How many times in a year do you get offers in your mailbox (or e-mail) asking you to sign up with a new bank? To be honest I’ve received these offers for years and they’ve always gone directly into my “circular file” (These days I’m more environmentally conscious, so they actually go into my recycling bin).
For the most part I’ve always thought that the sign-up bonuses were were scams and schemes. I mean, when I opened my first checking account about 12 years ago (with a bank I dislike and won’t mention here) I got an ugly and ill-fitted hat. That was the extent of my knowledge about “free gifts” from banks. So a few months back when I read a review at one of my favorite coupon blogs about a sing up bonus that Capital One (then ING) was offering and I was pretty intrigued and excited.
“Wait a minute, you’ll give me actual cash money to sign up for a checking account? Are you sure you didn’t mean a shitty hat?”
I immediately signed up for a checking account and made a quick and easy $100. Plus I made an additional $50 for opening a savings account. Thanks Capital One for restoring my faith in banks’ free gifts!
This past Saturday I was sorting through the week’s mail when I came across the post card offers shown below. Yup, two postcards mailed the same week. One offering me $200 to sign up for a checking account, the other offering me $125 to sign up for the same checking account. Can you guess which one I picked? Umm Chase, if you’re offering me $200 to sign up for a new checking account or $125, I’ll take the $200. Is this a trick? Am I part of some weird psychological study about money?
Since I used to be a bit of a skeptic myself…
Before you open a new account:
- Read the fine print.
Seriously! Read all of the fine print. You don’t want to be disqualified for receiving your sign up bonus because you missed a step or misread the requirements. - Mark dates on your calendar.
To keep my $200 bonus, my account has to stay open for 6 months. If I close the account before 6 months I’ll have to pay the bonus back. I’m only eligible for one bonus per year (the bonus is for new customers only). So if I opened the account June 30, for example, I can close it on January 1st, but can’t open another new account and get another bonus until July 1st, 2014. - Watch for fees.
In the case of my Chase Total Checking account: There’s a monthly Service Fee of $12 per month. To avoid the fee I have to:-
- Have monthly direct deposits of $500 or more
OR - Keep a minimum daily balance of $1,500 or more
OR - Keep an average balance of $5,000 or more in qualifying accounts with Chase
- Have monthly direct deposits of $500 or more
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- Ask for a better bonus.
It doesn’t hurt to try and you might be surprised by the answer. There are often multiple offers being offered within large banks depending on location, region etc. Ask your local branch if they’d be able to match another branch’s bonus. If you’re banking online, e-mail or chat with a customer service representative to see if they can get you a better bonus.
Do you open bank accounts for the bonuses? What’s the best bonus you’ve ever received?
**Right now Capital One 360 is offering a $50 bonus! when you sign up for a new checking account (new customers only). You just have to make 3 Debit Card purchases or Person2Person Payments (or any combo of the two) within 45 days of opening the account and your $50 bonus will automatically be deposited into your account on day 50. Yes I used my own referral links in this post, if you prefer not to use them you can go directly to Capital One’s website to sign-up.