What would you do for $100?
I found this article online from Suze Orman about how she's engineered a deal with TD Ameritrade to give you $100 for saving with them for a year. The gist of the article is that you have to open an account with TD Ameritrade. Put a minimum of $50 into it every month for 12 months without taking any money out. The money sits in a money market fund earning about 2.78%. 4 or so weeks after the 12 month timespan, TD Ameritrade will deposit $100 into your account. After this deposit you can feel free to pull the money out and close the account. There are no fees of any sort associated with this account, including when you close the account.
So you invest $600 over the course of the year and earn about $8 if the interest rate holds steady. Then you get the bonus $100. The $108 increase on your $600 investment reflects a relative growth rate of about 18%.. Of course, investing more than the minimum $50/month will drop your relative growth rate, but 2.78% isn't really the best savings account interest rate out there so why would you put more than the minimum away here?
Sounds pretty good for a small gain and no risk (the account is FDIC insured). The question is, is it worth it to deal with the additional headache of another account you have to maintain and put money in?
What would you do for $100?