I'd be making about 10 trades a month on 30k, that would add up to about 120 trades a year and if I pay $5 a trade then that's $600, which is a huge chunk of an average return of 10% on 30k, so obviously being able to trade for free is a huge bonus for a small fish like me.

Any other advice you guys can give me? I am totally new.

Thanks for the help

spino1i · #2 08-10-2007, 11:00 PM

The problem with this is, you have to keep 25k in non-stocks. If you have 25k in stocks it doesnt count. So you need to have 25k cash sitting around to get the free trades. You lose all the money you could have made off investing this 25k.

Zecco offers 40 free trades a month with no restrictions and is a way better deal.

GoldenBears · #3 08-11-2007, 03:30 PM

Are you sure? I think that it counts the money that you have in stocks twords the 25k. I'll check out Zecco, can you tell me anything else about them?

Thanks for the help.

gull · #4 08-12-2007, 03:28 AM

Yeah, BoA's deal is a rip-off. Only money in checking, savings, and CDs count toward the $25k.

Wells Fargo has nearly the exact same deal, except money in investment accounts counts toward the $25k.

Zecco is another free option. Zecco is legitimate, cheap, somewhat new, possibly at risk of being acquired by another company in the next few years, and has poor customer service according to some.