Salem Bank $100 Visa Rewards Card Offer When You Open A Checking Account

The Offer

Direct link to offer

• Receive a $100 Visa® Reward Card when you open a Salem checking account (Star, Gold Star or eOne checking) and complete one of the following within 60 days of account opening:
  • Receive two direct deposits over $250
  • Pay six online bill pays over $25 each
  • 20 debit transactions over $5 each

Note: You must first create a qualifying account with Salem Five Direct and then fill out the form found at the direct link to offer. 

The Fine Print

• Allow 4-6 weeks after you complete the requirements to receive your gift card (maximum of 60 days)
• Bill pays must be to different payees
• Reward may be withheld if relationship status is determined to be established strictly for the purposes of reward payout
• Bonus is for consumer accounts only
• Limit of one incentive per new account opened

Avoiding Fees

You can view the full Salem Five fee schedule by clicking here.

eChecking No Monthly Fee

The eChecking account doesn’t have any monthly fee associated with it.

Star Checking $15 Monthly

The monthly fee is waived if one of the following conditions is met: receive a direct deposit, have a minimum daily balance of $1,500, automatic transfer to a Salem Five mortgage or a combined deposit/loan balance of $5,000 (not including mortgage loan balances)

Gold Star Checking $20 Monthly

The monthly fee is waived if any of the following conditions are met: $5,000 minimum daily balance, combined deposit/outstanding loan balance of $20,000 or more (not including mortgage loan balances)

Early Account Termination Fee $0

No early account termination fee is mentioned in the fee schedule that Salem Five provides.

Our Verdict

• Opening this account is a hard credit pull
• You cannot fund this account with a credit card

Because opening this account requires a hard credit pull, I definitely won’t be bothering opening it for the bonus. I can easily get more than $100 in value by opening a credit card instead. If I were to do this account bonus, here’s what I’d do:

• Open an eChecking account, this has no monthly fee and is the only account that actually mentions the $100 bonus on it’s application page
• Fill out the form found here. Making sure to use promo code “PP2013″
• Add funds to my account
• Pay six different bills from my eChecking account
• Wait for my bonus to post (but continue to use the checking account for some bills and basic purchases. This would ensure they can’t state I opened the account only for the bonus)
• Close the account

I hate the verbage that states they can deny you the bonus if they think you opened the account just for the sign up bonus. If you’re looking to park some money the eOne savings account is currently an APR of 1%. This has been added to our master list of bank account bonuses, it wasn’t good enough to make our list of the best bank account bonuses currently available.

Direct link to offer | Screenshot of the offer