$50 Bonus for ETrade Money Market Account

Earn 4.40% APY for the first 3-months and receive a $50 bonus when you fund an ETrade Money Market Account with at least $100. Here's the link to the promotion. The ETrade Bank website links to a page that doesn't mention the $50 bonus, only the 4.40% 3-month APY. Also, some others have listed the link to an ETrade page that has a 3.60% APY rather than this 4.40% APY. I had to search around to find the page that had both the $50 and the 4.40% APY.

This has been offered by ETrade many times in the past. I first posted on this last September. The terms have remained the same. An important note about this money market account is that it requires a minimum balance of $1K (or $5K in total E*Trade Bank deposits) to avoid a $10 monthly fee. This $50 bonus offer expires February 28, 2006. A $10 early closeout fee will be assessed if account is closed within 120 days of opening.

After the first three months, the money market yields at ETrade are not competitive. Currently, those with $5,000 to $49,999 earn 2.75% and those with less than $5,000 earn 0.30%.

ETrade has kept its CD rates competitive. It currently is offering a very nice 4.75% APY 6-month CD. You could fund the money market account to get the bonus and the temporary 4.40% APY. Then use the money market money to fund a 6-month CD. If the CD is at least $5K, you could then avoid the $10 monthly fee.