If you have $25,000 or more sitting in savings and nothing planned for it before Christmas, Schwab will pay you to move it. How much you move decides whether that’s a good deal or a so-so one.
The offer, which runs through November 10, is simple on paper. Open a Schwab One brokerage account with a linked Investor Checking account. Bring in new money from another bank. Leave it in checking through December 25. Schwab pays $250 for $25,000 to $49,999, $500 for $50,000 to $99,999, and $1,000 for $100,000 or more.
Here’s the catch Schwab doesn’t put in the headline. The checking account pays 0.01% APY. Your money spends the whole stretch earning close to nothing, so the bonus has to beat the interest you give up.
The math, tier by tier
We ran it against Ally’s online savings account, which paid 3.20% APY as of October 23. Fund on November 10, pull the money out December 26, and it’s parked for 46 days.
At $25,000, Ally would have paid about $101 over those 46 days. Schwab pays $250. Annualized, the bonus works out to roughly 7.9%. That’s a real win, about $149 ahead.
At $49,999, you get the same $250. Ally would have paid about $202. You’re ahead by $49, and the bonus works out to about 4% a year.
Translation: the second $24,999 earned you nothing. It would have made about $101 at Ally on its own.
The same cliff repeats higher up. $50,000 gets $500 and lands near 7.9% again. $99,999 gets $500 and drops back to about 4%. $100,000 gets $1,000, and it’s 7.9% once more.
Depositing the minimum for your tier is smart. Depositing just under the next tier is dumb math dressed up as a bigger number.
Timing matters too. Fund it on October 26 instead and the money sits 61 days, which pulls the $25,000 tier down to about 6% a year. The bonus is the same either way. The sooner you move the money, the lower the rate you’re really earning.
Do this before November 10
Pick your tier by the floor, not the ceiling: $25,000, $50,000 or $100,000 exactly, plus a small cushion so a stray debit card swipe or bill payment can’t drop you below the line. Schwab’s own terms show that a dip can cost you a tier. In its example, a balance that falls from $100,000 to $75,000 caps the bonus at $500.
Leave the rest where it earns a real rate. Move the qualifying amount late, but give the transfer a few business days to land before the deadline. Money already at Schwab doesn’t count.
Then plan for the tax. Schwab says it may send a 1099 for the bonus. The bonus is taxable income, and so is savings interest, so the comparison above holds after tax too.
Check what your own balance earns elsewhere in our savings calculator, and see how a savings account stacks up against a fund in our money market breakdown. More rate coverage lives on the savings hub.
The bonus lands within one to two statement cycles after December 25, and Schwab only pays it if the checking account is still open and in good standing. So on December 26, move the money back. Leave the account open, with a few dollars in it, until the bonus shows up.
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