Merrill Edge Promotions – up to $750 Cash (March 2023)

When Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch in 2009, its investment arm was renamed Merrill (dropping the Lynch).

Merrill itself is a Bank of America company with three investment options – Merrill Edge Self-Directed, Merrill Guided Investing, and Merrill Guided Investing with an advisor.

If you’re interested in opening a Merrill Edge Self-Directed account, there are some juicy bonuses available if you are able to deposit a sizable chunk of cash into the account.

For many brokerages, this method is the best way to get extra cash to try out a new brokerage.

Table of Contents
  1. How to get up to $1,000 from Merrill Edge
  2. Merrill Edge Commissions & Fees
  3. How does this offer compare?

How to get up to $1,000 from Merrill Edge

The bonus is routine if you’re familiar with brokerage bonuses.

Open a new Merrill Edge account with the promotion code 1000PR and then transfer in new net assets within 45 days. These have to be new to the Bank of America ecosystem – so it can’t come from other accounts at Bank of America or Bank of America Private Bank or Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith (MLPF&S), which is an investment advisory service offered by Merrill.

After 90 days of meeting the funding criteria, the cash reward is calculated based on the “qualifying net new assets” in your account (irrespective of any losses or gains due to trading or market volatility).

Remember to use the bonus code – 1000PR.

The bonus is based on this schedule:

Qualifying AssetsCash Bonus
$5,000 – $19,999$50
$20,000 – $49,999$125
$50,000 – $99,999$200
$100,000 – $199,999$350
$200,000 or more$750

See the offer at Merrill Edge

Merrill Edge Commissions & Fees

Getting a cash bonus for opening an account isn’t worth it if the brokerage hits you with a lot of commissions and fees. Fortunately, Merrill Edge doesn’t do that. Their fee structure is good.

You get unlimited $0 online stock and ETF trades with no balance minimums whatsoever. If you want a broker assisted trade, that’ll cost $29.95.

If you are into options trading, those are $0 as well plus 65 cents per contract. Broker-assisted trades are again $29.95 plus 65 cents per contract.

Merrill Edge is competitive with other low cost brokers in terms of their fees and commission schedule.

How does this offer compare?

We maintain a list of the best brokerage promotions and this is comparable if you only have a few hundred thousand in assets to transfer. The downside of Merrill’s bonus schedule is that it tops out at $200,000. You could transfer a million dollars in assets and it would still be only worth, in bonus, as transferring $200,000.

In comparison, if you were to go after Ally Invest’s bonus, and had more in assets, you can get up to $3,000. Here is Ally Invest’s bonus schedule:

Deposit or Transfer
Amount
Your Bonus
$10,000 – $24,999$100
$25,000 – $99,999$250
$100,000 – $249,999$300
$250,000 – $499,999$600
$500,000 – $999,999$1,200
$1,000,000 – $1,999,999$2,000
$2,000,000 or more$3,000

As you can see, if you had $200,000 – you’d be better off with Merrill since you could get $750 vs. only $300. If, however, you had $500,000 or more – you’d get more in bonus from Ally Invest.

Also worth considering is that some brokerages will reimburse you the ACAT fee. ACAT is the system used to transfer assets between brokerages and most brokerages will charge you to leave. Ally Invest will reimburse you up to $75 in those fees when you come to them with at least $2,500 in assets – which further improves the effective bonus.

Unfortunately, Merrill Edge doesn’t reimburse ACAT fees.

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About Jim Wang

Jim Wang is a forty-something father of four who is a frequent contributor to Forbes and Vanguard's Blog. He has also been fortunate to have appeared in the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, Entrepreneur, and Marketplace Money.

Jim has a B.S. in Computer Science and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.S. in Information Technology - Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a Masters in Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. His approach to personal finance is that of an engineer, breaking down complex subjects into bite-sized easily understood concepts that you can use in your daily life.

One of his favorite tools (here's my treasure chest of tools,, everything I use) is Personal Capital, which enables him to manage his finances in just 15-minutes each month. They also offer financial planning, such as a Retirement Planning Tool that can tell you if you're on track to retire when you want. It's free.

He is also diversifying his investment portfolio by adding a little bit of real estate. But not rental homes, because he doesn't want a second job, it's diversified small investments in a few commercial properties and farms in Illinois, Louisiana, and California through AcreTrader.

Recently, he's invested in a few pieces of art on Masterworks too.

>> Read more articles by Jim

Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank or financial institution. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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