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Free Access to Stake Unlimited Brokerage Pack for Life if Your Stake Account Has More than US$5K by 9am 11 Mar (Was US $9/Mth)

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For those who don't know, Stake (www.stake.com.au) offer their Australian customers a brokerage free way of getting access to the US sharemarket.
How it works is you get both a AUD Wallet and a USD Wallet. hey earn a small commission only on the transfer of AUD to USD.
Once the money is in the USD Wallet you get access to brokerage free trading! I've been using it for 3 years - it's been pretty amazing and it's saved me heaps of brokerage and trading costs when compared to what our big 4 banks are offering!

You can check out how it works here: https://hellostake.com/pricing/

They have recently restructured their pricing tiers (all levels are in trial mode and are free till July 2020) and revamped their app interface.
They copped some backlash about forgetting about their current customers (founding customers) and are now offering the "middle" brokerage pack for free if you qualify as a founding member (i.e. you have to fund your account by US$5K by March 11th 9am). Since I was already above this amount, I automatically qualified so I am happy!

Even their free tier is still great but if you can get lifetime access to the middle brokerage pack than why not :)

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Copy paste from their email:
Recently we announced some enhancements to Brokerage Packs. Today, we’re announcing a plan to further acknowledge and reward our existing customers - our founding community - in the transition toward this new model.

By 9am on Wednesday 11th March, 2020 all Stake customers who have US$5k or more in their Stake account will receive lifetime access to Stake Unlimited.

That’s right. With a value of US$5k (cash and stocks) and above in your account, you’ll be migrated to the US$9/month Stake Unlimited pack free of charge for life.

Will I get access to new features added into Stake Unlimited over time?

Absolutely. If you have US$5k or more in your Stake account by the date above, you’ll get all ongoing additions and enhancements as we release them.

What happens if I want to be on Stake Black?

You can. However, this offer extends only to Stake Unlimited, so to access Stake Black you’ll need to pay the monthly fee (after July 1, 2020).

Can I try Stake Black and then move back to my Stake Unlimited access?

Yes. If you’ve taken up the above offer, you can get back onto Stake Unlimited, free of charge, even if you’ve tried Stake Black for a period of time.

What happens if my account drops below US$5k after March 11th?

Nothing. If you have an account value of US$5k or more (cash and stocks) as at 9am on Wednesday 11th March, 2020 you will receive this offer. Once you’ve received this offer, your account balance can change as per normal.

What happens if I have that money in my Macquarie Cash Account?

Only money that is in your Stake USD wallet by the above time and date will count toward the US$5k threshold.

What happens if I already have an account value of US$5k?

You're in! Just ensure that your account value stays at this level or above until the above time and date and you’ll receive this offer.

Mod: Referral links are not allowed.

Referral Links

Referral: random (1013)

Referrer gets $1 off brokerage for 12 months for each referral. Referees gets $10 bonus (funding account within 24 hours of sign-up required).

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closed Comments

  • +1

    They rip your eyeballs out with the exchange rate still though ?

    • I think it's like 0.7%

      • Now I think it’s closer to 1%

        Its US 70 cents per $100 AUD

        • I was thinking of making an account not for immediate use but to take advantage of the offer.

          At current exchange rate that means you are paying $75.72 if you assume 1% commission to transfer your money. Am I reading this correctly?

          Not sure if its worth it if you arn't going to use it right away and are only taking advantage of "lifetime" free brokerage for any future trading you may do.

          Remember that $5000 USD is $7572.66 AUD. I was interested until looking at this closer. Plus you will have money tied up for half a month without earnings if you take advantage.

          • +1

            @abc: There is also a fee to bring your money back to AU

            So minimum fees of ~$150, plus/minus any profits/loss on the trade as well as future currency movements.

            • @BluBoy: Thanks for that mate. I don't think its worth it unless you are going to use it shortly after opening an accountthen. Might be useful if you already have an account however.

  • +10

    Some key takeaways before you investing in US shares atm:

    • AUD is at a decade-low against USD. Profitability is likely to be deteriorated by FX change (AUD appreciation).

    • Coronavirus is now spreading outside of mainland China, especially in Korea and Japan, leading to a global economic panic.

    • Trump said ‘US is a very close friend of Pakistan’ in India yesterday.

    • +1

      Trump said ‘US is a very close friend of Pakistan’ in India yesterday.

      There are some very successful trading bots that are based on Trump's twitter.

    • he's everyone's friend in some way or another haha

  • Good points. I should have probably highlighted the risk and made a disclaimer in the post. :-)

  • +1

    But I'm vegan.

    • +1

      Good thing this is stake and not steak then ;)

      • -7

        It's about the story, not the spelling. That's what we're learning now, Boomer!

        • +1

          Right then, you do get Offended easily don't you

        • -1

          Sargasm? Anyone?

    • where's jv? sounds like something he would say

      • The last time I parlayed with him, I was banned for quoting the name of a John Lennon song. From that day on, I became Offended!

        • [A life] I'll just leave this package here for you.

  • What are the alternatives to trade US stock at no/low fees?

    • Also, this is interesting:

      If I have USD, can I transfer them in?

      Yes, you can. There is a flat fee of US$5 to transfer any amount of USD into your Stake account.
      You can find the details to make a USD transfer in at the Profile Section of your Stake account.

      Could someone with an account confirm what the transfer method is? Could I use a no-FX AU credit card to put $5k USD in for $5USD in fee?

      • Looks like they provide a Routing/Swift & Account number at M & T Bank so it would have to be bank to bank transfer rather than from a credit card.

  • Stake needs to hurry up and get options trading.

  • How sustainable is the model when you have AUD$7k which they take $70 then give you lifetime free access. If there is any cash left in your account they make 1 or 2% interest.

    So really their business model is built on making 0.7% fee of changing to USD which there is no guarantee of flow. Fund managers make 1% of asset under management year on year.

    If the share market tanks or Australia goes into recession and flow of investor money dries up they are going to shut their doors.

    Shares / money might be held in a separate account but the pain of trying to get the money back if they do go bust.

    • https://au.support.hellostake.com/support/solutions/articles…
      https://au.support.hellostake.com/support/solutions/articles…

      Stake doesn't actually hold anything I believe. Funding AUD account is with Macquarie or wherever you're moving USD funds from into the USD account which is managed by Drivewealth in your name, so theoretically if Stake went bust your shares would still be accessible through Drivewealth. It would be annoying to lose the platform though.

      • Shares / money might be held in a separate account

        Like I mentioned.

        If they do go bust who are you going to move it to? It isn't like we are in America and just move it to another low cost broker.

        • That is true. It would be a pain. I agree on that.

      • Drive Wealth does not hold shares, they are a brokerage platform that Stake uses in the background to transact orders

        The custodian is financial institute that holds your shares
        Stake have no saying on the custodian, Drive Wealth determines who the custodian is; this was previously with ICBC Financial Services, was switched over to Electronic Transaction Clearing, Inc on 4 March 2019

        This is the statement under Stake's FAQ section

        Securities are held in custody by Electronic Transaction Clearing, Inc. ("ETC") and USD cash balances are held in money market accounts at Dreyfus, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bank of New York Mellon. All your holdings and cash are registered in your name in a segregated account and are insured for up to $US500,000 under SIPC insurance.

        and your AUD does not get transferred automatically into the US bank account, it will be withheld in your MQB account until you press transfer in Stake

        -

        just to clear things a bit for those new to the share market how the exchange of shares works in the background.

        basically as retail investors, us, will buy / sell shares through a brokerage platform (system, which also connect to your bank account that holds the funds), this system connects to the US stock exchange's system so you can buy / sell shares with other users regardless of what platform they use.

        say when you buy 10 shares of company A, when your order of buy gets filled by Bob, it is recorded in a 'book', at this point the transfer of ownership and exchange of money is not really completed

        this 'book' is sent to a Clearing House to process, a process typically takes up to 2 days to finalise; during the process the exchange of ownership details is also handed over to company A to update their record of 10 shares that was under Bob's name to your name

        once it is processed, the record of you own the 10 shares of company A is handed over custodian and gets filed.

        So at the end of the day, what your custodian have is just a 'piece of paper' that says you owns 10 shares of company A

  • FYI I transferred AUD$10k at FX rate of 0.6601 plus -USD$70 commission through Stake 2 days ago, USD$6,531.06

    for wire transfer, do note the banks will be taking commissions
    my friend wire transferred AUD$50 when he signed up to Stake in early 2019 (because the auto MQB account setup request system broke down), he only got around USD$5, the middle men took $30+ in commission; I was LOLing him when he told me

    for those freaking out about the share market, yes, it is shaky, but it is at such time that you should be buying shares of quality companies, and there are so called safe havens you can get into like bonds and commodity etfs on Stake

    if you look at the historical records, the US equities had alway performed better Australia equities in both downturns and recovery

  • Can Pty ltd companies use this offer or service?

  • I created an account with stake on 21st Jan 2020 but did not receive this email. Anyone else also not receive it?

    • I created an account on 14th Jan 2020 and no email yet

  • I'm just about to give up… Every time I try to fund the account, the transfer details (BSB/Account or bpay) fields it provides are blank.

    Also in addition to the FX fee, there are:

    • Fees for transferring over the weekend.
    • Fees for your first transfer.
    • Fees for 'express' transfer,
    • Fees for credit card transfer (2%!)
    • FX rate is lower than expected

    Is it really 'free' trading if you have to pay these (twice!)

    • Same for me, I just used poli with no problems. I haven't seen any extra fees for transferring over the weekend, it still takes same number of business days for regular transfer. I minimised fees by using regular transfer, not using CC and also getting the 50% rebate for doing a survey earlier in Feb

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