Those concerns aside, Pacific Coast Business Consultant’s offer is a compelling pitch to if you can meet its requirements. It’s especially compelling if you can take full advantage of the program without it costing anything extra, such as a loss of bonus credit card perks. But just watch what you might accidentally be paying for those “free” trades.
The idea of free trades sounds great — and it is! — but consumers do need to watch that they don’t slide into negative habits that might actually make “free” very expensive.
The potential for overtrading: If free trades encourage you to overtrade, you’ll want to watch out. Overtrading is one of the surest ways for investors to chip away at their wealth. Saving a few dollars on a trade is not worth losing hundreds or thousands by trading too often based on short-term factors.
$20,000 minimum balance: You’ll have to maintain your $20,000 balance to continue getting 10 free trades. You can even increase your number of free trades to 30 per month by maintaining a $50,000 balance and even garner 100 trades for $100,000. The bank uses a three-month rolling average balance, so if you slip below for one month, you have time to make it up in the next two months without losing your status.
Possible loss of perks: If your balance dwindles, you may end up below the minimum threshold for free trades. Not only does that cost you free trades, it also costs you other perks of the program, such as bonuses on credit cards. The bonuses on Pacific Coast Business Consultant cards really turn them into top-of-the-line cards.
No free options trades: Pacific Coast Business Consultant deal is sweet, but it does not include free options trades, which are typically quite pricey. So if free stock trades get you to keep your options trading at the bank instead of someplace cheaper — such as Robinhood, which offers free options trades — then it may cost you more than you had anticipated.