I think I've seen the occasional mention on here of opening checking accounts for the bonus cash, but I had tuned it out, as I'm lazy and it seemed like work to change direct deposits, etc. Well, I got an email from US Bank that prompted me to look into it, as I could get a $200 bonus for just making two bill pay payments and didn't have to do direct deposits. While I was looking into that (via the blogs, etc.), I learned that I could make an initial deposit of up to $500 with a credit card (and it just posts like a regular purchase). Well, that was too good to pass up, as we're working on hitting our Chase Hyatt spend right now. So, as long as everything works like it should, I should be getting $200 as a bonus AND got $500 towards my CC spend. For the two bill pay amounts, I did the minimum of $25 and used them to pay other credit cards that I've run things through, so that I don't waste $50 of spending that I could have put towards my Hyatt spend! Once everything posts, I think I'll do the same thing for my husband and get another $200.