Some brokers offer you free cash to transfer your brokerage to them, E*Trade is just offering up 500 free trades. You can see the offer on this page, where they explain you can trade free for 60 days if you open a new Power E*Trade Account with at least $2,000. The offer is for 500 free trades in stock or options trades made within the first 60 days of the funds clearing and accounts must be funded within 60 days of account opening. Afterwards, you pay regular commissions.

How valuable are 500 trades? Well if you use them all, the rate is $9.99 for the first 149, then $7.99 for the rest for a grand total of $4,293 saved. If you make 500 trades in 60 days, this is a screaming hot deal. If you don’t, as I suspect most people don’t, this offer is only as good as often as you think you’ll use it.

Some more specifics:
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It’s another month and another promotion from Chase Bank. This time it’s a $100 cash bonus if you open an account, setup a direct deposit or make 5 debit purchases. From the looks of it, it’s the same offer as last month only with a new expiration date. All you need to do is visit the promotion page and request that a coupon be mailed to you. Take the coupon to a Chase branch, satisfy the requirements, and bank your new Benjamin.

Specifics:
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It seems that CD renewal bonuses are all the rage these days! Just the other day, I received an email from Ally Bank now that one of my CDs was nearing its expiration. Ally Bank will automatically renew your CDs unless you tell them otherwise (you have a ten day grace period from the renewal date to change your mind) and they have sweetened the offer by bumping up the rate by 0.25% from prevailing rates.

Here’s the email:
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If you live in the northeastern United States, need a bank account, and could use an extra hundred fifty bucks… do I have a bank deal for you. Sovereign Bank is offering a $150 cash bonus for new checking and savings account customers. The requirements are fairly standard – setup a checking and a savings account, enroll in online banking, and make five debit card transactions. In terms of bank deal requirements, it’s reasonable.

Here is the promotion page where residents of CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, WV, VT, and Washington DC can find out more (sorry, no one else is eligible). This expires May 28th, 2010. More details after the jump.

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TD Bank joins the recent spate of new account bank deals and they join the fray with our modern day equivalent of a toaster, a Flip Ultra Camcorder. I have one of these cameras and they’re great because of how easy it is to use and how portable it can be. It’s better than a toaster, far better.

So what do you need to do to get the promotion?
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This promotion has ended.

If you’ve been thinking about opening a checking account at Chase, then they’ve announced a new checking account promotion that is perfect for you. How about $100 to open a checking account with at least $100 in new money to Chase, 5+ debit card transactions in 60 days (or a direct deposit), and keep that account open for 6 months. Then a cool hundred is deposited into your account 10 days after meeting those requirements. This is one of the few promotions that doesn’t require a direct deposit, which is pretty rare.

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With the economy on the road to recovery (we hope!), banks are getting back into the business of banking. What that means is an increase in the number of bank deals floating around, like new account bonuses.

This week, the promotion of note is one offered by M&T Bank (MTB). They are offering up to $150 in new account bonuses when you open a new checking account. The $150 is broken up into three phases:
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BB&T Bank, which stands for Branch Banking and Trust, is running a $100 checking account promotion where you get $100 for opening a BB&T Free checking account and then setting up a Direct Deposit or making 3 online bill payments. Your $100 bonus is deposited within 4 weeks of satisfying one of the conditions. The BB&T Free checking account has no minimum balance requirement though the minimum opening deposit is $50. There are no maintenance fees.

You can read more about the promotion here (promotion code is AFJAP). This promotion expires June 6th, 2010 so you have to act quickly (it was extended beyond the original expiration date of April 2010).
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