About

If you often collect bank Checking account opening bonuses, you probably know that banks usually require your paycheck to be deposited into the new account as a Direct Deposit before they’ll pay the bonus. But what if you don’t have salary income, or it’s not convenient to change your payroll deposit account? How can you still meet the requirement? Some people have tested other banks’ ACH transfers, broker withdrawals, Wise transfers, and more, and found that those can work too. We usually call any method other than salary deposits a Fake Direct Deposit. Today we’re introducing a very simple Fake Direct Deposit method using the remittance app LemFi.

If you sign up for LemFi using the link below and send a first transfer of at least $100 from the US to China (to Alipay, WeChat, or a bank account), you can get $20 cash back.

  • LemFi $20 signup link (sign up with this link or download the app yourself and enter referral code JINGOKDA)

Here’s a quick summary of the steps:

  1. Download the LemFi app
  2. After registering and entering your username and password, enter code: JINGOKDA on the third page
  3. Send $100 to China (Alipay, WeChat, or bank account are all eligible; any recipient works)
  4. Get the $20 bonus instantly

Notes

  1. If you are not in the US, use a good US VPN or a US phone number with roaming data to register and verify your identity (a Chinese passport is enough)
  2. You can add a debit card to Apple Pay to make the payment and bypass location verification. You can also use someone else’s Apple Pay and card
  3. Important: do not enter a virtual phone number on your phone (for example, Google Voice), or it may affect identity verification and prevent you from sending money. Just use a regular US mobile number
  4. If a virtual number causes verification to fail, register a new account again and use a different ID to verify your identity. For example, a passport, driver’s license, or green card can be used for verification

Detailed steps

After you finish registering for LemFi and collect the first remittance bonus, you can start setting things up. The basic idea is:

  • Use the US to US transfer feature to move funds in LemFi to the bank account where you want to trigger Fake Direct Deposit, thereby activating the bank’s account opening bonus.

Here are the detailed steps:

Step 1: Verify SSN/ITIN. If you still haven’t verified after sending your earlier transfer, you need to verify your SSN or ITIN before you can see the US to US transfer page. If you can’t find it, tapping the account upgrade option works the same way, and upgrading can also increase your transfer limit.

Step 2: Add funds to LemFi. To use US to US transfers, you can’t use a debit card or Apple Pay directly; you must have funds in the account first. But don’t worry: even if the transfer fails later, the funds in the account can still be sent out through remittance and won’t get stuck there. Of course, it’s best to send in $10 first to test the whole process, and only add a larger amount after everything checks out.

Step 3: Add funds with Apple Pay or Debit. I sent in $1 here as a test. Note that only added funds can be used for US to US. If you want to complete a $1,000 DD, then you need to add $1,000.

Step 4: Choose US to US transfer. Open the remittance page, change both the sending and receiving sides to USD, then enter the amount. Note that this amount cannot exceed the funds in your account, which means the money you added in the previous step. The account’s Rewards also count as funds—for example, the $50 sign-up bonus—but to send it out, you need to add an extra $1 so the total can be transferred together. As you can see, US to US has no fee.

Step 5: Enter recipient information. Choose Add new recipient.

Step 6: Enter the recipient account information. As shown in the note, make sure you enter the ACH routing number, not the Wire information.

Step 7: Confirm and add the note Payroll. On the confirmation page, you can review the details of this transfer and double-check everything.

Scroll down and add the note Payroll. According to user reports, adding Payroll greatly increases the chance of triggering Direct Deposit, so it’s recommended for everyone.

Step 8: Wait 1–2 days, and the bank will receive the money from LemFi. It usually shows up as Direct Deposit or Deposit, and either one can activate your bank account’s opening bonus!

Direct Deposits that can be triggered

Based on testing by readers and members of our reader group, using LemFi can trigger the Direct Deposit requirements for the banks below. There are likely more, but these are the tricky ones where many other methods don’t work, so LemFi was used. Citi, US Bank, BofA, and similar banks should also work. If you have a successful data point, feel free to share it in the reader group and I’ll add it here.

It’s recommended that everyone add the note Payroll to improve the success rate!

Other tips

Here are a few other small tips, summarized briefly below:

  • LemFi supports depositing to a mismatched name. You can use LemFi to transfer money to a family member’s bank account and activate their bonus. LemFi does not verify whether the recipient’s name matches your own LemFi account name
  • If you need to make a larger Direct Deposit, it’s better to split it into several transfers. A single transfer that is too large may trigger risk controls
  • If funding with Debit doesn’t go through, it’s likely because the debit card was flagged for fraud. Try contacting the bank to see whether it can be resolved. Using Apple Pay or Apple Cash inside the app is recommended, since it’s much more stable than funding directly with Debit

Summary

Using LemFi to complete a Fake Direct Deposit is quite convenient, and you can also help trigger bonuses for your family members’ accounts. In general, bank ACH transfers can only be sent to an account with the same name. However, note that US to US is not LemFi’s main feature; the app is mainly used for remittances to China. They often have good promotions, and the signup bonuses are also quite generous, so remember to grab the bonus first and then decide what to do next~

  • LemFi registration link (register with this link or download the app yourself, and enter JINGOKDA in the referral code field)