【Updated 2025.5】This $175 signup bonus is back. You can also fund the account with up to $500 by credit card when opening it, which can help toward a credit card minimum spending requirement. Note that only Preferred Checking or Signature Checking qualifies. To earn the bonus, the DD requirement is $1,000 within 60 days.
Based on current data points, a transfer from Wise works well for completing the DD requirement. You can also try AMEX business checkingChase business checking, or US Bank business checking with the memo listed as payroll, which may trigger DD. Below is one user’s timeline for receiving the bonus:
- 3/24/2025 – Open with $25
- 3/25/2025 – $1,000 from Wise
- 4/16/2025 – $175 Bonus
Both Preferred and Signature accounts have monthly fees, which can be waived by meeting a deposit or DD requirement. Since you need to complete the signup bonus anyway in the first month, the $1,000 DD should also waive the monthly fee. Based on the timeline above, you may also be able to close the account 1-2 months after receiving the bonus to avoid future monthly fees.
Quick Summary
- Signup bonus: $175
- Availability: Nationwide (previously FL only)
- Direct deposit requirement: $1,000+, deposited into the checking account within 60 days of account opening (note: not the savings account)
- Other requirement: You must be referred (this post includes the author’s referral link)
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems inquiry: Yes
- Credit card funding: Up to $500
- Monthly fee: None
- Early account termination fee: None
Steps
- Click the application link to go to the bank’s website, then click "start now" to enter the application page. On the main page, there is a cart icon in the upper right corner with a 3 badge. Click it and you should see the words “100 refer and earn.”
- After filling out your basic personal information, the website will ask how you want to fund the account. You can choose a bank account, debit card, or PayPal. I recommend using PayPal linked to a credit card (it is recommended to lower the cash advance limit on the card you plan to use to 0), with up to $500 going into the checking account. There is also a required minimum $5 deposit into savings, so the total funding amount at this step is $505. A useful tip: you can use Discover’s 5% cash back on PayPal purchases this quarter. You can also use another credit card on which you need to meet a fixed spending requirement. The author used an authorized user card on an AMEX card and successfully made a $505 purchase. See the screenshot below (image source: Muzhi from the reader WeChat group):
- You should get a result immediately after submitting the application. The author’s application initially showed under review, but an email confirming successful account opening arrived the next day.
- After completing the Direct Deposit requirement, the bonus will be paid on the 15th of the following month.
About Direct Deposit
As mentioned above, you need $1,000+ in direct deposits, deposited into the checking account within 60 days of opening the account (note: not the savings account). According to earlier data points in the comments of the corresponding DOC post, a transfer initiated from Discover Savings (ACH) could trigger Direct Deposit. Readers can also search the DOC comments after opening the account.
Note: According to the 8/14 update in the corresponding DOC post, Fairwinds strengthened the Direct Deposit language in its Terms, so the data points in that DOC post’s comments may no longer be valid. However, the author still planned to test with Discover Saving. If successful, the author would come back and update this post with the method used. Update: a Discover Saving transfer does not count as Direct Deposit.
Summary
If you used the application link in this post and successfully received the account opening bonus, feel free to come back and share your data point in the comments (what method triggered direct deposit), along with your own referral link. If you only share a referral link without contributing a data point, that referral link will be deleted. Priority will be given to referral links from readers who contribute useful data points for this blog’s audience.