Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $100 for person referring, $50 for person signing up
- Availability: In branch only [Branch locations are all in NY]. Must live, work, worship or attend school in Suffolk county, NY.
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Unknown
- ChexSystems: UnknownÂ
- Credit card funding: Up to $1,000, no American Express
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: $20, six months
- Expiration date: August 31st, 2016
The Offer
- Refer a friend and you’ll receive $100 and the person you refer will receive $50 when they do the following:
- Complete and return a Member Referral slip availableat any Suffolk Federal branch– ask a representative!
- Open a Free or Max Money Checking account with a minimum of $100 opening balance
- One of the following:
- Pay 4 bills though Suffolk Federal’s FREE Online Bill Pay Service
- Use your Suffolk Federal Check Card for four signature-based transactions
- Take out a loan with Suffolk Federal within the first 60 days
The Fine Print
- Checking account of new member must be opened with a minimum of $100 and must remain open for 60 days.
- Both referring member and new member will receive cash incentives once the required terms and conditions are met.
- Membership in Suffolk Federal requires a Share Savings account with a $5.00 minimum balance and is open to anyone who lives, work, worships or attends school in Suffolk County, N
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
According to the fee schedule there is an early account termination fee of $20 if closed within six months. They offer a free checking account that doesn’t have any monthly fees. You can also earn 1.5% APY on this account, but there are quite a few requirements.
Our Verdict
Feel free to share your referral information in the comments, but I ask you to provide some data points on whether it’s a hard/soft pull and if they allow credit card funding as well (I’m sure readers will be happy to support people that provide this information). This is a pretty good bonus if you can get somebody that knows you to give you their $100 referral bonus (or at least $50 of it) we won’t add it to our best bonus list because a $50 bonus isn’t really worth it.
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
- What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
DATAPOINT:
Credit Card Funding: Yes: Master, Visa, Discover. (no AE), total maximum funding: $1000. min. funding $5
Funded with Bank of America Travel Rewards, $1000, set CA $200, shows two pending transactions: $0 & $1 both with name SUFFOLK FED CREDIT UNI, don’t know whether it’s going to be coded as purchase.
You have to choose Regular Share Account that needs a min. funding of $5. Only 1 checking account can be added, or select none. You can add any of the other three saving accounts or add none. When added any one checking account, the ATM card will change to Visa Check Card. This is confusing as the description of all checking accounts indicates a MasterCard Debit Card will be issued. And keep in mind that only the Free Advantage Checking and Max Money Checking may possibly have the rewards from MasterCard debit card – $0.05 for each signature transaction (no mention on qualified min. purchase), and up to rewards of $350 per calendar year. (This is similar to Discover Debit card that pays $0.10 per transaction but maximum rewards of $10/month). I’ll say their master debit card is much better than the $50/$100 promo if it can be fully taken advantage of.
Not sure if this is the way any credit union put on their T&C, at least I really don’t like the language they use in description of the product. For example, they say Max Money Checking has “No monthly maintenance fee, no per check fee”, however the * remark indicates “$20 service fee imposed on balances below $3,000.” And on the funding page, you have to open and agree with their membership disclosure but that is a dead link, it seems to refer to a file last uploaded on Feb, 2015. But you can find the actual new one by using the direct link.
Their credit card is a joke.
It may be possible to get their MasterCard debit card for personal checking account and meanwhile get another one for business account, max. rewards will be $350/ year, that is 7000 transactions. Need to do some test on it if application approved.
Submitted. Received an auto email from [email protected] with an application confirmation number, asked me to call back during business hour. So application is manually reviewed. I have a feeling of not getting approval because I don’t live in Long Island and too many inquiries on Chex. Anyway, worth taking a look at their master debit card that gives rewards. But not the $50/$100 promotion, IMO.
When filling out the application online, there is a place to enter promotion code but not required. If enter something not workable, won’t let proceed and have to delete it in order to continue to next.
Thanks for the information!
Bank of America Travel Rewards credit card coded as cash advance, therefore transaction rejected and account not funded. There is no follow-up email from Suffolk whether my application is approved or rejected.
Trying to open it again but it seems it tracks down by SSN so new application cannot go through.
Try to open up one account for my dad, trying to fund $1000 with Citi Double Cash but it seems it will be coded as cash advance as pending charges says the following:
MORTGAGE CO/NONFINANCIAL INST/TRAVEL CHK $1 pending
I set my Cash Advance limit to $300 or $500. I guess they coded all credit card funding as cash advance.