[Expired] SunTrust $150-$250 Checking & Savings Promotion [AL, AR, FL, GA, MD, MS, NC, SC, TN, WV, VA, and D.C Only]

This offer has expired, you can view more the best checking bonuses by clicking here.

Offer at a glance

Maximum bonus amount: $250
Availability: AL, AR, FL, GA, MD, MS, NC, SC, TN, WV, VA, and D.C
Direct deposit required: Yes, up to $2,000. Almost anything will trigger this requirement, but they often request you bring in pay stubs to prove your depositing your full pay check into your account.
Additional requirements: Yes, see below.
Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
Credit card funding: Up to $1,000 (although there have been reports of cash advances and issues with CC funding)
Monthly fees: $7, waivable with direct deposit of $100 or more or minimum daily balance of $500 or more
Early account termination fee: $25 if closed within 6 months
Expiration date: July 31st, 2016

Contents

1 The Offer
2 The Fine Print
3 Avoiding Fees
4 Our Verdict

The Offer

Direct link to offer

Earn bonuses up to $250 when you open a new SunTrust savings & checking bonus. Bonus you receive depends on the accounts you open:
- Open a new essential checking account and deposit at least $100 into the new account within 14 days of account opening, make $500 or more in qualifying direct deposits within 60 days of account open and receive a $100 bonus
  - Open a new Essential Savings account and deposit at least $5,000 within 14 days and maintain that balance for 60 days after checking account opening and receive an additional $50 bonus
- Open a new Select checking account and deposit at least $100 into the new account within 14 days of account opening, make $2,000 or more in qualifying direct deposits within 60 days of account open and receive a $200 bonus
  - Open a new Select Savings account and deposit at least $5,000 within 14 days and maintain that balance for 60 days after checking account opening and receive an additional $50 bonus

The Fine Print

All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

The full fee schedule can be viewed by clicking here.

Essential Checking – $7 Monthly

This is the account that is required for the $100 bonus, the monthly fee on this account is waived if you do any of the following:

10 or more debit card transactions
Minimum daily balance of $500+
Total monthly direct deposits of $500+

Select Checking – $15 Monthly

This is the account that is required for the $200 bonus, the monthly fee of $15 is waived if you doanyof the following:

Total monthly direct deposits of $2,000+
Minimum daily balance of $2,000+
Total relationship balance of $10,000+
SunTrust first mortgage with SurePay

Essential Savings – $0 Monthly Fee

This account has no monthly fee and can be opened in the $150 offer.

Select Savings – $7 Monthly Fee

Monthly fee is waived if you do both of the following:

Have a minimum daily balance of at least $1,000
Set up an automatic transfer of at least $25 from your checking account each month

Early Account Termination Fee

If you cancel your account within six months, they will charge an early account termination fee of $25

Our Verdict

The $200/$100 bonuses are the standard offers from Suntrust, we’ve also seen the $50 bonus from savings accounts before. The $200 checking bonus is well worth doing, so if you haven’t done that I’d highly recommend it. Let’s work out if it’s worth doing the saving bonus or not. You’re required to deposit $5,000 and keep it in there for 60 days, if you put that same money into a 1% account you’d earn ~$8.3, but if you put it into a 5% account you’d earn ~$41.6. The other thing you need to keep in mind is that you need to keep $1,000 in that account to keep it fee free (and to avoid the early account termination fee).

[Read: “Which High-Interest Savings Account Should I Get?”]

Personally I don’t think the savings bonus makes sense, better to make use of a 5% account instead as that’s more of a long term solution. If you’ve already maxed those out, it might be worth a look though. I’ve added this to our list of the best bank bonuses, because as I stated the checking $200 bonus is well worth doing.

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