Why do financial institutions offers signup bonus and welcome offer?
Did you know that financial institutions are constantly fighting among themselves to acquire new customers? They are doing so in four main ways:
- Spending on aggressive marketing and advertising campaign which builds brand awareness, hoping that new customer will join them.
- Offering referral rewards to existing customers who can then refer their friends and family to the company.
- Offering affiliate commissions to news outlets/blogs and influencers who send new customer to the companies.
- Offering sign up bonus for new customers directly
Why are they fighting so hard to acquire new customers? That is because the LTV of a customer of financial institutions are extremely high. LTV stands for Life Time Value, a metric companies use that tells the companies how much a customer is worth to them over their lifetime. If the customer acquisition cost (CAC) is lower than the life time value (LTV) of the customer, the company makes profit. When it comes to financial institutions, the LTV of a customer can range in thousands of dollars. That is why they are happy to spend millions on advertising as well as offer hundreds of dollars for referrals, affiliate and sign up bonus.
Once you understand that financial institutions are making thousands of dollars of you, you should be asking yourself why are you opening new accounts for free. It is a business transaction and if they are benefitting of you, you should be benefitting of them as well. You might look at your bank account with no fees or your brokerage account that offers commission free trading and wondering that you are getting a fair deal. But believe us when we say they are making thousands of you, either by using your money to provide loans and earn hefty interest while paying you virtually no interest or by selling your order for payment (to high frequency traders), in the case of broker. In the case of credit cards, they are charging processing fees to merchant and earning a good amount, not to mention the ridiculous interest they charge you and the late fees and other fees.
With all that said, never open any accounts for free, be it bank account, credit cards, or brokerage accounts. Most of the financial institutions offers some sign up bonus or welcome offer to open new accounts anyway. And in the rare case they do not, there is always their competitor who does.
If you are looking to open new account and are ready to receive sign up bonus, please refer to:
Best Banking Bonus
Best Credit Cards Bonus
Best Brokerage Account Bonus
Current SwagBucks Sign Up Bonuses
While at it, if you looking to read reviews and articles about best bank accounts, financial institutions, or credit cards, please refer to:
