Bank Bonus Offers

[tenant13]

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

There's a branch in Hoboken (I'm in JC). Is there a way to set up auto withdrawals or do the transfers online? Writing checks is not a hard labor but feels so 20th century...

 

[njhowie]

There's a branch in Hoboken (I'm in JC). Is there a way to set up auto withdrawals or do the transfers online? Writing checks is not a hard labor but feels so 20th century...

You can probably just set up a link to it from your primary bank or elsewhere and pull, and then it's whatever your primary bank or other institution offers. It is a checking account, so there shouldn't be any issue in doing that.

 

[njhowie]

Charles Schwab:

• Open a new account
• Deposit $1000 minimum within 45 days
• Get $100 cash within 7 days of the 45 days
• Maintain deposit for 1 year or they can take back the bonus

https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/nn/promo/refer-prospect.html

This ties the money up for 1 year, but it is a guaranteed 10% return. At Schwab you can put it in to a 1 year CD, or a cash-like ETF like MINT, come back in a year and have about 12% to 13% return.

Offer specifically says it can be done by multiple individuals in the same household as long as each is a new Schwab client.

 

[fh2000]

Happy New Year!

Thanks to njhowie's posts, I opened a Discover checking for myself, and another one for DW.

I funded $25,000 to mine on 12/26/19. Funded DW's account on 12/29/19.
I just checked both accounts, and see each $200 bonus has been deposited.

So, you are saying that I can now withdraw my funds, and close both of my accounts?

Do I simply call them up to send us the checks then close accounts? Will they claw back the bonus?

 

[njhowie]

Happy New Year!

Thanks to njhowie's posts, I opened a Discover checking for myself, and another one for DW.

I funded $25,000 to mine on 12/26/19. Funded DW's account on 12/29/19.
I just checked both accounts, and see each $200 bonus has been deposited.

So, you are saying that I can now withdraw my funds, and close both of my accounts?

Do I simply call them up to send us the checks then close accounts? Will they claw back the bonus?

Wonderful! Congrats - enjoy the New Year gift!

To answer your question - yes, you can transfer all the money out immediately and close the accounts, no penalty, no fees. They will not claw back the bonus.

You could call them and have them close the accounts and send checks for the balance to you. Alternatively, you can do the equivalent online without dealing with a human. When you opened your accounts, you transferred money in from your primary bank - correct? You can log in to the Discover account and similarly transfer money back out - the link to your primary bank will already be there. As I mentioned in the past, when you do this, leave about $25 behind as you will pick up an additional interest payment at the end of the month, and Discover has a minimum transfer amount of $25. So, if you pick up a few dollars in interest but have transferred everything else out already, you have to call to get them to mail you a check for that remainder or transfer some money back in to get above $25 balance, and then transfer everything out again. I don't like calling and dealing with humans, so this is how I did it. For me, it was easier to leave $25 behind, wait for the end of the month, and when the interest posts, then do a final transfer out of everything remaining.

 

[fh2000]

Wonderful! Congrats - enjoy the New Year gift!

To answer your question - yes, you can transfer all the money out immediately and close the accounts, no penalty, no fees. They will not claw back the bonus.

You could call them and have them close the accounts and send checks for the balance to you. Alternatively, you can do the equivalent online without dealing with a human. When you opened your accounts, you transferred money in from your primary bank - correct? You can log in to the Discover account and similarly transfer money back out - the link to your primary bank will already be there. As I mentioned in the past, when you do this, leave about $25 behind as you will pick up an additional interest payment at the end of the month, and Discover has a minimum transfer amount of $25. So, if you pick up a few dollars in interest but have transferred everything else out already, you have to call to get them to mail you a check for that remainder or transfer some money back in to get above $25 balance, and then transfer everything out again. I don't like calling and dealing with humans, so this is how I did it. For me, it was easier to leave $25 behind, wait for the end of the month, and when the interest posts, then do a final transfer out of everything remaining.

Great advice. I will do the online transfer as you stated.
Thanks

 

[njhowie]

For those who live in Huntington Bank's operating region:

https://www.huntington.com/checking-account-promotions-bonuses-offers

• Open Asterisk-Free Checking account online or in branch by April 7, 2020
• Deposit $1000 minimum within 60 days of opening
• Keep account open for 90 days from opening date
• $150 will be deposited into account within 14 days after the 90 days

• Open Huntington 5 Checking account online or in branch by April 7, 2020
• Deposit $1000 minimum within 60 days of opening
• Keep account open for 90 days from opening date
• $200 will be deposited into account within 14 days after the 90 days

I quickly checked, and the Huntington 5 account requires $5000 minimum total relationship balance to avoid $5 monthly fee. Even if you did only $1000 with the Huntington 5 account and paying the $5 monthly fee for 3 or 4 months (closing after bonus is paid), you'd still come out ahead with the $200 bonus vs. the $150 on the Asterisk-Free account. Asterisk-Free has no monthly fee and no minimum balance. Huntington 5 also has no minimum balance.

What's interesting here looking at the deposit requirement is that it does not indicate that the deposit needs to be maintained for 90 days as is typical with others. The bonus payment appears to be solely based on the account opening date, not the deposit date. Meaning - it looks as though you could make the deposit just prior to the 60 day cutoff, and then keep the account open another 30 days (+ 14 days until bonus is posted). Going a step further, again, it does not even indicate that the balance needs to be maintained - deposit the $1000 to meet the requirement, then withdraw it a few days later - you've met the deposit requirement and the account just needs to remain open to the 90 day mark + up to 14 days until bonus posts. I would specifically ask about this - it conforms to the indicated requirements as stated, but who knows until they confirm ... I am not in Huntington Bank's operating area so can't do it.

This offer is only available to new consumer checking customers. All existing Huntington checking customers, including those with any relationship (including fiduciary) to any other Huntington checking account, or those who closed a checking account within the last six months, are not eligible.

 

[Sue J]

I’ve done many bank bonus offers over the years. I did a nice easy one with an Asterisk Free Huntington checking account maybe 8 years ago and I liked it so much that I kept it and moved all of our local banking to Huntington. Nice app, no fees, no tricks and the best part is a branch in our local grocery store.

 

[MJ]

Marcus Goldman Sachs has a new bonus offer of $100.
Here's the details from my email.
Here’s how to get your $100 bonus:
Enroll in the offer on marcus.com by clicking here
Deposit $10,000 or more in new funds into an Online Savings Account
Maintain those funds plus your existing balance for 60 days
Must enroll by February 11, 2020.

 

[njhowie]

Marcus Goldman Sachs has a new bonus offer of $100.
Here's the details from my email.
Here’s how to get your $100 bonus:
Enroll in the offer on marcus.com by clicking here
Deposit $10,000 or more in new funds into an Online Savings Account
Maintain those funds plus your existing balance for 60 days
Must enroll by February 11, 2020.

Thanks for that!

Absolutely perfect timing as Simple bonus is completing on Jan 31.

Here is the direct link to the offer:
https://www.marcus.com/us/en/savings/osa-savingsbonus-1

 

[MJ]

Thanks for that!

Absolutely perfect timing as Simple bonus is completing on Jan 31.

Here is the direct link to the offer:
https://www.marcus.com/us/en/savings/osa-savingsbonus-1

My Bad. I should have included the link. Thanks for taking up my slack.
Btw, the $100 bonus APY equivalent for 2 months on $10K is approx. 6% plus the normal 1.7% rate. Easy pocket change.

 

[njhowie]

We received the email later in the day. You must be higher up on the priority list than us.

Thanks again.

 

[kgtest]

Interesting, so one could theoretically have 11,300 in 90 days after depositing 11,000 if you took the last 2 offers posted on here.

A free $300 for a little bit of paperwork...better than paying for a notary or something else...a good way to offset fees really. I might do this when I have more cash flow..for now we stick to spend rewards... this is tempting and I did it a few times in the past, been so busy with kids tho.

If you and DW did this, you could double the profit with double the NET investment... so for 22k you could have 22,600 90 days from now and just close the accounts.

Not too shabby. If you don't include interest you will receive its a return of 2.72%. CLOSE to 3%. IF you ADDED in some CC rewards you are getting 3% ROI for sure.

 

[calmloki]

I like the making over 6% effective part, but doing it for a 2 month span with a $10k limit, not so much. Maybe I'm just sensitive as I try to chase down 1099 info on a long list of bank accounts from our Quicken. Also doesn't help that we have 2 addresses and I usually do player one and player two on good offers.
Having to pay taxes on the bank bonus' adds a layer of activity, reduces the reward and makes credit card bonus-ees (bonsai?, bonair?) more attractive. Still, free money is free money.

 

[njhowie]

I like the making over 6% effective part, but doing it for a 2 month span with a $10k limit, not so much.

You could do it once for each individual in your household. But obviously that would mean additional 1099s.

My view is that I'll take the effective 3%, 4%, 6%, 25%, or more with some small amount of my cash that would normally be making 1% to 2% annually. There's very little effort, and it is risk free. So I may as well juice my returns a bit if the opportunity is there.

 

[njhowie]

Interesting, so one could theoretically have 11,300 in 90 days after depositing 11,000 if you took the last 2 offers posted on here.

A free $300 for a little bit of paperwork...better than paying for a notary or something else...a good way to offset fees really. I might do this when I have more cash flow..for now we stick to spend rewards... this is tempting and I did it a few times in the past, been so busy with kids tho.

If you and DW did this, you could double the profit with double the NET investment... so for 22k you could have 22,600 90 days from now and just close the accounts.

Not too shabby. If you don't include interest you will receive its a return of 2.72%. CLOSE to 3%. IF you ADDED in some CC rewards you are getting 3% ROI for sure.

If you put $15k/$25k in to the Discover Savings account today, you could have $15,150/$25,200 before the end of this month and are free to take the money and close the account immediately. If you and DW did this, ...

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

 

[LRDave]

Charles Schwab:

• Open a new account
• Deposit $1000 minimum within 45 days
• Get $100 cash within 7 days of the 45 days
• Maintain deposit for 1 year or they can take back the bonus

https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/nn/promo/refer-prospect.html

This ties the money up for 1 year, but it is a guaranteed 10% return. At Schwab you can put it in to a 1 year CD, or a cash-like ETF like MINT, come back in a year and have about 12% to 13% return.

Offer specifically says it can be done by multiple individuals in the same household as long as each is a new Schwab client.

Has anyone done this? Is it easy enough to quiet the many solicitations that often follow these kinds of offers?

 

[MJ]

We received the email later in the day. You must be higher up on the priority list than us.

Thanks again.

I'm not sure about that. I haven't used my accounts in over a year although I do have a whopping total of $2.11 in my 2 accounts.

 

[njhowie]

If you live near Associated Bank (Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin):

https://www.associatedbank.com/packersoffers

The $275 offer looks best:

First $175:

• Open your account with a minimum deposit of $100.
  
• Make three payments using Associated Bank Online Bill Pay OR have at least one direct deposit of $300 or more within 45 days of account opening.
  
• You'll get $175 deposited into your account within 120 days of account opening.

Second $100:

• Open and maintain an Associated Select Money Market account with a minimum deposit of $10,000.
  
• You'll receive $100 in your money market account within 120 days of opening.

Can be done online or in person. However, if you don't live in their service area, website will not allow you to do it.

 

[njhowie]

For everyone doing the Simple offer - tomorrow is the last day!

I already have my transfers out to Marcus for the next offer set up for middle of next week, just to be safe.

 

[dvalley]

For everyone doing the Simple offer - tomorrow is the last day!

I already have my transfers out to Marcus for the next offer set up for middle of next week, just to be safe.

Did you get the bonus from Simple already? I don't recall the fine print as to when they will deposit it but I haven't seen it yet. I'll leave my $20k in there for a bit longer.

 

[Lagniappe]

Did you get the bonus from Simple already? I don't recall the fine print as to when they will deposit it but I haven't seen it yet. I'll leave my $20k in there for a bit longer.

I called them to find out when the bonus is posting. They stated that it will be in the account on February 14, by 5 pm.

They also said that since I met the requirements already, I can go ahead and move the money and still receive the bonus.

 

[calmloki]

I called them to find out when the bonus is posting. They stated that it will be in the account on February 14, by 5 pm.

They also said that since I met the requirements already, I can go ahead and move the money and still receive the bonus.

Thanks for that information - hadn't seen my bonus yet. Trying to get them to be less cute with their website and more bank-like. I am beyond impressed with their phone staff but the internet interface doesn't suit me at all. Like - try to find the current interest rate. They are paying 1.88% right now and I'd be pleased to use them hard but need them to have a better website. Playing peek-a-boo with Protected Goals just ticks me off.

 

[njhowie]

Thanks for that information - hadn't seen my bonus yet. Trying to get them to be less cute with their website and more bank-like. I am beyond impressed with their phone staff but the internet interface doesn't suit me at all. Like - try to find the current interest rate. They are paying 1.88% right now and I'd be pleased to use them hard but need them to have a better website. Playing peek-a-boo with Protected Goals just ticks me off.

I completely agree with you on this. I can't leave my money there because the interface is so annoying and they have transfer caps. To move the $20k back to Marcus, it had to be set up as two transfers of $10k on two different days.

I also agree with the peek-a-boo feel. I may get slightly less at Marcus or Ally, but when I'm banking, I want it to feel/work like a bank.

I'm convinced they planned to be a kitchy fintech with a unique interface with a "simple" design, but somewhere along the way it just went very wrong with Safe to Spend and Goal Protected. Bad project management decision. Anyhow, I was willing to try it for the free money.

 

[dvalley]

I called them to find out when the bonus is posting. They stated that it will be in the account on February 14, by 5 pm.

They also said that since I met the requirements already, I can go ahead and move the money and still receive the bonus.

Thank you!