Update 6/23/22: Deal has been extended until December 31, 2022.
Update 5/5/22: Deal has been extended until June 22, 2022.
Update 3/3/22: Deal has been extended until May 4, 2022
Update 12/16/21: Deal has been extended until March 2, 2022.
Update 10/14/21: Extended until December 15, 2021
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: 12 months, bonus forfeit
- 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, 2020April 29th, 2020 August 3rd, 2020September 30th, 2020 December 4, 2020March 3rd, 2021June 23, 2021October 13, 2021
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.
- 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.
Early Account Termination Fee
If the account is closed within 12 months the bonus can be revoked
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
Post history:
- Update 6/24/21: Extended until August 18, 2021
- Update 5/2/21: Extended until June 23, 2021.
- Update 3/4/21: Extended until April 28, 2021
- Update 10/7/20: Extended until December 4, 2020.
- Update 8/3/20: Extended until September 30th, 2020.
- Update 6/25/20: Extended until August 3rd, 2020
- Extended until June 24th, 2020.
- Extended until April 29th, 2020.
expand to la/oc area pls
Yes please
A little known tax trick for CO students with sufficient income using FirstBank. NB: I’M NOT YOUR TAX ADVISER OR ATTORNEY.
1. Open a CO 529 plan with FirstBank, money market account option. The FirstBank MM option is the only option in CO liquid enough to make this work, do not use a brokerage or CD account.
2. Look up your college financial aid office’s annual estimated room and board cost for a student with your status; for me it’s ~$15k. With supporting receipts, you can count up to that much as a qualified expense for 529 withdrawal purposes. You can additionally add any (necessary for your degree) computer expenses to this value. Tuition and some other expenses are also qualified for this purpose, but do not use them for this deduction since they can be used for more valuable federal tax credits and deductions. For more details, see IRS Pub 970.
3. Contribute the total amount from step 2 to your 529 plan (external ACH push/pull is easiest).
4. Debit that amount from the plan. If you don’t have the funds for step 3, you can either push/pull multiple times or play games with low rate credit card offers.
5. You can deduct the contribution from your CO income. Since the expenses are qualified, you do not owe recapture tax on them. The only federal benefit for 529 plans is that you do not owe tax on interest earned, but you aren’t trying to use the account to earn interest, so it doesn’t matter.
6. At a flat state tax rate of 4.55%, this trick is worth ~$680/year on incomes greater ~$27,000 (single filer standard deduction + $15k or so depending on your financial aid office).
Talk about Chex sensitive, I applied in CO and they turned me down for chex with 6 apps in last 12 months. I wouldn’t waste your time if you’ve applied for a high number of accounts recently.
link here is broken, here is an updated link
Chuck 
William Charles
Link: https://www.efirstbank.com/_jensen/pages/bloom2008/bloom.htm
AZ. Applied online, then the application result says need to go to branch for final decision. I went to branch and was told it’s pending because I have freeze on TU report, they need to pull my credit to approve it. Decide not do it.
Is offer link dead? There is a $300 Bloom package bonus which require both checking and saving.
Applied 3/16/22, declined due to ChexSystems report (10 inquires in last 12 months).
Anyone aware of the history of this bank? Curious why they specifically have only Palm Springs out of all of CA covered.
Maybe they acquired someone there?
Presumably they have branches there.
The story I heard is that they acquired a bank where an executive had his vacation home in Palm Springs, so he opened a branch there to have a work from vacation home situation.
Does footprint matter
You need to change your list page where it says ‘direct deposit optional’. It’s required now.
These guys are extremely Chex sensitive. My account was opened, then closed an hour later for Chex. I’m at lol/24.