Comments on: Sharebuilder Promo Code – $50 Cash Bonus

By: Grant

Grant — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:23:11 +0000

As of 11/10/10, the “HVC09NY” promo code doesn’t seem to be working on either my taxable or non-taxable (roth) brokerage accounts. Just a heads up.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 12:45:35 +0000

Jordan, I read the article, and I bet there is more to the story than meets the eye. I don’t doubt there were people involved with buying votes, but the odds it was sanctioned by ShareBuilder are very low. It was probably a situation that wasn’t covered under the rules and ShareBuilder’s lawyers probably advised them not to pursue disqualifying those votes out of fear of a lawsuit (The iReport didn’t have a link to the rules and I wasn’t able to find them on ShareBuilder’s FB page). This is a situation where it is cheaper to pay the people off, then rewrite the rules for next time. Keep in mind many large corporations still don’t understand social media and the lengths people will go to to bend rules and leverage any available opportunity.

Based on the article I read, and ShareBuilder’s responses, it doesn’t seem to me like they encouraged fraud and cheating, rather than they allowed it because it wasn’t against the rules… and therefore by the rules may not have even been fraud or cheating, even if it was an undesired method of gaining votes.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:21:16 +0000

Why would anyone schedule trades ahead of time on a regular basis. Don’t you need to watch how your shares are doing in order to know when to sell?

By: jordan

jordan — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:31:48 +0000

Not to mention, in ShareBuilder’s latest contest (ended August 6th) they encouraged fraud and cheating. Read about it in this article: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-478946 Never ever do business this company.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:22:49 +0000

I didn’t get burned, Tracy. I opened this account over 3 years ago and I got $50 in free stock. It was my fault for choosing poorly! I could have left the stocks in the account forever, but I decided to liquidate the account to simplify my accounts.

ShareBuilder racks up fees if you make a lot of real time trades, but if you plan on buying and holding, then it can be an affordable option. I currently prefer other options, however, because they are more affordable for real time trades.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:47:20 +0000

Sounds like a great plan, Lynn. ShareBuilder is a great place to buy stocks, especially if you plan on holding onto them for a long time. Hopefully they will change their fee structure in the near future to make them a better option for folks who trade more frequently. I think they are missing out on some business by charging more for real time trades than their competitors!

By: Lynn

Lynn — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:37:36 +0000

Oh, I just wanted to add that I use sharebuilder to buy stock for my children. I signed up myself using a promotion from Costco ($70) and then signed up my 2 children with acocunts and also got the bonus. Now I just buy “fun” stocks for the kids – McDonald’s, Hershey, Disney etc. At the beginning of the year they sent me a code for 12 free trades for each of my accounts (not real time but I don’t care about that) and now I just add a little bit of money and can make small trades as I want. I don’t plan on liquidating the shares anytime soon so maybe the trades will be free by the time the kids decide to cash their accounts out.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:25:01 +0000

Thanks for the info, Lynn. I did this about two weeks ago, but was slow publishing the article. I’ll see if I can find another code out there. I’ll be quicker to publish next time!