[Update: This offer has now expired, sorry! Make sure you join our mailing list and we will let you know whenever new bank account deals appear]
The Offer
- Open a One Deposit Checking from Citizens Bank™
- Make an additional deposit (of any amount) after your initial deposit
- Receive a $150 bonus
The Fine Print
- New customers only, a customer is considered new if they haven’t held a primary or secondary checking account with citizens bank for the last six months
- $150 bonus is reported to the IRS and you must pay tax on it
- Offer cannot be combined with any other offer
- Minimum opening balance of $25
- Bonus will be deposited before July 31st, 2014 and be labelled as Balance Builder Bonus
- Account is FDIC insured
- Account earns an interest rate of 0.01%
- Must be within Citizens Bank service area to qualify (enter your address details on the offer page to see if you do)
- Can be funded with credit card, check or debit card
- No early account closure fee
- Valid from March 1st until March 31st, 2014
Waive The Monthly Fee
- Monthly fee of $9.99 is waived if you have a deposit of any amount to the checking account that month
For some reason the promo code you receive is longer than the promotional code field on the application. Thankfully the promo codes are actually tied to your e-mail, so as long as you use the same e-mail address for both you’ll receive the bonus.
Our Verdict
I wasn’t expecting to be able to sign up in California, but they seem to process the coupon code without any issues (admittedly I didn’t actually try to apply for the account). You can fund with a credit card for a maximum of $1,000 which is useful for meeting minimum spend requirements or just earning a bit of extra cash back.
Unfortunately it looks like this account results in a hard credit pull from Equifax. I’d prefer to use a hard credit pull on a credit card sign up bonus, as I typically get more value than $150 ($170 if you include the extra $20 I’d receive for funding using a cash back card).
If it turns out this is a soft pull, I’ll jump on it but for now I’m giving this one a wide berth.
Offer link | Screenshot of the offer
That was a good offer. Just make 2 deposits and get $150.
I tried opening up a account with credit card (Chase Freedom), but did not get any indication of it going through (and Chase didn’t post anything). I just got a message saying I was approved. The reps also didn’t know anything about it. Seems weird… :/ Crossing fingers they will work tomorrow. I bought a code on eBay for the $200 offer so hoping I didn’t waste $5 lol.
It’s soft pull online unless you enroll in overdraft services. i opened account few days ago. They even put a note in the top right corner of the application that there is only soft pull that doesn’t affect credit score.
Thanks for the update.
I can confirm