Bank Bonus Offers

[Golden sunsets]

I just checked my CIT account balance and see that they credited the $150 bonus on 12/6 after my deposit on 11/29. Because the account was already opened I only have to keep the funds on deposit until 12/29. However I also noticed that the stated interest is only .99%, down from 2.08%. I'm not sure when they reduced the rate, but I sure won't be leaving any funds on deposit there.

Edit: I see now that the rate changed in November. I had not noticed that. So CIT went from being one f the highest paying Savings rates, t not being competitive at all.

 

[MJ]

I just checked my CIT account balance and see that they credited the $150 bonus on 12/6 after my deposit on 11/29. Because the account was already opened I only have to keep the funds on deposit until 12/29. However I also noticed that the stated interest is only .99%, down from 2.08%. I'm not sure when they reduced the rate, but I sure won't be leaving any funds on deposit there.

Citbank plays a lot of tricks. I spoke to them about withdrawing my large deposit without losing the bonus. Two reps said I can withdraw the money after 52 days from enrollment. Their terms are made for people NOT to qualify if the multiple terms are not read carefully.
You need to read the fine print regarding their tiered interest. I still have the 1.85% APY for my very large deposit.

 

[fh2000]

I received Citi email promotion: create Interest Checking/Citi Savings, deposit $15,000 to earn $400, or deposit $50,000 to earn $700. All in 60 days.

I chose $400 bonus and deposited a check for $15,000.

I also received emails from Wells Fargo ($400 bonus), and HSBC ($750 bonus), but both require direct deposit, and I have none. So, I can't do these.

 

[Aerides]

I would also be doing the $10k/200 offer if we hadn't already done a couple with Capital One since 2016.

Damn you sent me googling for that one! I was thinking "wow a 10k bonus for 200k in savings sign me up!" but it's really $200/10k

 

[Bruno]

I received Citi email promotion: create Interest Checking/Citi Savings, deposit $15,000 to earn $400, or deposit $50,000 to earn $700. All in 60 days.

I chose $400 bonus and deposited a check for $15,000.

I also received emails from Wells Fargo ($400 bonus), and HSBC ($750 bonus), but both require direct deposit, and I have none. So, I can't do these.

You may want to read some earlier post on Citi Bonus. Lots of small print, I was going to have to leave it for a total of 5 months and Citi is only paying .10% on your money.

 

[fh2000]

You may want to read some earlier post on Citi Bonus. Lots of small print, I was going to have to leave it for a total of 5 months and Citi is only paying .10% on your money.

Thanks for the heads-up. I see njhowie's successful story in post #131, with Citi. I will leave my $15,000 there and hope to see my $400 bonus.

 

[gravy train]

Today I opened a 5/3 checking account and CD. Funded the checking with $500 and the CD with $19500. That combo will give me a $500 bonus. The checking pays 0 interest. The CD pays 1.5% interest locked in for 5 months. That works out to about a 2.5 interest rate annually.
Thanks Howie for this interesting thread.

 

[njhowie]

Today I opened a 5/3 checking account and CD. Funded the checking with $500 and the CD with $19500. That combo will give me a $500 bonus. The checking pays 0 interest. The CD pays 1.5% interest locked in for 5 months. That works out to about a 2.5 interest rate annually.
Thanks Howie for this interesting thread.

The pleasure is all mine - love seeing folks pick up this guaranteed easy money.

Broken record moment...do the Discover Savings offer - open your account and deposit money today, get your bonus within a week.

https://www.discover.com/online-banking/savings-lng-04/?TPR=069

 

[Golden sunsets]

You may want to read some earlier post on Citi Bonus. Lots of small print, I was going to have to leave it for a total of 5 months and Citi is only paying .10% on your money.

Yep. I found the same thing and decided not to do this one.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Citbank plays a lot of tricks. I spoke to them about withdrawing my large deposit without losing the bonus. Two reps said I can withdraw the money after 52 days from enrollment. Their terms are made for people NOT to qualify if the multiple terms are not read carefully.
You need to read the fine print regarding their tiered interest. I still have the 1.85% APY for my very large deposit.

Two things MJ. Your response above is attached to my comment on the CIT bonus, not the Citibank bonus.

And regarding the Citibank bonus, I'm quite certain the 1.85% savings is a stand alone product called Accelerate Savings. In order to receive the bonus you have to have the required funds on deposit in a checking and regular savings, neither of which pay any interest to speak of, so if you are receiving 1.85%, then you won't receive the bank bonus on those funds. You would need a separate large amount in the 2 negligible paying accounts and it would have to stay there for a minimum of 2 months or 5 months with a slightly lesser balance if you want to avoid the maintenance fee.

 

[audreyh1]

I just checked my CIT account balance and see that they credited the $150 bonus on 12/6 after my deposit on 11/29. Because the account was already opened I only have to keep the funds on deposit until 12/29. However I also noticed that the stated interest is only .99%, down from 2.08%. I'm not sure when they reduced the rate, but I sure won't be leaving any funds on deposit there.

Edit: I see now that the rate changed in November. I had not noticed that. So CIT went from being one f the highest paying Savings rates, t not being competitive at all.

Seems like CIT plays a lot of these types of tricks, such as creating new types of savings accounts with high rates to attract new customers while letting existing accounts drop to low rates.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Seems like CIT plays a lot of these types of tricks, such as creating new types of savings accounts with high rates to attract new customers while letting existing accounts drop to low rates.

Yep; I'm done for the time being moving money around for these offers. I've had our emergency account money spread over different accounts for varying amounts of time for the last several months. I like the juiced returns that these gyrations provide but I'm ready for the simple boring Ally HY Savings account holding these funds for the foreseeable future.

 

[Dtail]

Yep; I'm done for the time being moving money around for these offers. I've had our emergency account money spread over different accounts for varying amounts of time for the last several months. I like the juiced returns that these gyrations provide but I'm ready for the simple boring Ally HY Savings account holding these funds for the foreseeable future.

I have one more Discover Bank to do, then that's it for me now too. Still have monies at Simple and Fifth Third waiting for the bonuses there.
Then probably back to Ally for me too, but mostly in the no penalty CD. A little extra juice for no risk.

 

[calmloki]

Ally is a brilliant "hub" account. I have them linked to a number of other banks and their daily/monthly limit is substantial. Some of the other banks only allow a $5000/day push. Ally is $150,000. Makes life easier.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Ally is a brilliant "hub" account. I have them linked to a number of other banks and their daily/monthly limit is substantial. Some of the other banks only allow a $5000/day push. Ally is $150,000. Makes life easier.

+1 I've done the same thing.

 

[Golden sunsets]

I have one more Discover Bank to do, then that's it for me now too. Still have monies at Simple and Fifth Third waiting for the bonuses there.
Then probably back to Ally for me too, but mostly in the no penalty CD. A little extra juice for no risk.

I still have the Simple money to cycle back in to Ally too. And yes I'll likely do one or more No penalties at Ally for the extra juice

 

[LRDave]

Any daily push issues with Discover?

I have a CD maturing at Ally in the Spring. I am planning on doing the Discover churn for DW & I at that time (assuming njhowie is correct and it shows up every month - so far njhowie hasn't been wrong! Thanks for starting this thread!).

 

[Dtail]

Any daily push issues with Discover?

I have a CD maturing at Ally in the Spring. I am planning on doing the Discover churn for DW & I at that time (assuming njhowie is correct and it shows up every month - so far njhowie hasn't been wrong! Thanks for starting this thread!).

It was a smooth as silk. We did 2 of them with 1 to go.
We received the bonuses within 1 day and 7 days. Not sure why that was different.
Closed the accounts right after the receipt with no issues.

 

[Golden sunsets]

Any daily push issues with Discover?

I have a CD maturing at Ally in the Spring. I am planning on doing the Discover churn for DW & I at that time (assuming njhowie is correct and it shows up every month - so far njhowie hasn't been wrong! Thanks for starting this thread!).

No issues on the push, or pull - I forget which I did, but it happened very quickly. Just make sure that you use the code referenced upthread for both accounts. I used it for the first account opening. When finished with that opening, I failed to use the code to get back onto the site when opening the account for DH. When that bonus did not post immediately I opened a chat session and was told that the second account was not set up to obtain the bonus. I then recalled that I had navigated to the website without using the code. I gave them the bonus code and they set me up for the bonus, which I received within 48 hours which included a weekend.

 

[MJ]

Today I opened a 5/3 checking account and CD. Funded the checking with $500 and the CD with $19500. That combo will give me a $500 bonus. The checking pays 0 interest. The CD pays 1.5% interest locked in for 5 months. That works out to about a 2.5 interest rate annually.
Thanks Howie for this interesting thread.

I'm not sure if the terms of the bonus in your area are different than mine but mine reads as follows "To get the additional $250 bonus, you must meet the requirements above and also increase total deposit balances by $20,000 within 45 days of account opening". For me, this means after the initial deposit the $500, I would need to add another $20,000 NOT $19,500.

 

[njhowie]

I'm not sure if the terms of the bonus in your area are different than mine but mine reads as follows "To get the additional $250 bonus, you must meet the requirements above and also increase total deposit balances by $20,000 within 45 days of account opening". For me, this means after the initial deposit the $500, I would need to add another $20,000 NOT $19,500.

gravy train - to be on the safe side, it may be to your benefit to deposit an extra $500 in to the checking account before the 45 days is up. I personally wouldn't put the extra $250 bonus at risk for that amount and some bank representatives inadvertent screw up.

 

[tenant13]

Thanks for the heads-up. I see njhowie's successful story in post #131, with Citi. I will leave my $15,000 there and hope to see my $400 bonus.

I'm a bit over a month into the Citi bonus scenario. It really doesn't have more small print than any other offers. According to their terms there's a possibility that the bonus can take up to 5 months since the day of funding the account but only the first 60 days require the full 15k balance. They don't say "business" days but that's one thing I'd be careful about so I'll round it up to 70. After that, if you want to avoid the fees, 10k balance is sufficient. And the bonus could drop any day within the following 3 months. I did something similar with Marcus and it posted literally a day after I qualified.

 

[njhowie]

I'm a bit over a month into the Citi bonus scenario. It really doesn't have more small print than any other offers. According to their terms there's a possibility that the bonus can take up to 5 months since the day of funding the account but only the first 60 days require the full 15k balance. They don't say "business" days but that's one thing I'd be careful about so I'll round it up to 70. After that, if you want to avoid the fees, 10k balance is sufficient. And the bonus could drop any day within the following 3 months. I did something similar with Marcus and it posted literally a day after I qualified.

Regarding "business days" - I've only seen one person ever comment that a bank rep told them this when they went to withdraw/close an account in person at a Chase branch. It was complete nonsense, and an attempt to prevent the person from closing the account. Days means "calendar days" - when they indicate deposit requirements, do they similarly/potentially mean business days when they say funding needs to happen within 30 or 45 "days"? Of course not. In any case, unless the terms specifically say "business days" (I've never seen one), this should not be of concern.

My experience with Citi is that they will pay the bonus on the last day of the window which they indicate they will pay. So, count on it being on the 60th day following the 3 months which the full balance needs to remain on deposit.

Those I have found that are very good on paying the bonus early in the window:
Discover
Chase
M&T
Investors Bank
Marcus
Capital One

Those which are late in the window:
Citibank
BB&T

Don't remember:
HSBC

 

[tenant13]

Regarding "business days" - I've only seen one person ever comment that a bank rep told them this when they went to withdraw/close an account in person at a Chase branch. It was complete nonsense, and an attempt to prevent the person from closing the account. Days means "calendar days" - when they indicate deposit requirements, do they similarly/potentially mean business days when they say funding needs to happen within 30 or 45 "days"? Of course not. In any case, unless the terms specifically say "business days" (I've never seen one), this should not be of concern.

My experience with Citi is that they will pay the bonus on the last day of the window which they indicate they will pay. So, count on it being on the 60th day following the 3 months which the full balance needs to remain on deposit.

Those I have found that are very good on paying the bonus early in the window:
Discover
Chase
M&T
Investors Bank
Marcus
Capital One

Those which are late in the window:
Citibank
BB&T

Don't remember:
HSBC

I think in this case it would be on the 90th day following the 2 months
I did most of the banks from your list (+BOA) but I don't work anymore so I'm limited to the offers that don't require (real) direct deposits

 

[njhowie]

I think in this case it would be on the 90th day following the 2 months
I did most of the banks from your list (+BOA) but I don't work anymore so I'm limited to the offers that don't require (real) direct deposits

Yes, 90th day following 60 days, my mistake.

Same here in avoiding direct deposit requirement offers. However, the Investors Bank offer did sort of require it - but they specifically indicated ACH transfer from another institution would qualify. So I set up a monthly auto transfer from my primary bank, and then withdrew the cash from their ATM or wrote a check to mobile deposit right back to my primary bank. Their offer paid out $25/month for 10 consecutive months.

I see you are also in NJ - so you may have an Investors Bank branch near you. Keep an eye out as they do have these offers periodically. You just have to go in to the branch and sit down with a rep to open the account, which takes about 20 minutes.

I just checked, and the same offer I did a year ago is still available:
https://www.myinvestorsbank.com/pages/Yourstyle-Checking-250