About 4 in 10 U.S. adults still don’t own a single share of stock, according to Motley Fool Money research. If you’re one of them, a new-account bonus is a pretty good nudge to finally start.
My team at Motley Fool Money tracks brokerage promos all year, and three stood out this month. Two pay you straight cash. One hands you free stock. Open all three and there’s up to $3,000 on the table.
1. E*TRADE offers a huge cash bonus this month
E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley is running the largest straight-cash offer of our three picks right now. It’s simple, and there’s no portfolio transfer required to get it.
Bonus details: You can earn up to $1,500 in cash when you open and fund a new E*TRADE brokerage account. It’s a limited-time promo, and the more you fund, the bigger your bonus.
How to earn it: Open a new E*TRADE brokerage account and use promo code OFFER26 when you sign up. Then fund it with new money to lock in your tier. Here are the offer tiers up to $1M in funding:
This one makes the most sense if you’ve already got cash ready to invest. You bring the money, E*TRADE adds to it.
2. J.P. Morgan rewards you for moving your portfolio
J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing pays a tiered cash bonus for transferring or rolling over an existing account. It also earned our award for Best Stock Broker for Mutual Funds for 2026, thanks to $0 commissions across the board.
Bonus details: The cash bonus scales with how much you bring over:
- $50 for transfers of $5,000 to $24,999
- $150 for $25,000 to $99,999
- $325 for $100,000 to $249,999
- $1,000 for $250,000 or more
How to earn it: Open a J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing account by Oct. 21, 2026. You’ve got 45 days to fund it with qualifying new money, and your bonus is set on day 45. Keep the money in for 90 days, and it lands in your account within 15 days.
This is perfect for anyone with an old IRA or a brokerage account sitting somewhere else. If you’ve been meaning to consolidate, you might as well get paid to do it.
3. Schwab gives beginners free stock for as little as $50
Charles Schwab runs two new-customer offers, and it earned our award for Best Stock Broker for IRA Investors for 2026. One offer is built for first-timers, the other for people moving a bigger balance.
Bonus details: The Schwab Starter Kit gives new investors $50 in free stock. Deposit $50 and you start with $100 invested. There’s also a referral bonus worth up to $1,000 for those funding a larger account.
How to earn it: For the Starter Kit, open a new Schwab account and fund it with at least $50. Schwab hands you $50 to buy fractional shares (it calls them Stock Slices) of five large U.S. companies. To qualify for either offer, you just have to be new to Schwab. Schwab lays out both offers on its promotions page.
This is where I’d encourage beginner investors to open an account. Schwab is a low-cost broker you can trust for long-term retirement investing.
Just starting is the real win
Broker bonuses are great — but they’re a one-time thing. Consistent investing and holding good quality stocks long term is what builds wealth.
So open the account, fund it, and set up automatic contributions. Bonus or no bonus, the best time to start is now.
To compare all your options first, here are the best stock brokers for 2026.
