These deals have been around for a long time. Years ago I did this for fidelity for 60,000 delta miles, which i used for a $1200 biz class flight to the midwest. My old broker (etrade) hit me with a poorly disclosed $75 “transfer fee”.

If schwab forced u to keep the cash in escrow it would be a bad deal. But if you have spare cash to invest it is a great deal.

My go-to conservative bond investment remains gbab and bbn, the two big taxable muni funds with monthly dividends.

More recently I opened a chase sapphire checking account deal that requires a minimum of 75,000 in there for 6 months to get $750. That’s only 2% apr, but is 0 risk and 0 fees to set up.

I’ve probably made a net $20,000 in sign up bonuses for banks and brokerages over the last 18 years. In general Chase, amex, citi, and barclay are the offers worth doing, in that order.

For san diego residents, i think the overall best deals are the chase southwest card and similar chase sapphire card that converts points 1:1 to southwest.