Deal has ended, view more brokerage bonuses by clicking here.
The Offer
Targeted offer sent out via e-mail. Subject line is ‘Start investing and get a 1% match’
- SoFi invest is offering a 1% bonus on net recurring purchases when you make three recurring purchases of the same security during the incentive period, up to $1,000 bonus.
The Fine Print
- Earn 1% on total net recurring purchases (total recurring purchase amount less sales) whenever you make three recurring purchases of the same security during the incentive period.
- The max bonus payout per user is $1,000.
- This offer period is between now and 9/30/20.
- All bonuses will be paid within 10 business days of the conclusion of the offer period.
- Recurring purchases must be continually active from purchase to end of offer period (9/30/2020).
- NOTE:Recurring purchases pull from your bank account, not your SoFi Invest account balance.
Our Verdict
This isn’t as good as previous SoFi invest deals (up to $10,000 and up to $5,000) as those just required funding the account whereas this requires recurring purchases of securities. I don’t see an easy way to game this without any risk. Won’t be adding this to our best brokerage bonus list anyway as it’s targeted.
Hat tip to FM & ergodicthoughts
Sofi chat agent confirms that recurring purchases can only be set up on stocks on their Stock Bits list, which is available on their website. It’s a big list and there are large well-known stocks, along with total market and bond ETFs. It seems like AGG, which is an iShares bond fund, might be expected to have the least fluctuation and may be an option for the 3-4 week window we have to hold the purchases. Any other suggestions?
If one has a Sofi Money account, does one need to open a Sofi Invest account to be targeted for things like this in the future? When I am logged into Sofi Money, I can click the buy stocks and ETFs link and it takes me to Sofi Wealth, which has Buy Now buttons, it doesn’t seem to ask me to open a new account. I haven’t tried to click “buy now” though.
It looks like only stock bits are eligible? Sofi Support suggested that recurrent investment for a dollar amount can only be applied to stock bits instead of normal securities.
Anyone know if the $500 deposit needed each month to qualify for special deals needs to stay in the account? Can you deposit $500 and transfer out each month? Or does the money need to stay, requiring a higher and higher balance each month? Thanks
The email subject is “Start investing and get a 1% match”
Can’t you “game this without any risk” by buying a security like BIL, ICSH or VTEB? Some kind of treasury bond fund?
None of those are without risk – look at a chart of ICH from March to June. Would not consider this unless you have something you want to buy through September regardless of market events, and won’t need or want to sell it.
I suppose in the last 5 years ICSH was off by 4% for 1 week and off by 2% for 3 weeks. In that sense, it is not without “any” risk, but the risk seems low.
In what other sense would you measure risk?
BIL looks like it would stay in the range to be profitable for this deal.
Bil declined by about 0.07% from Feb to March 2020. If you make the three purchases in September and hold the security for one month past the 9/30/20 deadline to earn the 1%, then your return on the bonus is effectively equivalent to 12% on an annual basis (1% gain in 1 month), if my calculation is correct. Or is there any limitation on selling all of the security in October? Seems like the risk of a 0.07% loss is tolerable.
I think that decline is because it pays a monthly dividend. So, it went down but then you got a distribution – making you whole again.
And yes, the terms only dictate 3 subsequent purchases of the same security and hold until September 30.
So you could, for example, buy $33,333 of BIL weekly on September 16, 23 and 30 and sell all October 1.
Personally, I’ll probably go for a slightly larger window and buy September 14, 21 and 28 and hold for the 10 day payout window just to be on the safe side.
Either way, you’ve held this security less than a month fairly well mitigating the possibility of long term price volatility.
Sorry you’re bitter, Fred.
Tag me next time, Ty. I don’t think your plan is bad at all – I’m just not a fan of conflating “low risk” with “no risk at all.” There’s always people reading these posts who have little or no background in the subject matter, so I think it’s helpful to be precise in saying what you mean.
Wonder if all the reoccurring purchases must be the same size?
Typical SoFi. Make a great promotion, and then slowly whittle it down into a mediocre one.
Can you really blame them? They are experimenting to see what the response level is on this offer compared to the last one. Some people will still do it, and it may get them to their goal. Next time I bet they will revise again.
For me it the promotion only allows to trade in stocks I currently hold