The Offer
TradeUp brokerage is offering the following three bonuses which stack together:
- New TradeUp brokerage who make an ACATS transfer from another brokerage into TradeUp by December 31, 2024 are eligible for 2% cashback on the transferred amount. Max $1,000 bonus (transfer $50k or more to get the max $1,000 bonus).
- Clients who transfer $100,000 or more to their TradeUP account and maintain their transferred assets for a year will receive an additional 1% match ($1,000 capped match).
- Those who signup with TradeUp also get some free stocks: 2 for $100 deposit, 3 for $2,500 deposit, 4 for $10,000 deposit, 5 for $100,000 deposit.
Offer valid August 5 – December 31, 2024. You can find this offer on the TradeUp homepage scroll and mentioned on this page; find the terms on this page. You can find the 5 stock offer on this page and the terms on this page.
Important Notes
- There is a $50 fee for doing a full account ACAT-out, so keep that in mind if you aren’t sure that you’ll be staying with the brokerage forever.
- It appears these bonuses are all for new customers (“new clients“).
- Clients who transfer assets from a brokerage account that was originally opened through TradeUP Securities, Inc. and now clears exclusively through Interactive Brokers are not eligible for this campaign.
- This promotion applies exclusively to an account’s first ACAT transfer that qualifies for this promotion. Subsequent ACAT transfers will not qualify for this promotion.
- An account is said to have “maintained the value of the transferred assets” if it does not initiate any withdrawals or outgoing account transfers during the specified period. Transactions involving securities purchases and changes in asset valuation do not affect reward eligibility. However, withdrawals or account transfers will result in forfeiture of the reward.
- Cashback Distribution: Cashback will be distributed quarterly, with payments made on the last business day of each fiscal quarter. The maximum cashback amount per quarter is $350. The distribution schedule follows below: After the first 90 calendar days: Clients must maintain their account assets for a full 90 calendar days from the settlement date. The first cashback installment will be distributed at the end of the first full fiscal quarter after the 90 calendar day period. For example, if the settlement date is August 15, 2024, the first cashback installment will be distributed on December 31, 2024. Subsequent Quarters: Cashback will be distributed on the last business day of each subsequent fiscal quarter. For example, if a user completes an ACAT transfer of $50,000 and qualifies for a 2% cashback bonus, they will receive a total of $1,000. This amount will be distributed in installments of $350 for the first quarter, $350 for the second quarter, and $300 for the third quarter. If the transfer date is August 15, 2024, the first $350 installment will be distributed on December 31, 2024, with subsequent installments of $350 and $300 distributed on March 31, 2025 and June 30, 2025, respectively. By participating in this campaign and receiving the cashback bonus, you agree that the cashback bonus will not be issued until the end of the first full fiscal quarter after the 90 calendar day holding period is complete. The cashback bonus is subject to forfeiture if the account is transferred out within 90 calendar days of the cashback issuance. Certain restrictions may apply when you request withdrawal of the cashback bonus.
- Where required by applicable rules and regulations, the value of all TradeUP Securities Inc. offers received may be reported as Other Income on Form 1099-MISC. TradeUP Securities Inc. is not responsible for individual tax reporting related to this reward program.
Our Verdict
If you transfer in $50k you’ll get $1k bonus and around $40/$80 in free stock. If you transfer in $100k you’ll get $2k bonus and around $50/$100 in free stocks. And you can get up to $300 to cover any fees from your old brokerage company.
Overall this offer is from the better brokerage bonuses we’ve seen. We’ll add this to the list of Best Brokerage Bonuses.
Though the long hold times are a pain, I’m still thinking of hitting this one. I’ll signup on the offer landing page in the coming weeks and transfer $100k from my current brokerage account in a single ACAT transfer to TradeUp. I’ll get 5 free stocks right away which will be worth $50 or more. Then I’ll get $350 on March 31, 2025 and another $350 on June 30, 2025 and another $300 on September 30, 2025 to complete the $1k bonus for the 2% part. I’ll also get another $1,000 bonus for the 1% $100k match (it’s not clear in the fine print when that $1k bonus will payout; update: it’s possible the second $1k will pay out at $350 quarterly, in that case you’ll have to leave the $100k funds there for about two years total to get the max $2k bonus). I’ll then leave my funds there until at least the end of 2025 since the fine print mentions leaving funds until 90 days after bonus payout.
If anyone has used TradeUp in the past, kindly share your experiences with them in the comments below. Specifically I’d be interested in knowing whether cost-basis transfers over properly when transferring stocks from another brokerage.
Hat tip to reader Lrdx
BTW Offer is showing extension to 3/31/25.
Payout Analysis : Is my interpretation correct?
I was targeting doing this before the initial 12/31/24 deadline but my prep work of consolidating assets into one brokerage took longer than expected.
Thankfully, it has been extended so now, if my ACAT completes early Jan 2025, then would my 1st payout be 6/30/2025(1st quarter 90 days after ACAT), then 9/30/25, 12/31/25, all through to 9/30/26, right?
If you really want to optimize, just get your ACATS in/settled before close of Q1 (march). That is, if you’re not achieving it by end of Dec.
I just initiated an ACATS to get it in before YE close.
I responded to your other comment … let me know what you think. If I was sure I could find an advisor for CPC, no question I would do that and then come back to TradeUp
Regarding 2FA, it seems like you need to use their auth app. Annoying they do not have a standard TOPT implementation. They do verify phone and email which could be another factor but it’s not clear when they would request step-up authentication.
TradeUp is a subsidiary of a Chinese company called UP Fintech Holdings. Is your private data safe?
A quick search shows my private data is already public. My private data is probably already on sale somewhere on the dark web for $3.50. With these bonuses at least I can make a few hundred or a few thousand for selling my identity.
So all your private financial data is already public? Your net worth, financial accounts, list of investments, etc? If so, you did a poor job of protecting your private financial data.
Identity proofing attributes are much more useful for bad actors. Matched name, SSN, DOB, addresses, are widely available, unfortunately. If you’re fear mongering about china, well all the telecos being compromised was a lot more directly useful.
Net worth range (for SEC investor profile question) is not particularly useful. You can proxy wealth based on name and zip as well. I don’t care if someone knows what handful of ETFs I have in a given broker. The actual account I transferred from is locked or one time purpose and closed. The account at Tradeup is under SIPC at least but of course it’s a hassle for any data or operational failures.
Anyone had the lucky stock draws for funding account get swapped or withdrawn? One of my stock awards was swapped with another without any warning, message, or authorization from me. Trading activity is a blank as well so seems Tradeup did something on their back end. Looking at the tradeup app reviews on the app/google play store, I see that some other folks have also mentioned the same (award stock swap/withdrawn) to have happened to them. Curious if any DoC users have seen this?
It happened to me too. Received a share of meli and it got swapped in the backend for Nvidia. No notification or email or anything. Definitely a scammy company.
Exact same thing with the exact same stocks happened to me (Originally gave me MELI but then swapped for Nvidia with no warning until I contacted them). When I contacted TradeUP they said there was a ‘technical error’ on their end and that MELI should have never been gifted to me. This is the second ‘technical error’ that impacts me in a substantial way and I have 0 faith in this brokerage being able to manage a portfolio any longer so I’m going to withdraw from the promotion early.
Share, please, what the second error was?
When I initially made my funding deposit the interface made it appear like I had nothing in my portfolio – I had to contact customer service to get the issue resolved. This struck me as an extremely basic thing to mess up, seeing what I have on account with them.
Hum maybe I shouldn’t bother..
Thanks!
Happened to me and filed a complaint with the SEC and FINRA. They are in the process of fixing it now. Same deal and received MELI which than got swapped for NVDA.
I was able to get the to resolve the issue but had to file a complaint with FINRA. No brokerage firm should unilaterally make changes to your account w/o consent or notification.
Exactly the same happens to me. If they refuse to honor the initial share, I will file a complaint.
Anyone had Tradeup recall any of the award stocks for opening account? Seems they changed one of my 5 stock draws few weeks after it was posted. I didn’t authorise or do it myself and the switch doesn’t even show up in my transaction history. On the app review, I have seen couple comments from folks who had this happen.
Same issue for me. I got lucky and received a share of MELI which has since been removed. I’m currently fighting with them over it. This is such a joke of a brokerage with all the issues I’ve experienced with them so far.
Same here, was awarded a share of MELI, and then 2 weeks later, they replaced it with one NVDA stock. Any luck resolving with them?
If you file a complaint with FINRA their Compliance department has to respond. I am doing that now and they are fixing the issue.
are they giving you a share of MELI back?
They are giving me 50% of the value.
Glad that you’re getting something back, but why only half? And what was their excuse? This is extremely sketchy.
ETA: Now, I don’t feel so paranoid taking screenshots of my 75 Webull draws and then counting them at least twice after I redeemed them. 🤣
Just fyi, I once had success refiling an SEC/FINRA case when the company responded with some BS. I just referred to the original case in the second complaint.
It seems to me if they’re willing to give you 50% of the value they’re basically acknowledging you had ownership of that stock?!
I am still fighting to get the remaining 50%. Will update as I hear back from them.
Didn’t actually “draw” any stocks, but 3 shares of TU and 1 share of F showed up in the pending rewards
LMAO.
I’ve been mass spamming and opening the lucky draw page for the past 3 days when the stocks (3 of TU and 1 of F) already went pending last week got put on my account by Nov 18th.
I also received 1 TU and 1 Uber Share from referring P2. Came out to a total of $140 on top of the $540 from the 27k transfer that i probably will only have to leave in until April.
Not too shabby at all!
How are you coming up with $540?
Nevermind, you only had two quarters wroth of bonus, I think you would need to leave it all there until June….edit: actually September. You get $350 end of march, $210 end of June and then need to keep 90 days after that. Why do you think April?
Looks like you are correct. I was assuming my first distribution would have been on Dec 31st. But then i realized from looking at the T&C again, that you had to have made the transfer date by August 15 to be eligible for the first December payout.
Guess I’ll have to wait a bit longer, but no worries here, i do have another 50k’ish in another brokerage that the terms are completing on Feb 2025, so gives me another window of opportunity to see if any better offers coming up in the next coming months.
Had account and closed a couple of years ago. Will try with a different email and transfer in 17500 to get 350 bonus paid in the first quarter. How long is it requested to keep the assets after paid?
Got this during application: The entered SSN is already associated with another account. The logged in with old credentials and found my old account there even though it’s marked closed.
A lot of these smaller companies don’t let you churn. It indeed tied to SSN and not email address.
The bonus mechanism seems a bit complicated. I would like to show my understanding using an example and if someone can correct me where I am wrong, that will be great!
Example:
Say you transferred $50k on 11/15/2024. You should get a total of $50k*2%=$1000 bonus.
You will get the first installment of $350 on 03/31/2025 (the end of 2025 Q1 since your 90 day window from transfer-in lasts until around 2/15/2025).
Then the second installment of $350 on 06/30/2025.
Then the third $300 on 09/30/2025.
However, if you do any withdrawal or transfer-out, there will be clawbacks.
For example, if you withdrawal or transfer-out on 08/20/2025,
you will no longer receive the $300 on 09/30/2025,
and the $350 on 06/30/2025 will also be clawed back since you do not keep the money for 90 days after 06/30/2025.
So if you want to get all bonuses, you actually have to keep the money there way longer than the first impression. In this example, you transferred on 11/15/2024. But if you do not want to lose any part of your bonus, you have to keep the money until 12/31/2025!
That is actually more than one year rather than 270 days based on the first impression that the bonus will be issued in three quarters.
Eh – 2% to hold for 13 months seems pretty good to me. I moved mine in October so it will be 14 months. Don’t really care. Free $$$ is free $$$. The bigs aren’t going to provide this kind of offer.
Depends on account value. But generally, yes, it’s a solid offer.
WF premier, CPC are better for $250k and short hold times.
Yes but bigger amount required. CPC is a PITA because you can get pushback trying to open the wealth management account for self directed.
My assets already transferred over on the 6th, but i just wanted to wait for the lucky draw to come in for a full DP (which they haven’t just yet. read below for more info) and i can vouch for
TJ that you are eligible for the free stocks with your first ACAT transfer over (depending on the amount and tier you are on)
Oct 23: Process of transferring 27,000 full ACAT from Robinhood begins
I had some dividends that showed up a couple days after, so i believe that was the reason the transfer was taking so long. The term is called “Residual sweep” Where RH moves every single thing you have that was left over during the acct transfer process
Nov 6th: All the funds entered the TradeUp brokerage account.
Nov 7th: All remainder of Dividends and anything left over came the next following day (and there was a deduction of $100 as well for the ACAT transfer fees). TradeUp support said that whenever you send us the document of the fees from your original broker, we will reimburse you the fees.
TJ stated that a rep told them that it takes 5 business days for the draws to hit. Today was my 5th business day and i decided to send an e-mail to tradeup to see what is causing the delay.
They responded back quickly and said that there was a issue with the automatic system distribution putting the lucky draws in my account and that they are going to be processing it manually and it will arrive in 2 to 3 business days.
I was later told that the lucky draws typically take 14 business days. 🤷🏻♂️ They gave me a target date and if they aren’t received by then, to follow up.
yeah, i don’t even care if it takes another 2 to 3 weeks more, but at least be honest about it and don’t beat around the bush. Last thing i want to do is cause a scene.
I referred P2 to Tradeup (just had them deposit $100) so we can both get 2 free draws each, and those seem to have came at a decent pace (within 3 to 6 days after funding settlement)
I do like the fact that Tradeup support is instantaneous and responds back pretty quick. Not too shabby of a brokerage and the interface is decently clean.
To be clear, I don’t think they actually told me 5 business days on the draws, I only asked if I was eligible for the draws. I thought I had read the 5 biz days in the terms when I made that comment.
Etrade full transfer-out fee is
$75(?) I believe. (Happy to be wrong.)
Should I sell stock, etc, to have cash $75 available at Etrade before
initiating ACAT at TradeUp?
what your best bet to do is probably call up E-trade and see how they handle ACAT transfers.
If they want you to leave $75 in the account so that can take care of the Acat fee, do that, otherwise, it is probably going to be deducted from your assets or it might show up as a negative -75 balance when the TradeUp transfer fully processes.
Yes, I will contact them.
Thanks!!
TradeUp does not offer IRA or joint accounts which is disappointing. I was going to transfer a Roth IRA over but they don’t offer it yet.