Bank of America has updated the bonus for opening a BofA checking account. You can now earn up to a $500 account opening bonus through direct deposit. The new deadline is May 31, 2026.

Details are as follows (see the article content for ways to complete the direct deposit requirement):

  • $100: total direct deposits of $2,000 within 90 days
  • $300: total direct deposits of $5,000 within 90 days
  • $500: total direct deposits of $10,000+ within 90 days

BofA checking account customers can also get additional credit card rewards through the following program:

This is a very solid bonus, and I’ve also added it to my best bank account bonus rankings:

About BofA

Bank of America (commonly abbreviated as BofA in the U.S.) is the second-largest commercial bank in the United States by assets, behind only JPMorgan Chase. Bank of America has about 5,600 branches and 16,200 ATMs across more than 150 countries worldwide. In 2010, by total revenue, Bank of America was the third-largest company in the United States. In 2014, according to the Forbes Global 2000 ranking of public companies, it was the 13th-largest company in the world. The bank’s history can be traced back to the Massachusetts Bank founded in 1784, making it the second-oldest bank in the United States.

As for BofA, I’ve been a longtime customer. On my second day in the U.S., an older schoolmate took me to open a BofA checking account, and I’ve used it ever since. I’ve used it for receiving international wires, transfers, bill pay, large cash deposits, and check deposits. It doesn’t frequently ask for identity verification or trigger fraud controls. You could say it has a very high tolerance level: even with a lot of account activity, problems rarely come up. By comparison, Chase and Citi are more sensitive, especially Chase. I’ve already heard of quite a few cases where issues with a Chase checking account led to the closure of both bank accounts and credit cards. In addition, BofA usually has local branches, and if you have a checking account, you can use certain teller services there, such as cash deposits, which are often best handled at the counter. I also once used BofA for a used car transaction; I think a manager helped with some paperwork and notarization, and after everything was done, depositing the money there was very convenient. BofA also has its unique Preferred Rewards program, and if you keep a decent amount on deposit, you can get a lot of useful benefits.

Overall, while its account opening bonuses and even its credit cards may not be especially flashy, having one BofA account as a central hub for moving money around is a very good option. If you keep larger deposits with them, the related benefits are also quite practical.

I’ve consistently used BofA’s checking account, and overall it has relatively high tolerance for money moving in and out, bill pay, and similar activity, so it works well as a primary checking account. Of course, it’s also nice that problems can be resolved quickly when they do happen.

BofA Checking Account

Account Opening Bonus

See the beginning of this article for the account opening details and bonus.

Account Overview

BofA offers three checking accounts, and all of them qualify for the account opening bonus. You can choose based on your own needs; in most cases, Plus Banking is the best choice as long as you keep a certain amount on deposit. The fees are as follows:

  • BofA SafeBalance Banking: no monthly fee for college students under age 25 or people under age 18; otherwise $4.99
  • BofA Plus Banking: monthly direct deposit of $250 or $1,500 average daily balance; otherwise a $12 monthly fee
  • BofA Relationship Banking: $10,000 average daily balance (including checking, savings, CD, IRA, etc.); otherwise a $25 monthly fee

Interest is mentioned here, but after checking the rates, I don’t think it matters much.

About direct deposit

The most common form of direct deposit is payroll. If you don’t mind, you can simply change your paycheck deposit account to your BofA account. If you don’t want to switch payroll accounts, you can also try withdrawing from certain brokerage accounts into your BofA account, which may count as direct deposit. The following is DOC’s summary of what counts as direct deposit for BofA for reference.

The following have been reported to qualify as BofA direct deposit:

  • ACH Transfer (1, 2)
  • Airbnb payout: 1,
  • Alliant: 1, 2  (didn’t work)
  • American Express:
  • Astra: 1,
  • Baxter Credit Union: 1, 2,
  • Chase:
    • YouInvest: 1, 2, 3,
  • Coinbase: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (didn’t work), 6 (didn’t work), 7 (didn’t work)
  • Connexus: 1
  • Emigrant (1)
  • E*Trade (1, 2, 3, 4  (didn’t work)
  • Guilford Bank: 1,
  • PenFed: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
  • PurePoint Financial: 1
  • Robinhood: 1, 2, 3, 4  (didn’t work)
  • Serve: 1, 2, 3,
  • SoFi: 1, 2  (didn’t work)
  • Transferwise: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
  • Treasury Direct: 1,
  • Wealthfront: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5(didn’t work) , 6  (didn’t work)

The transfers below do not count as direct deposits

  • ACH Transfer: 1
  • Ally ACH: 1, 2 (via e-mail in March, 2015) , 3,
  • Amazon Marketplace: 1 (via e-mail on February 11th, 2018)
  • American Express:
    • Bluebird: 1
  • Capital One: 1
  • Chase: 1(does work to waive fee, not for bonus) , 2,
  • Charles Schwab: 1, 2,
  • Discover: 1(does work to waive fee, not for bonus) , 2,
  • Fidelity: 1, 2,
  • HSBC: 1
  • PayPal (1, 2): there is evidence that it worked previously (1, 2, 3), but this has now been shut down.
  • PurePoint Financial: 1,
  • BofA user-to-user transfers (1)
  • Robinhood: 1, 2, 3,
  • USAA: 1,
  • Vanguard: 1

BofA Savings Account (No Bonus Currently)

Open an account now and deposit $1,000 to earn a $100 signup bonus.

Other BofA Accounts

BofA also offers savings accounts, CDs, and IRA accounts, but there’s nothing especially compelling about them, and they don’t come with any account opening bonus either. So we’d only recommend opening them for the Preferred Rewards program discussed below.

BofA Preferred Rewards

This is one of the standout features of BofA accounts. If you keep a certain amount on deposit (including checking accounts, savings accounts, IRAs, etc.), you can qualify for higher status tiers. The biggest perk is the bonus on credit card cash back, which can be boosted by as much as 1.75x. In other words, a card that normally earns 3% cash back can effectively earn 5.25%. There are also other perks such as loan discounts, waived ATM fees, and investment discounts. Overall, it’s a pretty valuable program. At the moment, Preferred Rewards has three tiers:

  • Gold requires $20,000-$50,000 in assets and gives a 25% bonus on credit card cash back
  • Platinum requires $50,000-$100,000 in assets and gives a 50% bonus on credit card cash back
  • Platinum Honors requires $100,000+ in assets and gives a 75% bonus on credit card cash back

For a detailed analysis, see our article:

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