All offers / Investing / Schwab
Examined Jul 27, 2026 Paid in cash One side only Every dollar of the Schwab bonus goes to the person joining. The client who referred them gets nothing.
$1,000 is the top of the ladder, at half a million dollars. The direction is the part people get backwards: this money is paid to the person opening the new account, not to the Schwab client who handed over the link.
- The person opening the new account, on a $25,000 net deposit$100
- The Schwab client whose referral link they used$0
The joiner’s side climbs with the deposit, to $1,000 at $500,000. The referrer’s side stays where it is at every tier.
What pays what
| Qualifying net deposit of $25,000 to $49,999 | $100 |
|---|---|
| $50,000 to $99,999 | $300 |
| $100,000 to $499,999 | $500 |
| $500,000 or more | $1,000 |
| Any net deposit under $25,000 | $0 |
| The Schwab client whose link you used | $0 |
Two words in that first column carry the whole offer. Net deposit means what you move in minus what you take back out, so pulling money out during the window shrinks the number Schwab measures. Qualifying means the money has to be genuinely new to Schwab: shuffling assets you already hold there into a fresh account does not build a tier. Cash counts, and so do securities, meaning shares and funds transferred in from another broker at their value.
Do this, in this order
- Find a Schwab client and ask for their link first. Only an existing client can generate one, and you want it in hand before you start the application rather than halfway through it. Be honest with them: they get nothing out of it.
- Decide your tier before you decide anything else. The jump from $49,999 to $50,000 is worth $200, and the jump from $99,999 to $100,000 is worth another $200. If your number is under $25,000, stop here and read the alternatives at the bottom of this page instead.
- Bring money that is new to Schwab, and only that. The tier is built from outside assets arriving for the first time. Anything already sitting at Schwab does not count toward it no matter which account you park it in.
- Land the whole deposit inside 45 days, and start early. Cash or securities, but all of it inside the window. Moving an account from one broker to another is not instant and can eat a couple of weeks on its own, so begin on day one rather than day thirty.
- Do not take money back out during the window. It is a net deposit. A withdrawal mid-window is subtracted from the total Schwab measures, which can quietly drop you a tier or out of the offer entirely.
- Read Schwab's own terms before you plan to move the money out again. Check Schwab's page for any requirement to keep the deposit in place after the bonus is credited, because a large bonus and a fast withdrawal are the combination that most often ends in a reversal.
The fine print that decides whether this is for you
The rate gets worse the more you bring. $100 on a $25,000 deposit is four tenths of one percent. $1,000 on $500,000 is two tenths. This is a nice thank-you attached to a move you were making anyway, not a reason to move half a million dollars.
The referrer's side is a favour, not an income. Most refer-a-friend programs pay both sides, or pay the referrer more. This one pays the referrer nothing, so no existing Schwab client should share a link expecting a payday.
Two things this page will not guess at. Whether Schwab requires the deposit to stay in place after the bonus is credited, and whether the offer carries an end date. Both are answered on Schwab's own referral page and neither is worth a number we have not verified. Check them there before you count the money.
Terms move. Referral tiers and windows are set by the provider and can be modified or withdrawn. Treat the figures above as what the live offer said on the day we read it, and confirm them yourself before you transfer anything.
Is it worth your time?
If $25,000 or more was heading to a brokerage regardless, then yes. Ask a Schwab client for a link, open the account, move the money in one go, and $100 to $1,000 arrives for work you were doing anyway. If you were hoping to squeeze a bonus out of a few hundred dollars, this is the wrong page and no amount of persistence will change that. We have read plenty of brokerage offers that hide their real requirement in paragraph nine. Schwab's is right at the front.
