[CA, AZ & CO] $300 FirstBank Checking Bonus
Extended until March 4th, 2020.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $300
- Availability: Only available for those in Colorado, Arizona, or Riverside County, California (possibly only Palm Desert). This is a bit YMMV, so just hope for the best.
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $500+ per month for three months $500+
- Additional requirements: Enroll in internet banking
- Hard/soft pull: Soft according to a reader via e-mail. Report of a hard pull here. and another report of hard pull. Another hard
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding:
- Monthly fees:
- Early account termination fee:
- Household limit: One
- Expiration date:
June 24th, 2018 August 17th, 2018 October 12th, 2018 December 7th, 2018 March 6, 2019 April 30th, 2019 June 26th, 2019 August 20th, 2019 October 15th, 2019 December 6th, 2019March 4th, 2020
The Offer
- FirstBank is offering a bonus of $300 when you open a new Anywhere account and complete the following requirements:
- Have at least one qualifying direct deposit of $500 or more for 3 consecutive months.
The Fine Print
- Cash offer is not available to existing FirstBank consumer checking customers or those whose accounts have been closed within 90 days or closed with a negative balance.
- Past customers who ever received a gift from FirstBank are ineligible for this offer.
- Offer valid for new personal checking accounts opened between April 28, 2018 to June 24, 2018.
- The account must be opened online at efirstbank.com/offers or bring in this advertisement to any FirstBank location to receive the $300 offer.
- Limit one gift per household, per lifetime.
- Limit one gift per account.
- The cash offer will be given if the account opened is in good standing, and the customer enrolls for online banking, and one direct deposit greater than $500 posts to the new checking account.
- Direct deposit must be new to FirstBank and must be payroll, pension, Social Security or other recurring government benefits.
- Direct deposit cannot be multiple direct deposits combined that exceed $500.
- In place of the direct deposit requirement, the customer may conduct $500 in net (purchase debits less return credits) Visa Debit Card purchases comprised of 10 or more purchase transactions.
- Requirements must be met within 60 days of account opening and the cash offer will be deposited into the new checking account within 90 days of account opening.
- We reserve the right to substitute gifts offered at any time with an item of similar value. Limited time offer.
- The $300 cash offer is considered interest and is subject to IRS and other tax reporting.
- The cash offer is considered a bonus that can be revoked if the account is closed within six months of opening.
- FirstBank employees are not eligible to receive the offer.
- Online Banking plus direct deposit or Visa Debit Card purchases required.
- The Visa Debit Card is free for the first year after which an annual fee (currently $10 per card) applies
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
The visa debit card has a $10 annual fee, but that is waived the first year. The account has no monthly fees to worry about and if you close the account within six months.
Our Verdict
Deal isn’t as good as it previously was as you now need a direct deposit. Because of the reports of it being a hard pull, I don’t think it is worth doing but that depends on how much hard pulls matter to you. Because of that we will not be adding this to our list of the best checking accounts.
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
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[AZ, FL, IL, IN, KS, MO, MN and WI] BMO Harris $150/$250 Checking/Savings Bonus – Available Online →
[AZ only] OneAZ Credit Union $500 Checking Bonus →
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” …debit card transactions, compromised of 10 or more …” Ha!
I note that it only says “transactions” not purchases. I hope ATM withdrawals count.
If you click the link, it says “conduct $500 in net Visa Debit Card purchases comprised of 10 or more purchase transactions within 60 days of account opening.”
I might have to be the datapoint for others. Once per household rule? Wife signed up in 2015 and closed in May 2016. I can understand a whole family climbing into the minivan and going down there but Him & her over separate years??
My guess is, once per household is for whole family climbing into the minivan senario. I mean what if u moved into a house of a former bank account churner?
Hahaha captain, good point. If that were true with banks we would probably shut out a whole new generation of churners! I’ll sign up next week, do the requirements quick, and report back in a couples of weeks.
or report sooner on whether it is a hard or soft pull, please.
This bank is very picky about geographical locations. I opened an account a couple of years ago and after I funded it, they shut it down for not being in their service area. Waited two weeks for my opening deposit to be refunded but they never sent it. Took an additional two weeks to finally get a check in the mail. I’d stay away from this bank if you don’t live exclusively in their service area.
Finally a CA bank bonus! But limited to 1 county. -.-
Not even the whole county. I tried UC Riverside zip code but it is not eligible. So maybe like DOC said, it is only limited to Palm Desert.
I really wish you wouldn’t list these as CA. It’s not really CA.
The residents of Riverside County would beg to differ with you. I’d guess many of them would argue that they don’t live in a “not really” CA.
It’s not really possible to list individual counties in the title, we try to be as accurate as possible but there is only so much information that can be contained in a title.
Trying to keep pace with Chase’s $300 checking bonus?
We know from the past that they’re Chex sensitive. I was denied in January for a different promo, explicitly for chex, and I had a pretty clean report – only 4 in the last 12 months, and 1 in the past 6.
+1 they’re very Chex sensitive from my multiple attempts
Ex-CA resident here. Used a Palm Desert zip code to get past initial page asking if you are current member. I was able to instantly open a checking account using a non Riverside County address. Kind of concerning how easy/quick the process was. Chose to fund with debit/credit card (application states that you have to call in once account is opened). I have immediate access to all functions of Online Banking portal. Going to ACH in $500 and see what happens – will report back in a couple weeks.
Account was closed yesterday afternoon due to Chex information. Haven’t opened any checking accounts in over 6 months. They also stated my former LA county address is out of service area. Oh well.
Ended up going for it – was a hard pull. DD $501 on 5/10, $300 bonus posted on 5/11.
What kind DD was this?
Datapoint on once per household:
Success! Wife closed her account two years ago 05/26/2016. I opened my account 05/03/2018. 10 debit card transactions. $300 Bonus posted 5/29/18. Cannot comment on hard/soft pull.
Tucson is out of the service area. 🙁
I thought I saw a First Bank in Tucson driving north out of town. Guess not? googling, it looks like it was a First Convenience Bank
DP:
Opened account on 6/5 (soft pull). Real employer direct deposit on 7/3, bonus paid on 7/5.
Thanks for the fast turnaround DP
DP: Soft pull, haven’t done DD yet, will update after trying with Ally and then employer if necessary.
In addition to the $300, you can claim free food throughout the next month.
https://efirstbankblog.com/saving-is-in-style-saturdays/
Needed to use employer direct deposit. This was for the 2018 offering. I’ll probably leave the account open until I move bc there is branch right by me + once per lifetime rule + annual 4x free food that is really pretty good.
ACH from ally didn’t trigger DD