Which Merrill Edge deposit account (preferred deposit or money market) should I choose?

[Elva]

I'm having a hard time choosing which deposit account I should choose. Merrill Edge has a really bad sweeps account earning no interest so since I have the 100k needed for the initial investment minimum for these other options, I'm trying to decide which one to use. I plan to use it as a cash holding place to earn a bit of interest until I need it to purchase stocks. I'm in Merrill Edge for the platinum honors reward program and basically am going to stick with them for my stocks purchases whereas I use Vanguard for Index funds and ETFs. I was transferring back and forth cash from Merrill Edge to Vanguard to take advantage of Vanguard's better sweeps money market account but it'd be a lot easier to just leave my cash in Merrill Edge.

Here's a list of all the options

https://olui2.fs.ml.com/Publish/Content ... eSheet.pdf

I talked to an advisor who says that you just have to call in to make the initial investment into one of these accounts and after that you can withdraw/deposit yourself online and as long as you do it within market hours they all post to your account same day. Also after the initial 100k minimum investment to create the account you can take out the money as there is no minimum investment amount. The state I live in has no state tax so I"m not worried about that, but not sure which one to pick. Based on the table it seems like TMCXX and PVOXX has the highest interest so seem like the best choice? Or is there something I'm overlooking? Is it worth it to go with preferred deposit because it's FDIC insured even though it has less interest rate?

[NMBob]

an issue found by many. here is a search for previous threads on it.

https://www.google.com/search?sitesearc ... et+options

[Lastrun]

I'm having a hard time choosing which deposit account I should choose.

.......

Or is there something I'm overlooking?

I think at this point there is not much you can do. Merrill never had great options. I joked with a poster a few weeks ago.

Most of the options here are at 0.01% with no insurance.

https://olui2.fs.ml.com/Publish/Content ... eSheet.pdf

With Preferred Rewards you can get 0.05% in a regular old FDIC insured BofA savings account.

https://media.bac-assets.com/DigitalDep ... uster=2674

[softwaregeek]

None of the above. High yield online savings account for any serious amount of cash.

Alternatively, I use JPST ultra short bond fund paying 0.50%

[MikeG62]

I'm having a hard time choosing which deposit account I should choose. Merrill Edge has a really bad sweeps account earning no interest so since I have the 100k needed for the initial investment minimum for these other options, I'm trying to decide which one to use...

OP, you'd be much better off transferring in securities in kind (equity or bond MF's or ETF's). Then no need to worry about getting near zero yield on the cash sitting in ME. Do you have securities you can transfer in to meet the $100K threshold?

I talked to an advisor who says that you just have to call in to make the initial investment into one of these accounts and after that you can withdraw/deposit yourself online and as long as you do it within market hours they all post to your account same day. Also after the initial 100k minimum investment to create the account you can take out the money as there is no minimum investment amount.

If you don't maintain the $100K then you won't qualify for Platinum Honors level benefits. This won't happen immediately once the funds are withdrawn, but will when they remeasure the value in your account.

[softwaregeek]

I'm having a hard time choosing which deposit account I should choose. Merrill Edge has a really bad sweeps account earning no interest so since I have the 100k needed for the initial investment minimum for these other options, I'm trying to decide which one to use...

OP, you'd be much better off transferring in securities in kind (equity or bond MF's or ETF's). Then no need to worry about getting near zero yield on the cash sitting in ME. Do you have securities you can transfer in to meet the $100K threshold?

I talked to an advisor who says that you just have to call in to make the initial investment into one of these accounts and after that you can withdraw/deposit yourself online and as long as you do it within market hours they all post to your account same day. Also after the initial 100k minimum investment to create the account you can take out the money as there is no minimum investment amount.

If you don't maintain the $100K then you won't qualify for Platinum Honors level benefits. This won't happen immediately once the funds are withdrawn, but will when they remeasure the value in your account.

OP is referring to the competitive rate on the money market in Merrill Edge. It is available but you have to ask for it and you can't do it online, and have to start with 100k. I don't think OP is talking about removing funds.

[BrandonBogle]

OP is referring to the competitive rate on the money market in Merrill Edge. It is available but you have to ask for it and you can't do it online, and have to start with 100k. I don't think OP is talking about removing funds.

Right, but Op also says s/he has ETFs at Vanguard. So why not just hold $100k of them at Merrill Edge to qualify for Platinum Honors and have the cash back at Vanguard, where presumably s/he has a preferred fund to sit in that previously triggered the back and forth transfers?