WTDirect $50 to $250 Signup Bonus
WTDirect is offering up to $250 in their Winter Bonus blast promotion. Since it’s Free Money Friday, it’s time to cash in!
How to Get Your Signup Bonus
- Open a new WTDirect savings account and use the code WTG3DNC.
- Link your new account to your existing bank account.
- Fund the account by
December 22, 2008December 31, 2008. - Get your bonus in March.
Update: The offer has been extended until December 31, 2008.
Amount of the Bonus
The amount you earn will be based on the average balance from Jan. 1 2009 – Feb. 28, 2009. Here is the WTDirect bonus schedule:
| Balance | Bonus |
|---|---|
| $10,000 | $50 |
| $20,000 | $100 |
| $30,000 | $150 |
| $40,000 | $200 |
| $50,000 | $250 |
WTDirect
Here is more information about WTDirect:
- FDIC Insured.
- No fees.
- No minimum deposit to open the account.
Doing the Math
While the WTDirect account requires more than a typical bank offer, it’s a pretty good deal. The account earns 3.06% APY for the first 60 days no matter what the balance is. And as long as you have $10,000 to earn a bonus during the promotional period, you’ll earn the 3.06% plus the bonus.
Add the signup bonus and the interest together and you should be able to clear about 6% over the two months, clearly beating other High Yield Savings Accounts.
If you have a CD ladder that has a renewal this month, have some credit card arbitrage money sitting around, or even an emergency fund this is the best place I’ve seen to park it for the next two months!
Thanks for the heads-up. I came up with a different return though. I calc 5.338% vs. your 6%+. Please check my math and tell me if I’m wrong. Here are my assumptions:
assume 50K invest.
Open the account as late as possible, i.e. 12/22/08.
Receive 3.06% APY for 60 days or until 2/20/09 (rate not guaranteed, btw).
The average balance formula is from 1/1/09 to 2/28/09 so must leave your money in thru 2/28/09 to avoid reducing your avg bal; Thus from 2/20/09 to 3/1/09 (9 days) you receive not 3.06%, but the lower rate of 0.5% APY.
Withdraw your money on 3/2/09, but keep acct open.
Receive bonus into your acct during the second week in March.
So you earn $248.35 for the first 60 days, $6.18 for the 9 days and the bonus of $250 for a total of $504.53 over 69 days of being invested. 5.338% APY. Still good rate (assuming rates hold).
@ 10-4: As long as you have $10,000 in your account, they still pay the 3.06 % APY after the 60 days. It only drops to 0.5% APY once you dip below the $10,000. So that should be worth about an extra $30.
In addition, they weren’t totally clear on this part, but I think if you execute it exactly as their directions read, you can fund the account with, say $1 on 12/22/08. Then put in the whole $50,000 on 12/31/08.
That would reduce the number of days that you have to tie up the money, by about 9 days (and reducing the total earnings to right around $500 and bringing the rate to just above 6% APY.
In reality, you would have to tie up the money for a few extra days for transfers, so I think the actual rate is somewhere in between yours and mine. Like you said, still a good rate!
I misread the detail about the 0.5% returns. Thanks for the correction.