Deal has expired, view more checking bonuses by clicking here
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount:Â $200
- Availability:Â Seems to be in branch only, branches are in CA, IL & MO [branch locator, keep in mind sometimes it says ‘NOT A BRANCH’]
- Direct deposit required:Â None
- Additional requirements:Â See below
- Hard/soft pull:Â Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding:Â None
- Monthly fees:Â None
- Early account termination fee:Â 180 days, bonus forfeit
- Household limit:Â One per business
- Expiration date:Â
February 28th, 2019March 31st, 2019
Contents
The Offer
- First Bank is offering a $200 bonus when you open a new business checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Receive $2,000 or more in deposits within 60 days
- Complete 10 or more transactions with 60 days
- Maintain a $5,000 minimum balance in the Money Market account for the first 60 days
The Fine Print
- Limited time offer.
- Deposit accounts must be opened by February 28, 2019.
- Offer limited to one per business.
- Accounts subject to early closure fees if closed within 180 days.
- To receive the $200 cash bonus, the new First Bank business checking account must have at least $2,000 or more in deposits and 10 transactions within 60 days.
- A transaction is defined as any credit or debit activity occurring within the 60 day time period.
- A $5,000 minimum balance requirement for the Money Market must also be maintained for the first 60 days in order to qualify for the $200 cash bonus.
- The bonus will be credited to the qualifying checking account 4-6 weeks after account has been opened for 60 days.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
Both checking & money market accounts have no monthly fees to worry about.
Early Account Termination Fee
Account needs to be kept open for 180 days to avoid an early account termination fee
Our Verdict
The 1.26% interest rate isn’t very attractive, but looks like you only need to kept that in the money market account for 60 days anyway. Otherwise seems to be a fairly easy bonus to meet the requirements for. If anybody decides to go for this deal then please share your experiences in the comments below.
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
Went in branch in downtown LA, could not open for my sole proprietorship under my name without documentation of business. Safe to say mine isn’t really one (resale of tickets) so I just left. The first time I’ve ever been asked for documents though.
I went in today to sign up for the new account. The banker was at first insistent that the offer was targeted mailers and I did not qualify for the account. They also questioned whether I would keep the account.
I mentioned that the bonus is helpful, but I was also looking for a new business checking account and I liked that there was no fees (which is true, I actually do need a business checking account). They asked me where I found out about them and I said on the website where I also found the bonus and the banker called corporate and said I could sign up for the account with the bonus.
Opened the checking account and money market account. So expect some pushback without a targeted mailer.
If you go to their homepage firstbanks.com and type “bonus” or “offer” in their search box in the upper right, it shows this offer. And the terms don’t mention anything about it being targeted nor a mailer.
Is your business a sole prop? Does it have a fictitious business name? (Asking because a commenter below wasn’t able to open an account under those circumstances.)
Sole Prop under my real name. Gave them the IRS confirmation of my registered EIN though.
The Business Money Market seems to have a $10 monthly fee (according to the Checking and Business Services eBrochure) if the average daily balance is less than $2,500. That shouldn’t matter if you’re keeping $5,000 in there for the bonus though. But does the money market account need to be kept open 180 days (if so, leave $2,500 there; not a huge problem)? Or just the checking account needs to be kept open?
So from what I’m reading, it seems like you need to deposit a total of 7k initially for this to work?
If so, could I deposit the 2k into the checking and then transfer $200 one at a time to meet the 10 transaction requirement?
Maybe even instead of depositing $2k at once, you could deposit $200, withdraw it, deposit $200 again, withdraw it… 10 times. But I don’t know if they’d agree with that interpretation.
On their website, the red box describing the offer didn’t show up for me until I turned off Adblock.
The wording is ambiguous; there’s 3 types of accounts mentioned, and it’s not clear if they mean “X and (Y or Z)” or “(X and Y) or Z”. But I think your interpretation of “X and (Y or Z)” is probably correct (actually, doing X and Y would qualify with either interpretation).
You didn’t talk about the Business Line of Credit option. I guess you could open one and never use it, so that you don’t pay any interest, and don’t need to leave any money there like you do for the Money Market. But there’s probably a hard pull to open the line of credit, and I don’t know if it has fees. And keeping $5000 at 1.26% APY for a few months isn’t that bad.
i did a similar bonus with them last year – offered to me via direct mailer (non-transferable offer). $250 total between the two accounts, and required $10K tied up in the MMA for 2-3 months.
The bonus doesn’t post until a full statement cycle after the requirements are met – and for one reason or another, i think i had to wait 4 months for my bonus. But they paid off – and the 1099-INT did not reflect the bonus as taxable income!
Good luck. No CC funding, not a hard pull, and i don’t think it’s even Chex – if they do pull Chex, they’re not sensitive, b/c i’m bottomed out with Chex.
Thanks for the dp.
Lol, your comment on “bottomed out with chex”