GO2Bank $100 Referral Checking Bonus

Update 2/23/25: Terms have changed on the referrals. Now it’s $50 for you and your friend if they receive a $200 Direct Deposit within 45 days of account opening, and another $50 for you and your friend if they receive a qualifying tax refund deposit by 3/31/25.

Update 9/7/23: Deal is back through October 1st. There’s also an offer for $125 from Swagbucks/MyPoints (some discussion in the comments on whether it can stack with the referral offer).

Offer at a glance

  • Maximum bonus amount: $100
  • Availability: Nationwide
  • Direct deposit required: Yes, $200+
  • Additional requirements: No
  • Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
  • ChexSystems: Unknown
  • Credit card funding: None
  • Monthly fees: $5, avoidable
  • Early account termination fee: Unknown
  • Household limit: None
  • Expiration date: June 1, 2023 October 1, 2023

The Offer

No direct link to offer, available via referral. Find/share your referrals here.

  • Go2Bank is offering a $100 referral bonus to both parties when the person signing up completes the following requirements
    • Receive a qualifying direct deposit of $200 or more within 45 days of account opening

The Fine Print

  • In order for both the referred individual and the referring GO2bank accountholder to each qualify for and receive the referral reward of up to $100, the following conditions must be met: The referred individual may not have previously opened a GO2bank Deposit Account (“Account”); they must open a new Account between April 1, 2023 and June 1, 2023, they must open the new account using the referring GO2bank accountholder’s unique referral (share) link directly or as shared through email or social post; and they must receive in the new Account a qualifying direct deposit of $200 or more within 45 days of account opening.
  • The qualifying direct deposit must be made by the referred individual’s employer, payroll provider, government benefits, or unemployment benefits payor by Automated Clearing House (ACH) deposit. Bank ACH transfers, debit card transfers, verification or trial deposits from financial institutions, tax refund deposits, mobile check cashing, and cash deposits are not qualifying deposit activities.
  • Your referral reward of up to $100 may vary during the promotional period as offers are dynamic, personalized, and may change the next time you log in to make a referral. Referring GO2bank accountholder and referred individual GO2bank accounts must both be in good standing to be eligible for and receive a reward.
  • The reward is paid to each party within 48 hours after qualifying funds are first deposited into the referred individual’s new Account.
  • New and referring GO2bank accountholders may earn no more than $1,500 in referral rewards per calendar year (January 1 – December 31).
  • Referred individual acknowledges that payment of the reward will result in the referring GO2bank accountholder’s knowledge of the individual’s new Account.
  • GO2bank reserves the right to cancel or modify the terms of the referral reward offer or terminate the member’s eligibility at any time with or without prior notice.
  • Promotional credits are reported on form 1099-INT to the IRS.
  • All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

Monthly Fees

This account has a $5 monthly fee. This is waived with a direct deposit.

Early Account Termination Fee

I wasn’t able to find any mention of any EATF.

Our Verdict

It might be possible to go through a portal for another $80 but no guarantee it will stack (we have covered that here). Seems like an easy bonus to complete the requirements for and we will add this to our list of the best bank account bonuses. Again do not share your referrals in the comments, but you can share them in this linked post.

Hat tip to Gadget, their referral link here

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
    William Charles
  • On September 7, 2023, 13:00
Tags: direct deposit requirednationwide bank bonusesno credit card fundingsoft pull

View Comments (291)

  • The terms have changed on the referrals. Now it's $50 for you and your friend if they receive a $200 Direct Deposit within 45 days of account opening, and another $50 for you and your friend if they receive a qualifying tax refund deposit by 3/31/25. @2

    Links have remained the same as before, so that’s good.

  • @guest_1596730 any idea if shopping portal is stackable with referral link here as well? (similar to Chime)

      • Any idea what the minimum deposit is for shopping portals?

        1. "Must set up and receive your qualifying payroll or government benefits direct deposit to earn Points.

        is very unclear

        • Also now seeing in mypoints TOS that both likely cannot be stacked

          "This reward cannot be combined with any other enrollment bonuses, including a referral reward. "

          • Right... Chime says that as well, but has worked.

            But, almost every bank offer says you have to use payroll or govt DD, and most can be faked.

            There is no minimum DD listed, so it shouldn't matter.

          • Just opened ref link then opened account through MyPoints. Will update back if both bonuses post

  • Watch out, they charged me the 5$ fee for January after changing the requirement for minimum amount of direct deposit to 500$ a month. They didn't give me a notice. Rep said they couldn't reverse the fee. CFPB complaint submitted

    • Could you find this $500 minimum in writing? I don't see it. @guest_1992859

      FAQ doesn't say that: https://www.go2bank.com/help/getting_started/monthly_fee_and_waiver/what_is_the_monthly_fee

      I did a deep dive into my deposit account agreement (Rev. Jul. 2024) just now, and no minimum DD is mentioned for the waiver.

      "Monthly Fee $5.00. Waived when you receive at least one direct deposit of payroll or government benefits during the previous monthly statement period."

      So, unless I am grandfathered, it would be my belief the terms haven't changed, and you were assessed the fee because they did not see your DD as payroll/govt benefits. I've been doing $5 real DD's for over a year and the fee was waived for January.

      That bites you were given bad info though. GL with that complaint.

      • Why did you keep this account open over a year? I'm not finding any solid benefits. $5 monthly fees and pushes and pulls to/from account are slow to post. $100 IBD just posted and I'm considering closing this at the 60 day mark. Normally I'd keep it open for 6 months but have not seen any posts with known repercussions.

        • The occasional referral. It's been known to stack with the Swagbucks/MyPoints portal offers using the multi-tab trick. @guest_2075160

          I have a monthly $5 real DD waiving the fee.

          • @guest_2075523 ,do you know if you can churn this multiple times thru different portals? Eg. 1st Swagbucks and then close and reopen under MyPoints etc.

      • Thanks Gadget, I have 2 1$ Direct deposits post each month from a real employer. And I see it in the notifications as "Direct deposit". I didn't change anything, so unless there is a glitch I expect they will assess this fee for you as well.

        Do you think there is a point contacting a different rep?

        • Can't hurt to ask again... My next statement closes around Feb 6th... I will keep an eye on it. Just checked P2 and her fee waiver was dated 1/18/25, so a $5.02 DD was working.

          • Did via chat again. Sent screenshot of FAQ and account agreement proving I am right. They just said I need to call the phone number and they can assist me. Ghhhr. I will call in early February, ask for the 5$ back and close the account. Super-frustrated...

          • A single $5.01 real DD waived the $5 fee this month too...

          • Very common for fintechs to have useless chat reps. Surprised you weren't told to call the first time. All they are there to do is answer simple questions and have no access to do anything. @guest_1992859

  • go2bank.com/manage/rewards/refer-a-friend has the following entries for your referrals: (1) referred, (2) qualified, (3) earned. Does qualified mean that reqs have been fulfilled and that "earned" should eventually reflect that?

  • Frustrating bonus to pursue - if you do take lots of screenshots and keep the original sign-up link saved. Messaging CSRs one said they'd look into it, get back to me in a week (didn't happen) and another said that they don't offer any promotions whatsoever and to be skeptical of anything read online. I asked the CSRs for either their name or ID since their statements were verifiably false and they refused and closed the chat.

    I ended up filing a complaint with CFPB; after that the CSR who reached out to resolve things maintained that they couldn't pay $50 because their internal terms (not those outlined in the promotional material) won't allow them honor the bonus due to the referrer not having had a DD within the same time frame as when I completed my DDs. They really didn't seem to want to honor the promo at any cost.

    Also be aware that transfers out of G2B don't seem to be allowed, or their process is so convoluted it may as well not be. Super sketchy bank, not worth the trouble even on the off-chance they do honor their promo.

  • I suggest stay away from this one. Signed up met the requirements, but wont honor bonus. Their customer service is the absolute WORST. Not worth the small $50 bonus

  • Very bad customer service and incredibly poor English / communication ability. Had wise with Payroll reference, no bonus. CSR is useless. CFPB complaint made.

    • Getting no where with go2bank. Its owned by green dot. They do not honor referal sign ups. Agents make up there own terms on the phone (most of the time they just hang up), they'll say something like both the refer and referee need to have direct deposit. Ill tell them the terms say only the person referred needs direct deposit and that I have a copy of the terms as shown on the site. They'll go full npc.exe and say: "no sir, both people need direct deposit". Its really bad.

      • The worst bank I've ever dealt with. They locked P2's account and held her funds hostage for a couple of months (there have been other similar DPs). It took a CFPB complaint for them to finally agree to release them. If I were you, I'd give up on the bonus and just empty your account and close. This one is not worth pursuing.

  • Submitted a CFPB complaint today! They hung up on me after 1-2 hours of being on hold every time I tried to follow up on a support ticket for my bonus. Terrible to deal with!

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