Extended to 08/26/25
Extended to 8/3/2025
Update 5/19/25: New $400 link, $500 in branch offer also available. Hat tip to ShawntheShawn
Update 3/26/25: Deal is back until 7/3/2025.
Update 3/13/25: Extended to 3/31/25.
Update 1/2/25: Bonus has been extended until 3/13/25
Update 11/6/24: Better version that only requires a $1,000 direct deposit.
Update 11/5/24: Extended to 1/16/2025
Update 9/25/24: Deal is back, just requires a $1,000 direct deposit for the full bonus. Hat tip to reader Peek
Update 6/20/24: Deal is back through 08/01/24. Hat tip to reader ShawntheShawn
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $400
- Availability: CT, DE, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VT, VA, D.C., MD, FL
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $500+
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull as long as you opt out of over draft protecton.
- ChexSystems: Mixed data points
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: $9.99, avoidable
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date:
November 26, 2020 10/28/21 4/14/2022 6/9/20221/20/23
Contents
The Offer
- Citizens Bank is offering a bonus of up to $400 when you open a new checking account. Bonus is broken down as follows:
- Get $400 when you open your first new personal checking account and make a direct deposit of $1,000 or more within 60 days.
Earn $2 for every debit card purchase you make, up to $100 within the next 60 days.
The Fine Print
- To earn a $300 bonus, open your first new personal checking account between 08/17/20 to 11/26/20 and have at least one single direct deposit of $500 or more post to your new checking account within 60 days of account opening.
- To earn up to $100: Get paid $2 per qualified debit transaction (up to $100) that post and clear your new checking account within 60 days of account opening.
- Qualifications: Primary signer on the new checking account may not be or have been a signer on any Citizens Bank personal checking account within the previous six months.
- The new account must be open and in good standing on the payout date stated in the table below to qualify for this offer.
- Direct Deposit is recurring income electronically deposited into your Citizens Bank checking account and may include salary, pension, and other regular income.
- Qualified debit card transactions include signature and PIN-based debit transactions in person directly at a merchant location or in app or online merchant sites.
- Only one debit card per checking account eligible for bonus. Online Bill Payments, Zelle® transactions and ATM transactions do not qualify.
- Eligibility: Customer must open their first new checking account via Citizens Bank’s online account opening system accessed by clicking on one of the links on this page.
- Customer should print this screen for their records. Customer will only be paid a one-time bonus for this program.
- Offers may be withdrawn without notice and cannot be combined with any other checking offer.
- Payout: Bonus will be deposited to the new checking account by the date stated in the table below and will be labeled as “Balance Builder Bonus”.
- Bonus will be reported to the IRS for income tax purposes.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Need to sign up for online statements otherwise there is a $3 fee.
Monthly Fees
Citizens Bank One Deposit Checking Account $9.99 Monthly Fee
The One Deposit checking account comes with a $9.99 monthly fee. Fee is waived by making one deposit each statement period. (According to this comment they really do count any deposit – even a transfer from another Citizens Bank account will trigger this.)
Early Account Termination Fee
As far as we know there is no early account termination fee.
Our Verdict
We’ve seen a $600 bonus in the past, but that required a $15,000 deposit to get the full bonus. This is a better option for those without that extra money sitting around. We will add this to our list of the best bank account bonuses.
Hat tip to reader Rob
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- 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
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
Post history:
- Update 4/18/24: Deal is back through 6/6/24 at this new link (ht reader Meg). After signing up for the checking, you can then go and do the $500 Citizens savings bonus.
- Update 3/18/24: There is another variation that is a $400 bonus and only requires a $500 direct deposit (no debit card transactions for the full $400 bonus). Doesn’t show for everybody
- Update 12/28/23: Deal is back until 04/11/2024. Hat tip to ShawntheShawn
- Update 12/15/23: Extended until 02/16/2024.
- Update 10/30/23: Back until 12/31/23.
- Update 9/8/23: Extended until 10/26/23.
- Update 7/6/23: Extended again to 8/31
- Update 6/19/23: Reports of a $500 bonus in branch.
- Update 5/22/23: Extended to 7/6/2023
- Update 3/16/23: Extended until 5/11/2023.
- Update 1/14/23: Extended until 3/16/2023.
- Update 11/27/22: Available again until 1/20/23.
- Update 9/30/22: Extended until 11/24/2022.
- Update 8/6/22: Deal is back and valid until 9/29/2022.
- Update 6/10/22: Deal is back and valid until 8/4.
- Update 3/27/22: Deal is back and valid until 6/9/2022.
- Update 2/21/22: This page shows what HSBC branches are transitioning, this should mean the following states are available: D.C., MD, FL
- Update 2/21/22: Available again, keep in mind more states available. If you sign up successfully in a state not listed please let us know so we can add it to the post. Hat tip to Kamil Sultan
- Update 2/17/22: More states are now eligible for this offer. This is due to the HSBC branches being bought.
Editing this, seems I posted it twice and sorry I don’t see a delete option.
Hi New, here, getting into the churning 😊. Are the citizens Bank mailer offers tied to the person or can anyone use them?
Two of us at my address got citizens Bank mailers. One offer is:
Get $600 total – $300 for checking account with $500 DP and
$300 for savings account with $500 monthly deposits for three months. (Starting the month after accounts are opened.)
Now the other offer:
Get $1300 total
$1000 for citizens, private client checking account and set up and make one or more DPS totaling 10 K within 60 days
Or get $500 for citizens quest checking account set up 5K total or more DPS within 60 days
Or get $300 for one deposit checking and $500 DP or more
Plus, get $300 for savings account with $500 monthly deposits for three months. (Starting the month after accounts are opened.)
I appreciate thoughts on the $1000 offer for checking account. Wondering if it’s worth it or better to put that $10k split into opening other accounts. Thanks for any and all advice.
You’d be tying up a lot more than $10K for the private client checking account. From their website:
Citizens Private Client® Checking requires a $200,000 monthly combined deposit and investment* balance across your linked accounts. Your relationship will be periodically reviewed for the purpose of determining Private Client Checking eligibility. If you do not maintain the required monthly combined balances, your Citizens Private Client accounts will be converted to our Citizens Quest® accounts and will be subject to the terms and conditions then in effect for Citizens Quest.
With that said, I would probably opt for the $500 Quest checking and $300 savings. Quest checking requires $5000 in deposits per month, but there’s no requirement to leave it there – just deposit one day and withdraw the next, but leave a small balance in the account…same with the $500 monthly savings deposit.
300+200 in branch offer. same ez RQ for 300, 200 is for 100 “qualifying” debits within 60 days.
The verbage changed to make one single deposit of 1k or more within 60 days for the $400 bonus. Anyone do this using external transfer with personal acc like chase?
You just have to use the comment search to find previous DPs of what has worked in the past.
I was once again rejected going through the online application and told to go to a branch which is 3 hours away. A phone call with Sales told me I’m high risk which could mean anything, but they would not tell me specifically
Go for this? or have there been better offers in the past? I see $700 last year but that required $15k held for about 3 months.
Data points on out-of-footprint applications? TIA
OOS allowed in branch, but as always YMMV. Online is possible once you have a login.
I’ve been approved twice in FL with no branches within a few hundred miles of my address. Out of footprint (maybe) but not OOS.
There was a DP earlier that they didn’t pay OOS. I have a credit card and login. Need a DP too.
I haven’t tried for a while, but I get rejected every time. I have a savings account from ages ago with them that I keep open (I don’t know why at this point, hope really should be dead).
Have any of your Citizens rejects showed up on your Chex / other reports ?
“Sorry, we are experiencing technical issues. Please try again later or go to your nearest Citizens branch to open your account.” after logging in and trying to advance with my pre-filled address info.
Yeah same issue here. Online OOS does not appear to work any more.
Do you have an account or login with Citizens ?
I do. I have had a savings account with them that I kept around for this purpose. P2 will try when her cooldown period ends but that’s many months away. She also has a savings account. We are located in CA. P2 has gotten this bonus twice in the past and I have gotten it once.
Interestingly, during the application, my address was showing up blank after logging in. I exited the app, went to my profile and updated my address. I did not actually change it, just resaved it. When I came back to the application page a couple of days later, my address was showing so I was hopeful. Hopes shot down when I got the same error above as Matt.
Thanks for the tip. A few years ago I opened an online savings account for similar reasons, then it turned out it was a separate division of Citizens, and the site / login were completely different than their checking/credit card site ! 🙁 Strike one.
Then they acquired my HSCB checking account. I forgot about it, they drained it with the monthly fee then closed the account. I just discovered I still have an active login.
If things don’t work, I may eventually try to back-door with a CC, but don’t want to burn a HP with that.
Any new citizens savings account bonuses?
Ok, the link has started showing the new expiry date of 8/26 but I have run into a different problem.
I have churned this a couple of times in the past, and have a Savings account currently open with them (thinking it would be easy to add the checking account as an existing customer). My Chex and credit files are frozen.
However, when I try to apply for this promo as an existing customer now, it fills the basic contact info but then displays a message to call a service center or visit a branch. Has anyone seen this error? Any suggestions to resolve this? Thanks!
Only thing that worked for me was opening in a branch. Frozen Chex is ok.
Hello.
It says we can churn 6 months after we closed the last account but below in the terms mention it’s a one time paid program.
So… can we churn it or?
100% churnable. You can ignore the statement in the terms that says “open your first new personal checking account” as it’s not enforced. Many of us have opened this account multiple times, 6+ months apart from last account closure.
Matt
Does your checking account close right away after requsting over chat or call with Citizens? I have noticed it always takes a few days for the login to get disabled and you could still login until that time after you requested closure.
Should we consider last account closure date as when we requested it or the date when login actually got disabled?
You could call to verify… you could check your EWS report. Cannot recall if they send a final statement with a closure transaction. Them disabling the login is not necessarily the closure date.
This most recent time I kept my Savings account open, and could chat with them to get the closure date.
How to access my EWS report?
See here: https://www.earlywarning.com/consumer-information
It’s more annoying and slower to pull than Chex, unfortunately
Thank you!
I just called Citizens and they told me my last account closure date was March 10, 2025 where as I had requested them to close on Feb 4, 2025. It seems there is a lag between when we request and when they actually close the account or may be it just happened to me. CSR himself suggested me to wait until Sep 10, 2025 to get the sign up bonus without me mentioning anything about account bonus. 😀 They know we churn and churn hard lol 😀
Per my spreadsheet, I see my P2 and I both closed our last checking account on 5/15/25.
I haven’t called the bank, but the newest EWS reports (8/1/25) show both being closed on 6/18/25.
Not sure if this is something new, or I just never noticed. They did not mail a closing statement, and if I look into online banking I cannot get the checking statements via my Savings account login.
I will probably contact the bank and see what they show, and just like you, will probably need to adjust. Their system is what matters, and it pays the bonus. Not a huge deal, as long as you know to check with the bank.
SP
Oh that’s surprising.. looks quite similar to mine .. exactly 34 days as was my case.. my best guess is probably their system takes some time close to 5 weeks to adjust and mark the accounts finally closed.
Seems like someone would have noticed this in the past, so I wonder if this is some new policy? I don’t have a branch within my area and always end up closing out online or via phone. I wonder if the result would be different if walking into a branch and say “gimme my money?” Or, different because I left the savings account open? (doubtful)
Anyway, it is what it is, and will call to verify closure before opening my next one. If this turns out to be commonplace, that Citizens is purposely keeping accounts open an extra month, DoC should put a note on the post. FYI
mothman69 
ShawntheShawn
I haven’t requested my EWS report yet. But for the next churn, I will continue to use the date my Citizens account no longer shows up under Transfers as my closure date.
I think I said this somewhere on DoC: I forgot which bank it was because this was a few years back, I wouldn’t be eligible for the bank’s promotion based on the closure date on EWS (which I noticed much later), but I received the bonus fine based on the closure date I noted using my usual method (i.e., relying on the date I could no longer login, or the date the account disappeared from online banking if we could still login, or the date the account did not show up under Transfers if I could still login but the account did not disappear).
P2’s Citizens checking was closed on 4/25/2025 but the account hung around in online banking until June. I messaged customer support in June to make sure the account was actually closed, and they confirmed it was closed and that the closure date was 4/25.
So I think it must be some lag with EWS reporting, but I would verify the closure date with Citizens to be safe.
As stated above, I requested closure on 2/4 this year but it was actually closed on 3/10 as per my yesterday’s call with Citizen’s CSR.
So, Not sure how things are working with them.
When you “requested closure”, did you have a $0 balance? Either way, see my DP here: #2072212 .
Yes I always zero out balance and then request/call for closure with any bank.
Your trick of getting a check in mail is actually nice. Never thought of this way. Somehow it didn’t work out with Citizens may be for this instance, it could work some other time who knows.
Yes, I have found it very helpful to receive checks. I’m glad that you liked my advice about that.
BTW, check out what I wrote about Truist in this comment:
#2098382 . I have a reminder to call Truist to find out the official close date but haven’t had a chance to call yet.
I had a HSBC checking account that Citizens took over. I forgot about it and they drained it, then closed it a couple years ago.
I’m OOS and just discovered my log-in still works.
Prior to the HSBC takeover I tried to back-door with a savings account – only to discover it’s an exclusive online division that is completely independent of the regular Citizens Bank lol
Any idea if a log-in with 0 accounts for an OOS applicant will still work ?
I thought about that phrase “open your first new personal checking account” and concluded it might have two reasonable interpretations.
The seemingly most simple one is that you are excluded if you ever had a checking account there in the past.
But another possible interpretation is that you can only get the bonus on a single new checking account (your first new personal checking account). If you open a second one, it cannot qualify for a bonus. I’ve seen some other hints that this may be the interpretation they intend and believe that is why you can churn the checking account bonus as long as you otherwise qualify.
Yeah, if they wanted to play word games. And that’s where you have to rely on DP’s.
Phileas Fogg 
Matt
Yes, are their a couple of people who are having issues churning, and at one point my P2 was one of them. But it was an identity issue or a “ban” from having the prior account closed by Citizens, at least in her case. There are plenty of people that do not have this issue and churned it. And, once my P2 went to a branch to open a new account, it was smooth sailing. That means it was not an issue in the terms preventing churning, but something else in the account opening process. (ID/”ban”/fraud controls)