Bank Bonus Offers

Wow. Just this week decided to try the Discover Bank offer. Opened the account, setup external ACH, moved the money, and today received the $200 bonus. Next I week I guess will repeat for my wife.

Might leave the money there for now as it also pays 1.8% which currently is the same as Vanguard prime.
 
You might pause and ask why Discover is making such offers. I have it on good authority Discover is having trouble getting low interest loans within the industry. Instead, via these special offers they can instead get money (loans) from a large number of people, at a rate of less than 2%, and with FDIC insurance, that means their risk of default is held by all of us.
 
GrayHare said:
You might pause and ask why Discover is making such offers. I have it on good authority Discover is having trouble getting low interest loans within the industry. Instead, via these special offers they can instead get money (loans) from a large number of people, at a rate of less than 2%, and with FDIC insurance, that means their risk of default is held by all of us.
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Let me ask the obvious - do you understand how a bank operates and makes money?

Do you keep any money in any bank deposit account?

Is it any different keeping your money in a savings account paying less than 2%? How about CDs paying less than 2%? All FDIC insured with risk of default held by all of us.

Chase, B of A, Citi, and many others offer similar bonuses. Are they all in trouble?
 
GrayHare said:
You might pause and ask why Discover is making such offers. I have it on good authority Discover is having trouble getting low interest loans within the industry. Instead, via these special offers they can instead get money (loans) from a large number of people, at a rate of less than 2%, and with FDIC insurance, that means their risk of default is held by all of us.
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Obviously no idea what you are talking about. But thanks for sharing.
 
njhowie said:
Chase, B of A, Citi, and many others offer similar bonuses. Are they all in trouble?
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Your snark is uncalled for so I have omitted that part.

So readers can make safe decisions, I'm pointing out that by giving money to Discover one is taking on more risk than may be apparent, more risk than at other financial institutions. For that level of risk, if I invested there I certainly would want more than the bonus they offer and 2%.
 
GrayHare said:
Your snark is uncalled for so I have omitted that part.

So readers can make safe decisions, I'm pointing out that by giving money to Discover one is taking on more risk than may be apparent, more risk than at other financial institutions. For that level of risk I would want more than bonus they offer and 2%.
Click to expand...

Not having any idea who your "good authority" is, Bauer Financial, which is a recognized independent authority on analyzing banks and credit unions, gives Discover Bank 4 Stars, which they classify as Excellent. I'll trust Bauer before your unnamed good authority.

But thanks for all your concern to help everyone understand your perceived risks. You might want to go on the CD & MM thread and post your concerns there for anyone who might be enticed for Discover's savings account rate as it is competitive with others at this time. I'm sure you would be enlightening everyone there as well.

Do you have any more posts for this thread to knock it? This is now number two, and I think everyone would just prefer that you get it all out now.
 
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So this morning Marcus showed that I had met the time eligibility on 11/7. Bonus $500 expected within 14 days. Looked again and the bonus has posted! The Gal's account shows she has met eligibility but the bonus hasn't posted yet. Marcus is paying 1.9% so I don't see moving it right this moment..

Made for nice short term earnings - not hard money loan scale, but we are down to one large loan and a couple modest ones and I don't sweat bank deposits as much.
 
I don’t have any long-term money at these low rates. In addition to our pensions we spend about $50,000/yr from our portfolio. I (well, mostly my DW) likes to have 2 or 3 years spending in banks and money market accounts.

I know there is some liquidity risk if the banks default but not worried about it with the insurance. Just goofing around mostly to get these bonuses. The extra $200 doesn’t mean too much in the big picture but what the heck might as well pick the low hanging fruit.
 
calmloki said:
So this morning Marcus showed that I had met the time eligibility on 11/7. Bonus $500 expected within 14 days. Looked again and the bonus has posted! The Gal's account shows she has met eligibility but the bonus hasn't posted yet. Marcus is paying 1.9% so I don't see moving it right this moment..

Made for nice short term earnings - not hard money loan scale, but we are down to one large loan and a couple modest ones and I don't sweat bank deposits as much.
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Excellent! We have two Marcus bonuses hitting over the weekend, then the money transfers out to Simple on Tuesday for the next one.
 
njhowie said:
Excellent! We have two Marcus bonuses hitting over the weekend, then the money transfers out to Simple on Tuesday for the next one.
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Already have 2 Simple accounts going - gotta support a Portland Oregon founded bank. Nah - just in it for the ducats.
Found every CSR with Simple to be friendly, helpful, and they actually emailed back quickly if they said they were going to do so. They did have some fun wrinkles - we were shifting from my primary address in Oregon down to Gal's primary in SoCal, so mailing and addresses were problematic. She was instructed to take a selfie holding a couple bills in front of our SoCal house and send it as confirmation that she what, wasn't a mad terrorist?
We worked out something different, but it was a fun request.

Now I'm looking for a home for some rental house sale money - not sure I want to go with P1FCU at 3.35% or PSECU at 3.25%. Bonus money keeps it short term and with better returns.

Edit: Discover doesn't work for us - we have accounts with them. Discover and Ally are our hub accounts - none of this $5000/day ACH withdrawal stuff with them. But I do look longingly at the $200 bonus I'm not eligible for
 
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GrayHare said:
You might pause and ask why Discover is making such offers. I have it on good authority Discover is having trouble getting low interest loans within the industry. Instead, via these special offers they can instead get money (loans) from a large number of people, at a rate of less than 2%, and with FDIC insurance, that means their risk of default is held by all of us.
Click to expand...

So who cares what the underlying reason is. These bonuses are worth the 10 minutes a piece with no risk to us.
 
This is a good thread discussion - aside from the snark and sarcasm. Why don’t we all remember our Dale Carnegie and make it a better thread...:)
 
calmloki said:
Edit: Discover doesn't work for us - we have accounts with them. Discover and Ally are our hub accounts - none of this $5000/day ACH withdrawal stuff with them. But I do look longingly at the $200 bonus I'm not eligible for
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Any kids or relatives you can do it for (with your money under their name)?

As far as a home for your other money, it sounds like it may be significant, so you might want to consider the bigger offers that can get you $1000 a pop. Did you look at the Chase Sapphire Checking $1000 offer that was back on Page 2? Deposit $75,000, maintain for 90 days, get $1000 within 10 days.

https://accounts.chase.com/consumer/banking/online/sapphirebanking
 
Curmoodgeon said:
Is there any kind of "direct deposit" you can sign up for, without having a j*b?
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I took a 401k distribution from Fido to BofA recently and it showed up as “pension” at BofA so I’d try that with an IRA. I think they just want it to look like income vs. a transfer between taxable accounts.
 
Curmoodgeon said:
Is there any kind of "direct deposit" you can sign up for, without having a j*b?
Click to expand...


I just got the HSBC Advance bonus. I didn't have any income to direct deposit, so I instructed Vanguard that monthly dividends from a Muni Bond fund should be deposited at HSBC. That seemed to do the trick, since the bonus hit my account yesterday.
 
Crazy fast. Transferred the 25K on 11-5 to Discover, $200 deposited 11-6. Pulled the money through Ally just now. Will redeposit in DH's account next week. Rinse and repeat.
 
njhowie said:
Any kids or relatives you can do it for (with your money under their name)?

As far as a home for your other money, it sounds like it may be significant, so you might want to consider the bigger offers that can get you $1000 a pop. Did you look at the Chase Sapphire Checking $1000 offer that was back on Page 2? Deposit $75,000, maintain for 90 days, get $1000 within 10 days.

https://accounts.chase.com/consumer/banking/online/sapphirebanking
Click to expand...

No kids and don't want to get into tax issues with relatives by using their names and racking up taxable gains under their SS#. Nor do I want to get into sharing the bonus amounts or doing the deals just as an exercise while demonstrating that we have excess cash floating about. We've both had several iterations of the Sapphire cards and the Gal still holds one, so that's out. We are just finishing up the requirements for Chase Ink Business Preferred cards - 80k points each and she referred me for an extra 20k - and tax freee! Thing is I've signed us up for a number of cards and bank accounts and we're now running out of higher dollar bonus opportunities. Gotta keep the eyes open so I appreciate these threads.
 
Golden sunsets said:
Crazy fast. Transferred the 25K on 11-5 to Discover, $200 deposited 11-6. Pulled the money through Ally just now. Will redeposit in DH's account next week. Rinse and repeat.
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Fabulous!
 
There wasn't one. Good times

Just checked and Gal got different Sapphire cards on 10/2011, 11/2014, and her current card on 9/2016. Think the first one had a $1000 bonus for a $3000 spend. I got my first one in early 2012 and just baerly got the $1000 bonus before they lowered it.
 
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Curmoodgeon said:
Is there any kind of "direct deposit" you can sign up for, without having a j*b?
Click to expand...

Yes, besides SS or pensions, you can do your own direct deposit from your brokerage. That will count.

When we signed up they asked where the direct deposit would come from, and I told them from our retirement accounts. That made sense to them. I’m sure they assumed IRAs.

I made two ACH from our taxable brokerage, and they were treated as “direct deposit”. I knew this would work because I had read several discussions on doctorofcredit.com.
 
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