Opening a new bank account for the bonus

MommyBryn

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 26, 2006
A bank down the road from me is offering a $400 bonus for opening a new account with a $500 deposit. The most basic account (which is what we would do) has a $7 fee (only waivable with big regular deposits which we wouldn't do), and there is a $25 fee charged if the account is closed before 180 days. So essentially, I'd lose $42 at the end of 6 months (when I'd close the account since I don't need it) but would still get $358 of "free" money.

Those of you who do this regularly for the bonuses, do you find it to be a pain? Are there any unexpected drawbacks that I'm not considering? We bank exclusively with a local credit union for many reasons, so opening another account isn't necessarily appealing to me, but with that bonus- particularly one that doesn't come with a lot of other requirements like I usually see- it seems kind of silly to pass up.
 
The only bank account I've opened for the bonus was $300 with Chase, which I am using to save for my WDW trip in December. Also got a Disney Debit card to go along with it. No issues, but I've set up my direct deposit to funnel enough money into the account to prevent fees and pay off my trip before we go.
 


I've done several bank account bonuses and can't think if any reason why you shouldn't go for this offer! There are great tips and info on opening bank accounts for the bonuses on the doctor of credit website. You might want to check it out. Lots of data points on what works for meeting requirements, a list of what they consider are the best bonuses, and a place for people to post comments with their experiences. For reference I opened 5 accounts, and my DH one account last year and we made $1500. To me that's pretty awesome, and is actually small potatoes compared to some people on DOC.
 
A bank down the road from me is offering a $400 bonus for opening a new account with a $500 deposit. The most basic account (which is what we would do) has a $7 fee (only waivable with big regular deposits which we wouldn't do), and there is a $25 fee charged if the account is closed before 180 days. So essentially, I'd lose $42 at the end of 6 months (when I'd close the account since I don't need it) but would still get $358 of "free" money.

Those of you who do this regularly for the bonuses, do you find it to be a pain? Are there any unexpected drawbacks that I'm not considering? We bank exclusively with a local credit union for many reasons, so opening another account isn't necessarily appealing to me, but with that bonus- particularly one that doesn't come with a lot of other requirements like I usually see- it seems kind of silly to pass up.

I don't do this too regularly, but I will take advantage of bank bonuses if i don't have to jump through too many hoops. Last fall I opened an account with Key Bank for a $400 bonus after making a $500 deposit. That was easiest bonus I ever earned since it didn't require a direct deposit. The $500 check I wrote them to open the account qualified me for the bonus. To keep it fee free I needed to either make a $500 deposit per month or make 8 debit card transactions. The first two months I made 8 reloads to my Amazon gift card balance for $1 or $2 dollars each. I was worried I'd forget to do this every month so in month 3 I set up a $500 automatic transfer on the 10th of every month from my Capital One account into the Key Bank account. Then I set up a second transfer for the 25th of the month to transfer the $500 back to my Capital One account. So I'm just transferring the same $500 back and forth between the two banks, but I haven't paid a monthly fee yet. I did get hit with a $3 fee for paper statements so I quickly switched to paperless.

I don't know how true this is, but I had heard that the bank employees don't receive their incentives for customers opening new accounts until the account has been open for 8 months. On the chance that this is true, I decided to keep the accounts open for at least eight months.
 
I don't do this too regularly, but I will take advantage of bank bonuses if i don't have to jump through too many hoops. Last fall I opened an account with Key Bank for a $400 bonus after making a $500 deposit. That was easiest bonus I ever earned since it didn't require a direct deposit. The $500 check I wrote them to open the account qualified me for the bonus. To keep it fee free I needed to either make a $500 deposit per month or make 8 debit card transactions. The first two months I made 8 reloads to my Amazon gift card balance for $1 or $2 dollars each. I was worried I'd forget to do this every month so in month 3 I set up a $500 automatic transfer on the 10th of every month from my Capital One account into the Key Bank account. Then I set up a second transfer for the 25th of the month to transfer the $500 back to my Capital One account. So I'm just transferring the same $500 back and forth between the two banks, but I haven't paid a monthly fee yet. I did get hit with a $3 fee for paper statements so I quickly switched to paperless.

I don't know how true this is, but I had heard that the bank employees don't receive their incentives for customers opening new accounts until the account has been open for 8 months. On the chance that this is true, I decided to keep the accounts open for at least eight months.

Yes this is the same Key Bank offer that I am referring to in my OP. Thanks!
 


I’d do it but do calculate out the tax on $400 of Interest Income and add that to how much you’ll lose. Then you can see how much you’d actually get at the end for your effort and if it’s worth it.
 

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