College Advantage $25+ Sign Up Bonus
It’s back! It’s the one many of you were waiting for… the Ohio 529 College Advantage $25 sign up bonus is here. And it’s just in time to celebrate Free Money Friday deals at My Dollar Plan.
Thanks to a reader, Erlin, for letting me know they brought it back!
How to Earn Your $25 Sign Up Bonus
- Open a new Ohio 529 College Advantage account by June 30, 2010.
- Use the referral code: 2323158.
- Fund your account with $25.
- Get a $25 credit to your account within 7-10 business days after your account is established.
How to Earn $75+ from College Advantage
Once you sign up, or if you already have an account, you can earn more through the program referring your spouse and opening additional accounts for your kids.
You’ll get $50 for each referral bonus plus the $25 sign up bonus on each account.
Check out my complete step by step directions to add additional accounts.
Ohio 529 College Advantage Accounts
I’ve lost track how many accounts we have with the Ohio 529 College Advantage program (last time I checked it was 16!)
I always add additional accounts during sign up bonus time, but in reality I actually have a lot of our kids college money in the Ohio 529, since their program is the best.
I even forgo my home state plan with a tax deduction since I like the Ohio plan so much! And we all know, it’s a pretty big deal for me to give up a tax deduction! Here’s why:
- No account fees. There are no maintenance fees or enrollment fees.
- Low management fees. They offer cheap Vanguard index funds; I like the Vanguard 500 index fund with a 0.19% expense ratio.
- Low minimum. It’s only $25 to open an account.
- No residence restrictions. You don’t have to live in Ohio to open an account; Ohio residents get a state tax deduction.
- No kids needed. Just enroll and list yourself (or your spouse, if you have one) as the beneficiary.
Now I’m off to find some family members who need one (or a dozen) new accounts!
MDP, in the application page, I don’t see anywhere where you can enter a referral code. Is it in another page?
Ifi
Yes, it’s actually on the 3rd page in the application. Right after you enter your bank account information.
I already have accounts with them, but I tried to open more. It doesn’t let you open more accounts for the same beneficiary. How do you get so many accounts for your kids? If my wife and I open an account for each of our 2 kids, that’s 4 accounts. How do you get 16?
Hi Peter! You’re missing a few combinations. You can be the owner on an account where you are the beneficiary, and you can have your wife as a beneficiary. Also, your wife can have both herself and you as beneficiaries.
So there’s 4 more accounts for you! If you have a willing grandparent, they can have an account for all four of you.
We have 3 kids, plus my niece, and are expanding to the grandparents…
So if I make myself the beneficiary, do I, at some point, change it to one of my kids?
Yep! That’s one of the great features of 529 plans. You can change the beneficiary of the plan to someone else once per year.
I need info like Peter! Can you walk me through my first set of openings for my fam of 2 adults 2 kids?
Sure Beth! Here’s how you can do it. We’ll say the family has Mom, Dad, Son, and Baby.
Use the above instructions to open the first account. Mom is the owner, with Mom as the beneficiary.
Once your account is open, send a referral to yourself to get the new referral code.
Then, open four more accounts with Dad as the owner and Mom, Dad, Son and Baby as each of the beneficiaries.
Finally, send one more referral from Dad’s account to get a new referral code and open the final three accounts with Mom as the beneficiary and Dad, Son, and Baby as the beneficiaries.
Hopefully, that makes sense! It should be a total of $550 in referrals and bonuses.