Update 12/18/24: Public just added support for IRAs too, and the bonus works for IRA transfers as well. IRA bonus does have a longer 24 month hold. Direct Link to offer
Update 12/17/24: Offer is extended through 12/31/24
The Offer
- Public is offering a bonus of up to $10,000 depending on the amount you transfer in. Valid for new and existing customers. Funds need to be kept in Public account for at least 12 months. Bonuses are as follows:
- Transfer $5,000 and get a $150 bonus
- Transfer $25,000 and get a $250 bonus
- Transfer $100,000 and get a $600 bonus
- Transfer $250,000 and get a $1,000 bonus
- Transfer $500,000 and get a $2,000 bonus
- Transfer $1,000,000 and get a $4,000 bonus
- Transfer $5,000,000+ and get a $10,000 bonus
The Fine Print
- Cash bonus will be applied to qualifying accounts one (1) month after the transfer initiation date.
- Transferred funds must stay in your Public account for at least 12 months or bonus will be revoked.
- Valid for brokerage transfers and IRA transfers and IRA rollovers
- You may not be eligible for this promotion if you previously participated in a Public promotion and subsequently transferred all or substantially all of your funds out of Public.
Our Verdict
They also offer to cover the fees if your old brokerage charges those ACAT-out fees. There is a $75 transfer ACAT fee to transfer funds out if you end up leaving Public in the future (though it’s apparently only $25 if the transfer is to another APEX company). We’ll add this to list of best brokerage bonuses that are currently available.
Don’t forget about the $100 signup bonus for CLEAR members as well, details here.
Post History:
- Update 6/21/24: Extended until 6/30/24. Hold period now 12 months.
- Update 12/14/23: Still available through 12/31
- Update 8/1/23: Extended through 8/31/23.
- Update 2/1/23: Extended through 2/28/23. The $1m-$5m tier was lowered to $4,000, everything else the same as in January, see image below. (ht RiskandReward)
- Update 1/5/23: Bonus is still around through 1/31/23, but the bonus tiers are lower (ht Jay)
- Update 10/29/22: Tiers are changing from 11/1/22. In addition you’ll need to hold the funds for 9 months (previously 6 months).
- Update 9/15/22: End date of 12/31/22 has been added.
- A few updates 9/8/22 from Chuck:
- Public covers the cost if there’s a charge to transfer from your current brokerage to Public, assuming at least $500 is transferred. Up to $100 max per ACAT transfer.
- Also note, this bonus is for ACAT (account transfer) only, and cash transfers which do not use ACAT will not qualify. (See this post for some tips.)
- This offer is even for existing Public customers. Thus, you can signup via the Swagbucks link and fund $5 to get a $16 bonus. Then start the transfer process to get the $150 – $10,000 bonus.
- The bonus is reportedly posting quickly, just note that you need to leave the bonus funds in your Public account for the 6 month holding period as well.
Don’t be fooled with big $10k bonus, you will have to bring in $5mm which translate into 0.002%
I will not sell my kidney to make $10k
I’d hope anyone with $5+mill to move around for some bonuses would be smart enough to do the arithmetic for themselves. Then again……..
Well, 10k/5M does equal 0.002, so that makes it 0.2% Still lousy but 100 times better!
If you have 5M and that’s your math, it’s very concerning how easy boomers have had it
This is a HORRIBLE deal, don’t do it unless you want to be tied up for a year to reap the bonus.
I just invested 250K with wells fargo ( not the best bank in America) BUT, they have kick back of $2500 so I overlooked how bad WFC is, i gave them my hard earned pennies
Apples to apple compare Public will pay $1000 for $250K investment that is a HORRIBLE DEAL
DON’T DO IT
Regarding the cost basis issues: What was the problem exactly? Did APEX report $0 basis, No basis, or an incorrect non-zero number?
Just re-posting at the top — I’m Stephen, Public’s COO. I’m a long-time DoC reader and commenter. Happy to help with any Public-related questions (or issues). Email is open [email protected] too.
If I had an account that I closed in 12/2021, am I eligable to get the taxable account bonus. I was with Public for awhile.
Happy to look at your account (and we do/can make exceptions — email me), but generally the bonuses are treated as 1 per account type (lifetime).
Maybe goes without saying, but being explicit — happy to make exceptions for folks that really want to have their business at Public, less so for folks that just want to churn the offer (e.g., a partial transfer of single Vanguard ETF for the minimum amount of shares required to maximize the bonus lol)
Wow, this is refreshing!
i respect you for posting here and replying to comments
Appreciate it — we believe a big part of running a great company is being accessible to and spending time with customers. Even more true in this space, where you’re trusting us with your hard-earned savings.
E*Trade has a similar offer with only a 6 month min. holding period. They are also much easier to deal with.
I am curious about the “much easier to deal with” part. 25 years ago Etrade had a reputation of having a good website and terrible customer support. I recently opened an Etrade account for a bonus for a small ACAT transfer and discovered that nothing has changed. The account was opened but there were restrictions placed on it and multiple calls to support were required before they figured it out. I would rather deal with good email support from Public as opposed to terrible phone support from Etrade.
Yes, much easier is debatable depending on needs and luck. They have an old tech stack. Like all the main brokerage players. Acquisition with MS isn’t changing anything quickly. But when things work fine and the bonus posts automatically, then it’s a good experience generally.
I have dealt with nearly every major brokerage for over 40 years. Etrade is easy to deal with, but a transfer out of Public to Chase was denied 6 or more times and took over two months. Apex may or may not be the problem, but Public’s account ID methods are not in sync with the securities industry. YMMV. BTW, each brokerage paid out their respective bonuses fast and without issues.
Sorry about that — sounds like something weird was going on, definitely not the typical experience.
I did an ACAT out of Public/Apex into Chase in 2023, and it worked fine on the first try; took around 4 days. Do you know what caused the problem in your case?
My opinion is avoid APEX cleared brokers. There is a reason discount brokers use them and a reason several have now distanced themselves from APEX.
Curious, what are those reasons, specifically?
Apex is quite a good partner and deserves a lot of credit for the awesome retail brokerage industry we have today (you can draw a pretty straight line from Apex’s existence to $0 commissions industry-wide — without them, it may not happen and definitely would not have happened as quickly).
Just read the comments here – issues with transfers, issues with cost basis, issues with tax forms, issues with paying out when customer service tells you that you qualify but that was a lie.
We’ve got a great product and team, but it’s a complex business/operations and we don’t get everything right (no one does, including the biggest names in the industry) — but I’ve posted my personal email on here (many times) and have a 100% resolution rate for DoC members.
100% agree
When I say stuff like that, my point is never that customers should ‘have to’ ‘just deal with’ any issues that might arise.
Rather it’s my way of saying that things can go wrong, when they do, we will fix them immediately and we appreciate some understanding/patience/grace from our members while we do. We are professionals and so are our members (even if not professional investors) — and we treat eachother as such.
The other truth is that a very very high percentage of members never have such an issue, but in any online forum, the dissatisfied folks are the loudest 🙁
Oh, good, I was looking for somewhere to park my spare $5 million.
Transfers out are very difficult and regularly rejected, not a good brokerage.
The rules for account transfers are almost entirely automated (we have very little discretion). If there are rejects, there’s likely a mismatch at the account level that we don’t control — likely account type, differently/misspelled names, etc.
i did the public promo couple years back and they messed up the 1099. Sent me three 1099 with repeated corrections, the last one was on Apr 10th when I had already filed my taxes. What a mess to deal with.
Yeah — that was brutal for us too (was a new service provider) — but that was 2 years ago, and last year was quite smooth and our early testing this year looks even better.
24 month hold period for IRA transfers
Yuck
Oh, let me add that
Can confirm with this link here: https://help.public.com/en/articles/6499808-cash-bonus-to-transfer-account