Update 8/3/20: Extended until September 30th, 2020.
Update 6/25/20: Extended until August 3rd, 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: 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
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:
- Extended until June 24th, 2020.
- Extended until April 29th, 2020.
from the website:
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 August 3, 2020 to September 30, 2020. 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. Customer must have at least one direct deposit ($500 minimum) per month for three consecutive months following the open date of the account. The first required deposit ($500 minimum) must be made within 60 days of the open date. Direct deposit must be new to FirstBank and must be payroll, pension, Social Security or other recurring government benefits. The monthly direct deposit cannot be multiple direct deposits combined that exceed $500. The cash offer will be given if the account opened is in good standing (i.e. is not overdrawn or at a zero balance), and the customer enrolls for online banking on or before the posting date of the required ($500 minimum) direct deposit in the third consecutive month. All requirements must be met within 120 days of account opening and the cash offer will be deposited into the new checking account within 30 days of the final qualifying requirement. 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 twelve months of the opening date. FirstBank employees are not eligible to receive the offer. Online Banking plus direct deposit required. Other conditions and restrictions apply. See branch for details.
-looks like you now need the direct deposit to qualify…
Required to go in branch to provide identification prior to account opening (Denver, CO)
Renewed from Aug 3 to Sept 30th
https://www.efirstbank.com/_jensen/pages/suns1910/suns.htm
Yeah it’s definitely not all of riverside county CA. I live in Riverside county and it said my zip code was ineligible.
I got auto-approved last night, but apparently they manually reviewed it and are not opening it because of something on ChexSystems. I imagine due to too many accounts.
I got the same thing in less than 24 hrs. They sent an email stating it was Chex related as well.
Confirmed with the bank via FB that any new customer that has no relationship with the bank that opens a new account will result in a hard pull.
They sent another message stating they gave wrong info and a new consumer that opens a new checking account would only result in a soft pull.
Tired of all the back and forth I went to the local branch and asked and they confirmed it was soft and I went ahead an opened the account. I have credit monitoring and no hard pull.
DP: This should be updated. ToC on their website now states they can claw back the bonus if you close within 12 months.
Added to post, thanks
So I’ve opened a number of accounts the last 6 months for bonuses. Should I pull my chexsystems report to make sure I don’t have 5 before applying?
Crap, I deposited payroll $510/month for 3 months, which probably spanned 75 days. Anyone do this and get the bonus?
Colorado still requires ID verification in branch after opening online
Did you get a message or something? I just opened an account online with no issues and no prompt/email about going in branch.