Cautions:

• Before you accept any offer, be sure to make a copy of the offer and all of its terms and conditions. Mail a copy with the application, along with a note saying that you are accepting that offer. And keep a copy in case anything goes wrong.
• I have made no investigation of the financial stability or performance history of any of the investment companies I list on this page. You are on your own to do appropriate due diligence before giving these companies any of your assets. (Occasionally I will give you some help on how to do that due diligence.)

Brokers

It has been a long time since stock brokers offered miles for new accounts. But maybe it begins again.

Banks

Click here to see if a U.S. Bank is indeed F.D.I.C. insured. If you are thinking of depositing more than the $250,000 limit of insurance in a F.D.I.C. insured account, Bankrate has a useful service that rates the financial stability of banks.

I do list offers from some banks outside of the U.S. I do not know if these banks are in any way insured by their governments, and have no knowledge of their financial stability, and I don't intend to research this. You are on your own to do due diligence with any investment you make in any bank or financial institution, but especially with foreign banks.

Doctor of Credit maintains a nifty listing of a large number of bank account bonuses - he says all of them are listed. Miles, points, and cash. Nice.

• Its debit card charges no fees for ATM withdrawals, foreign or otherwise.
• There is no minimum for maintenance of the account.
• Schwab reimburses and fees charged for ATM withdrawals. Usually ATMs are the best way to acquire foreign currency within the foreign country. Almost always these ATMs can be found at airports upon arrival. But caution: Always use a bank ATM. Never use one from Travelex or the like.
• There is no fee for foreign currency transactions. You get the Visa exchange rate, which is always very close to the interbank rate.
• There are no monthly fees and as such no direct deposit requirement or account balance requirement to keep the account fee free.
• Using this link gets you a $100 bonus if you comply with the terms of the offer. Use my referral code REFERZJ6A29HP. I make nothing for this. It involves a minimum deposit. Not clear for how long it must be maintained. Ask. For taxable accounts, the account must be maintained at Schwab for at least one year or Schwab may charge back the Bonus Award. There may be exceptions to this. Ask.
• The account pays a tiny amount of interest.
• I maintain this account with a $1 balance when I am not traveling. When traveling I ACH funds to it via the Schwab website. But caution: They put a hold on the money for several days (4, I think, but ask.)
• You must also have a Schwab investment account to have the checking account. But several years ago I was told you need not have any assets in it. Ask. Not sure if a brokerage account is automatically opened when you open the checking account. Ask.
• Doctor of Credit provides a good description of this account and offer. I have used it for years and am quite pleased with it.
• For all questions about this account and offer, call 800-398-8640 and mention the code REFER.

• 50,000 Membership Rewards Points.
• It pays 1.3% APY on balances of up to $500K.
• Membership Rewards points can only be redeemed for deposits into your checking account, unless you have another card earning Membership Rewards points, in which case they could be redeemed the same way as there (meaning you could potentially transfer them to airline & hotel partners).
• Read the details to see what you have to do to get all this.
• No monthly maintenance fees for keeping an account, and no domestic ACH fees, domestic incoming wire fees, or international incoming ACH fees.
• Yes, you can order paper checks for this account.

The American Express checking account offers 4 Membership Rewards® Points for every $2 of eligible Debit Card purchases (on up to $1,500 in spend) through July 31, 2024.

• Bask Bank offers 10,000 American Airlines for new customers opening a Bask Mileage Savings Account. Read the conditions at the bottom of this page. Ends February 28, 2025.
• Earn 2 American Airlines AAdvantage® miles for every $1 saved annually. I keep $20 in my account, thus earning 2 miles month and keeping my AA account active.

You must electronically link another bank account to the Bask account, but you do not have to provide log in info for the that bank. Just say you will fund later, then use the usually 3 small deposit method to link the accounts.

I found most of the specifics of the miles offers by searching on miles in the terms and conditions

You can email the bank: customersupport@baskbank.com. But once you open an account, there is a well hidden secure message center. (Click on More near the top of the page.)

I deposited $1,000 on December 9, 2019. and did the feedback. The 1,000 miles for the feedback posted on December 11. The 5,000 miles bonus posted on January 8, 2020. 73 miles posted on January 3, 2020, thus showing that they do indeed post miles monthly. I keep $20 in the account, generating 2 miles/month, thus easily keeping my AA account active. Last I looked, that AA account requires at least one activity every 18 months to avoid losing all the miles in it.

Bask Bank also offers an often competitive money market account. You can get both, and if you have one, it is very easy to open the other.

• Those 113,500 SBs are worth at least $1,135 - more if you wait for the monthly sale of Amazon or Visa gift cards.
• You may read about the Swagbucks program here. It is a very easy way to earn a bit of money, and a pretty good shopping portal.

Home Buying

These miles do cost the lender or broker money. So be sure to compare their rates to those who don't offer miles - the latter may offer better deals. Note also that you may be able to negotiate a lower commission or a lower loan rate by offering to give up the miles.

View from the Wing has a good article on these offers.

Please tell me about any programs you come across. I will add them here after I check them out. You can often find them through the web site of your favorite airline. Look for the partners of its frequent flyer program. Here are the ones I know about:

Other Loans

It appears that banks are just beginning to experiment with the idea of awarding miles for loans other than those for the home. Please tell me about any other of these types of offers you find. Thanks.

LendingClub offers 1 American Airlines mile per $1 borrowed, up to 40,000 miles. They say "Rates from 5.99% to 35.89%* APR. Best APR is available to borrowers with excellent credit." Not sure if you can borrow for a very short period of time to get the miles. This thread in flyertalk discusses the offer. Note that there may be an up front fee for taking out the loan, making the miles expensive. But if you need the loan and they give you a good rate...

LendingClub offers 1 United Airlines mile/$1 you loan to others. This is a very interesting program. Please read all of this article and all of my comments on it there.

If you are looking for a smaller short term loan (less than a year), I may have 0% balance transfer offers listed for certain credit cards. For some, you can get a check for your full credit limit, and then make minimum payments until the 0% offer ends. You can often get another check for that minimum amount you pay once the payment posts. The best way to find these offers is to look on my Free Money page.

Student Finance

Here I list miles producing and cash back offers for savings plans and loans for tuition and other student expenses.

• Minimums for transfer to a 529 are alluded to, but never stated. What are they?
• Which 529 plans are on your list for eligibility? (And specifically is yours on it?)

The reader who told me about this program says

"...most 529 plans have annual fees exceeding average consumer's Upromise earnings, so people should decide if it's worth it for them to participate, based on their shopping habits. It doesn't mean they shouldn't join Upromise, of course. There is a way to request a check from Upromise, not subject to any 529 penalties, and something they obviously do not advertise."

Insurance

Most insurance companies accept credit cards (mileage producing, of course) for payment of premiums. Ask.

Investment Advice

Taxes

I found numerous miles offers for doing your taxes by going to the American Airlines shopping portal, clicking on the search icon (the magnifying glass), and then searching on taxes. Perhaps doing the same on other shopping portals will have similar results.

All of the major tax preparation software companies are listed with Swagbucks, with good rebates in the form of SBs. Enter Taxes in the search box. You may read about the Swagbucks program here. It is a very easy way to earn a bit of money, and a pretty good shopping portal.

Million Mile Secrets has an excellent article on how to profitably earn miles or cash for paying your taxes. Note that any of the 2% cash back cards I list will give you a small profit.

Below are some of the offers I know about. Please tell me about others you find. Thanks.

• The IRS has a nifty page showing numerous methods for obtaining e-filing for free. Most require that your Adjusted Gross Income be $50,000 or less.
• Often the payment agencies arrange special offers for payment of taxes:
  • Official Payments Corporation
• Mastercard has a nifty list of which states accept its card, and via which agents. Presumably those states also accept other cards.
• Redeem American Express Membership Rewards points to credit your Card account for the cost of the convenience fee (200 Membership Rewards points = $1).