Frequently Asked Questions

Popular Checking Account Requirements & How To Easily Meet Them

Pretty much all banks require you to complete certain actions to receive the sign up bonus. Below are the most common requirements and a few little tips & tricks on how to easily meet those requirements.

Direct deposits: Probably the most common requirement and one people think is the most difficult to meet. Usually the fine print on these bonuses says that it must be a deposit from your employer or a government benefit. Thankfully for us, most banks can’t differentiate between a simple ACH transfer and a payroll payment.
Debit card transactions: Another popular requirement, you could just put regular expenses on your debit card but then you’d be missing out on credit card rewards points (and more spend towards minimum spend requirements for credit card sign up bonuses)
Bill payments: This one is easy to meet, rather than paying a bill in full you can instead split it up in smaller payments (just make sure it’s paid in full before the due date) to generate multiple bill payments. Sometimes the fine print will say that only one payment per biller counts, but chances are you have multiple bills to pay anyway.

Avoiding Checking Account Fees

There are two main fees you need to think about when it comes to these bonuses: monthly fees & early account termination fees.

Monthly fees: It’s almost always possible to waive these fees by meeting some sort of requirement (often the same ones required to trigger bonuses, see above). In most cases the monthly fee is waived for the first month or two, giving you some time to get this set up but this varies by financial institution. Once you know what the fee is and how to avoid it, it’s pretty easy.
Early account termination fees: This one is a little less obvious, but if you close an account before a certain time then you’ll usually be charged a fee. Financial institutions do this because it costs them money to set up new accounts (especially when they are offering a bonus) and they want a chance to recoup that money. Most banks will charge this early account termination fee if the account is closed within 90 or 180 days, obviously this is easy to avoid if you know about it in advance.
Other misc fees: In most cases you won’t actually be using these new accounts as your primary checking account, so you shouldn’t need to worry about ordering checks and the like.

Does opening bank accounts hurt my credit? Will it affect getting approved for a mortgage/home loan?

Most of the time your credit won’t be touched, deposit accounts have their own credit reporting agency called ChexSystems, some will use an alternative such as Early Warning Systems. This agency collects & compiles information regarding deposit accounts, much like the nationwide credit reporting agencies (Experian, Equifax & TransUnion) collect & compile information regarding credit accounts (e.g credit cards, home loans & auto loans).

When you open a new deposit account (e.g a checking account) most banks will request a copy of your ChexSystems credit report and then either not request your credit report at all, or do a soft pull on your credit report (meaning it’s not affected). In some cases, a hard pull is done on you credit report as well.

When we post bank account bonuses, one of the things we look at is whether a hard or soft pull is done on your credit report. If you just stick to banks that do not do a hard pull, then your credit report & credit score won’t be affected. In general if a bank asks you to opt it to overdraft protection doing so will result in a hard pull.

Additional Checking Account Bonus Tips

Keeping organized is key: If you’re not organized, then things can quickly get hard to manage. I’d recommend at minimum keeping a spread sheet that contains some basic information about each bonus for example: date opened with a screenshot of the bonus, date the requirements were met, date the bonus posted, date the account was closed. You can also include some additional information such as: what the early account termination fee is and how long the account needs to be kept open to avoid that and monthly fees and how they are avoided.
Sometimes bonuses are pulled early: Don’t rely on a bank bonus end date being accurate, often bonuses are pulled before that end date. This is generally more likely to happen when a bonus is nationwide or more generous than normal.
Do I have to pay taxes on these bonuses? Bank account bonuses are treated as interest and as such you need to pay taxes on these bonuses. Usually you’ll receive a 1099-INT form at the end of the year. Even if you don’t receive this form, it’s my understanding you still need to pay tax on the bonus. As always you should consult a tax professional.