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Get $25 Free When You Open an ING ShareBuilder Account!

Posted on | April 28, 2009 |

I’ve been a ShareBuilder member since 2005. Before I joined, I did a mountain of research for discount brokerages that matched my criteria. I was new to investing, and didn’t want to get bogged down into a quagmire of fees. My criteria was simple:

  • No account minimums.
  • Low cost.
  • No inactivity fees.
  • Member of FINRA/SIPC (like FDIC for investment companies)

I basically wanted something to buy and hold stock whenever I had the extra cash to do so… i.e. not an automated venture.

Not only did I visit each website and scour their available online info, I went trolling through forums and news groups to see what other people were saying. Eventually I had narrowed my selection down to 2 choices: ShareBuilder and FOLIOfn. I didn’t want to back a losing horse, so when I started seeing a lot of chatter about FOLIOfn being on financially unsound footing, I decided to go with ShareBuilder.

In the end, FOLIOfn did not fold, and I could have gone with them but that’s hindsight.

ShareBuilder offers 3 plans to choose from

Here’s a quick breakdown of features associated with each plan:

BASIC:

  • No Account Minimums
  • Automatic Investment Plan
  • Real-time Trades
  • Mutual Funds
  • Express Funding
  • Investment Guidance
  • Options Trading
  • Margin Borrowing
  • Research Tools
  • Gain & Loss Tracking

Standard:

  • BASIC PLUS:
  • Included Automatic Investments
  • Discounted Margin Rates
  • Stock Grades

Advantage:

  • Standard PLUS:
  • Stock Reports
  • Strategy Reports
  • IPO Priority Notification

Well, since the basic fit my main criteria, I chose that and haven’t looked back since. The best part is that it doesn’t cost me a dime unless I buy or sell a stock! Which brings me to the next important feature - Price!

How Much Does It Cost?

Basic:

  • $4 to buy
  • $9.95 to sell Market, Limit and Stop Orders
  • Phone trades: $29.95

Standard: ($12/month - 1st month free)

  • 6 free buys per month
  • $2 to buy after the 1st 6.
  • $9.95 to sell Market, Limit and Stop Orders
  • Phone trades: $29.95

Advantage: ($20/month)

  • 20 free buys per month
  • $1 each thereafter
  • $9.95 to sell Market, Limit and Stop Orders
  • Phone trades: $29.95

All levels offer Margin Borrowing, with the Standard package giving a 0.25% discount and the Advantage a 0.5% discount in the margin rate. All levels also include PortfolioBuilder. PortfolioBuilder is a general guide to take the user through risk tolerance and gets them to focus on what they’re investing for. I haven’t used this feature much, since I’ve educated myself prior to joining on most of what it provides.

Since I joined ShareBuilder, they have been acquired by ING. This actually makes me very happy since I believe ING is a very stable company, and have also been a member of their Orange Savings and Electronic Checking accounts for years. Since ING owns ShareBuilder, transfers to or from ING accounts are free AND instantaneous! No waiting 3 days for the transfer to be completed.

There’s also no cost to reinvestment dividends - you can create your own DRiPS!

If you’re interested in joining ShareBuilder, you can get $25 free when you open an account using one of the promo codes below:

ing sharebuilder promotion code

ing sharebuilder promotion code

ing sharebuilder promotion code

ing sharebuilder promotion code

ing sharebuilder promotion code

NOTE: If they have stopped working, please let me know so I can get some fresh ones!

These promotional codes are similar to the ING direct savings account referral codes

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Comments

One Response to “Get $25 Free When You Open an ING ShareBuilder Account!”

  1. Rob Thomas
    May 29th, 2009 @ 11:32 am

    Hey, I am just looking for an account like this one. Thanks a lot for sharing this information.
    Cheers!

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