Recent High-Bonus Bank Account Offers

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Common Bank Account Bonuses

In the U.S., besides earning big sign-up bonuses from credit cards, you can also get quite a few bonuses for opening a Checking or Savings account. Today we'll briefly talk about how to get free cash from these two types of accounts.

When we open a checking account and a savings account, banks often give us a sign-up bonus. In addition, if your account meets certain requirements, your savings account can even earn a 5% annual interest rate. So learning how to make the most of Checking and Savings is one way to save money or make money in the U.S.

Common bank account bonuses include:

  • Cash bonus: Open a Chase checking account and get a $250 cash bonus, or open a savings account and get a $200 bonus. Similar offers have also been available from BofA, Wells Fargo, and US Bank.
  • High interest rate: After meeting certain requirements, some banks can offer a 5% savings interest rate. Compared with the roughly 1% rates that are common in the U.S., that’s incredibly high.
  • Mileage bonus: After depositing money and meeting certain requirements, you can periodically receive airline miles as a reward (essentially the equivalent of a sign-up bonus or interest).

Generally, high-dollar sign-up bonuses are limited-time promotions, and you need to open the account during the specified period. So keep an eye on the articles published on this site to get the latest bank account bonuses.

Common Requirements and Terms

Similar to how credit card sign-up bonuses require you to spend a certain amount before you can earn them, bank account bonuses also have specific requirements. These requirements vary widely. Of course, the main goal is for the bank to get you to try its various features, so that you’ll use its accounts and services. Common requirements and terms are as follows:

Direct Deposit (DD)

If you’ve worked in the U.S. or served as an RA/TA at school, you should be very familiar with this. DD is a common way for employers to pay employees; the money is sent directly to your bank account via electronic transfer. If you have a paycheck, just change the account that receives your salary to the bank account you need to use for the offer. If you don’t have a paycheck, you can use fake DD methods; we’ll focus on those in the sections below.

After opening a bank account, banks often require several consecutive months of DD, or a total DD amount above a certain threshold, to satisfy the requirement.

Bill Payment (BP)

BP is basically a basic function of a checking account. You can use your checking account to pay your credit card bill directly. In general, you just need to choose the corresponding bank and enter your credit card number. Some small banks cannot set up electronic BP; in that case, you need to fill in the credit card company's payment address and mail a paper check to complete BP.

After opening a bank account, banks often require a certain number of BP transactions to satisfy the requirement.

Debit Card Transactions

After opening a checking account, you’ll usually receive a debit card. Banks sometimes require you to make a certain number of debit card purchases each month to satisfy the requirement. Note that some banks specifically require Pin Based Transactions for them to count; spending through the Credit channel does not count.

Minimum Balance

Some banks require you to deposit a certain amount of money into the account and keep the daily average or monthly average balance above a certain amount in order to earn the sign-up bonus. Therefore, you need to analyze how to handle this based on the specific terms.

Fee

Checking and Savings often come with a number of fees. Common ones include:

  • Monthly Fee: The monthly fee for basic accounts is often waivable through Minimum Balance, E-Statement, or Debit Transaction requirements. Before deciding to open an account, it’s best to understand the monthly fee and how to avoid it first.
  • Service Fee: Withdrawing cash from an ATM, requesting a replacement debit card, and similar actions can all trigger service fees. Avoid them whenever possible.
  • Early Terminate Fee: If you close the account before the specified date, this fee will be charged, so be careful.

ChexSystems

Similar to the three major credit bureaus for credit cards, banks often use ChexSystems data when deciding whether to approve a new bank account for you. ChexSystems data includes your recent account-opening activity as well as the current status of your accounts. If you’ve opened too many accounts recently, your ChexSystems record may not look good, and the bank may deny your new account. ChexSystems has nothing to do with your credit report, and checking it will not lower your credit score with the three credit bureaus. However, note that a very small number of banks may even pull your credit report when you open an account, which will result in a hard pull and may lower your credit score.

Common Tips

How to Find These Bank Bonuses

Compared with the flood of credit card ads, bank bonuses are usually much lower-profile, so you have to find them yourself. Common ways to discover them include:

  • Local bank ads: When you go in to do banking, you can also ask whether they have any Checking or Savings sign-up bonuses.
  • Letters mailed to your home: Chase and BofA love sending you letters with sign-up offers.
  • DOC’s summary: The well-known blogger DOC built his reputation by collecting Checking and Savings account bonuses. His site has a dedicated page for current good sign-up bonuses. Best Bank Account Bonuses
  • We also summarize the best sign-up bonuses here from time to time.

How to Meet the Bonus Requirements

BP, Minimum Balance, and Fee requirements are all hard requirements. You just need to pay attention to the bank’s listed terms and complete the specified numbers. Other tips include:

  • Fake DD: Whether a transfer into your account counts as DD depends heavily on the sender and the recipient. Salaries and tax refunds are generally counted as DD by most banks. Some personal-account transfers may also count as DD; we call these fake DD. Common fake DD methods include Discover Checking transfers, PayPal account Withdraw Money, brokerage account withdrawals, and so on. However, fake DD does not work for every account and every bank, so you need to evaluate each case separately.
  • Debit Card Transactions: You can meet the purchase count through Reload Amazon, SelfCheckout, and PayBill. See this article for details: How to Quickly Meet the Swipe Requirement

Other

  • churn: Similar to credit card churn (repeated applications), bank accounts can also be opened multiple times. For example, some banks say that as long as you haven’t received a bonus within 1 year, you can open the account again and get another bonus. If you manage your opening and closing dates well, you can earn quite a bit each year.
  • CC funding: Some banks allow you to use a credit card to fund the initial deposit when opening the account. For some credit card issuers, this counts as a normal purchase, so you can earn another round of cashback while also meeting the card's sign-up spending requirement.

Important Notes

  • Tax reporting: Unlike credit card rewards, bank bonuses are often treated as income (usually interest income), so they need to be reported on your taxes. Of course, whether you actually need to pay tax also depends on your U.S. tax status. The general advice is that Nonresident taxpayers do not need to pay it, while everyone else does. Please consult a tax attorney for details.
  • Identity requirements: Some banks only allow U.S. Citizens to open accounts, some require a green card, and some are open to everyone, so pay attention to the identity requirements for opening the account. It’s best not to misrepresent your identity.
  • Plan ahead: The requirements for bank bonuses are often numerous, so good planning is important. Otherwise, it’s easy to miss a task and end up not getting the bonus. It’s a good idea to keep a spreadsheet or something similar and check off each task as you complete it.

Beginner Series

After reading these posts, you’ll be ahead of 90% of Chinese Americans in the U.S.