Saw this on TV. Bank of America is offering a $100 bonus for new checking account customers, both personal and business. A new customer is a “person who is not currently a signer and who was not a signer within the last 6 months on a Bank of America personal or business checking account.” The requirements:
Get $75 when you open a new qualifying personal or business checking account with a $250 deposit and make a purchase with your debit card.
Get an additional $25 when you make 2 online bill payments within 30 days. Business checking customers can pay 2 bills with our Small Business Online Banking Bill Pay service or use the Online Business Suite® Direct Payments service.
Be sure your application includes the promotion offer code WIWGASINT for personal accounts, and SBECASH for business accounts.
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1) What’s the catch?
2) How long does the $250 have to be in the account (other than the 30 days required to pay the bill)?
3) If I pay $1 dollar each for the two bills using Small Business online Banking Bill Pay, which I assume is free, within 30 days and have $250 in the account for 30 days, I get $100?
4) Is there any hard credit pull with this deal?
judging by the terms and conditions listed on the BOA webiste, the length of time the funds must remain on deposit apears to be unspecified, however they have affored themselves wiggle room when it comes to paying up:
“Incentive: Up to $100. You get $75 when you open (1) qualifying new checking account with an opening balance of $250 during the eligibility period and (2) use your debit card for the new checking account to pay for a purchase from a merchant within 30 days after opening the new account. To get the additional $25, use our online bill payment service to pay two bills from your new checking account within 30 days after opening the account. Small Business customers are also eligible if they enroll in the Online Business Suite Direct Payments service and make two payments within 30 days. If we determine that you meet all the terms of the offer, we generally pay the incentive within 90 days of account opening. We may deposit the incentive directly into the new Bank of America checking account or we may mail a check to the address listed in our records for the new checking account. We may report to the IRS the value of the incentive we pay to you and you are responsible for any applicable taxes.”
so it looks like to safely use this offer, you’ll need to leave the money in there for approximately 90 days (or however long it takes BOA to “determine that you meet all the terms of the offer” which they claim is “generally within 90 days”)
for who to pay and how much, i’d imagine (i have somewhat inside knowledge here) you’ll want to make sure the payee is a business that other BillPay customers would typically use, not a personal payee that you add with a unique address and such. otherwise i dont see a reason for them to try and disqualify the payments. (they want to encourage BillPay use so they can market their services to the large scale payees.)
not sure if it’s hard credit, but somthing pretty big time and formal gets pulled anytime you go to open a checking or savings account. something pretty similar i’d imagine.
Thanks for the useful info!
I work at a bank. No credit score/report/anything pertaining to credit is pulled when you open a checking or savings account ever. It is only if you simultaneously apply for a credit card or a line of credit, which many bankers will suggest you do when you open a checking/savings account. All you gotta do is say no.
When you open a checking/savings account, your banking record is checked, that’s called ChexSystems, which is just a record of whether you’ve charged-off any accounts. If you’re relatively good, then banks will let you pass.
Question;
I have checking account @ Bank f America, already. Can I make another checking account for this promotion?
I work at a bank just as Julie; however, SOME banks do check your credit when opening accounts. BOA and Regions, for instance, open accounts subject to credit approval. There are many banks that do NOT perform credit checks, but rather ChexSystems; but you have to ask before applying so not to lower your score if they do pull your credit.
I applied online this Saturday, and on the same day had a hard pull from them on Experian – ARGH
@Katy, How did you apply for this promotion? It says expired when you click on the link. 🙁
Opened the account on line, checked my credit and never a hard pull when they opened either of my new accounts. Opening from WI where they have no branches and have to do banking by direct deposit or by mail. They have a savings program that allows you to round up the cents on a card purchase and they will batch up ? %. It’s not much but it is something.
There is a new mailer that comes through a mail pack sent to my home address that has a coupon for $125.00 DEPOSIT FOR BUSINESS OR PERSONAL…THERE IS A CODE YOU USE. Opened one for my folks. FYI
Andrew, do you have any of those codes available to share?
Just wondering if anyone else who signed up a) has not received their money and/or b) realized/noticed after the fact that they were going to be charged $7.95/mo. if their balance fell below $750? I signed up in early July and made my purchase the next week and still (more than 90 days) have not received my money. Thank you!
I signed up in late July, and have not yet recieved the 75 for opening the account either. I met all thier obligations, spoke to three different reps on the phone, and got 3 different answers. Tomorrow I go to my usual branch, and speak with someone about it. We’ll see how that goes
I opened a checking account on July 31st, after hearing about this promotion. I originally thought I would get the money after 30 days and when I didn’t I called BoA. I was told the account has to be open 90 days and then I would get the money. I went online today and there was a BoA deposit for $100! I guess it worked!
After opening my account in August and making the necessary purchases and bill payments; a credit of $100 was posted to my account in October. So, yes, you will get the promotional bonus, if all the terms were met.
donna,
i opened mine in may april and have yet to receive it
deb
I have not recieved it either and i do quilify for this promotion, i talked to reps on the phone and they said to wait but its been over four months now. I wander if this is actually going to go through or they are just trying to get more pple this way.
I received it! I had to bug customer service though
I m still struggling to recieve my 100$..it is irrintating all customer care reps gives different reply ..i finally visited banking center and hell they are taking too much time ..its been more than 20 days since my last visit and still not sure if i am gona to get it or not..lets see
Gosh! Chase is a lot better than BankOfAmerica!!! Way to many hidden fees!
If i get the 100 dollar bonus for opening up a checking account ,how much will i pay back come tax time…..
The “few cents” you can earn is $250. if you sign up for “keep the change” and use the card for purchases of $1.05 alot. You can get gas and stop at 3.01 ect. each time you put .99 into your savings from your checking. You have to have some money in the checking to do this, but at the end of 90 days they will match whatever you have put in the savings. You don’t get it till the end of the year, but I got $248. at the end of the year from them as a match by buying gas and things for $1.07 or $1.03 etc.
I just opened a checking account today at Bank of America with $995 deposit but i did not receive $75 bonus? why not?