Deal has expired, view the best current checking bonuses by clicking here.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $150
- Availability: Must reside in Santa Clara, Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, or Contra Costa counties
- Direct deposit required: $250+ recurring deposit, see what counts here
- Additional requirements: Open CD with at least $1,000 for 18 months
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: Up to $125, Visa/MC/Discover
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: Nine months, bonus forfeit
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date: December 31st, 2018
The Offer
- Tech Credit Union is offering bonuses of up to $150 when you use the promo code BANKSMART. Broken down as follows:
- Open a new checking account and establish at least one recurring monthly direct deposit of at least $250 and receive a $100 bonus
- Open a new Tech CU certificate with a minimum 18 month term and a minimum $1,000 opening balance and receive a $50 credit
The Fine Print
- To qualify for $100, by 12/31/18, open a new Tech CU checking account and, within 90 days of account opening, establish at least one recurring monthly direct deposit to the checking account of at least $250 per deposit.
- $100 credit will post to membership savings account after the qualifying direct deposit is received, but will not be available for withdrawal until nine months after checking account opening.
- If checking account is closed less than nine months after opening, $100 credit to membership savings account and any dividends paid thereon will be forfeited.
- To qualify for $50, within 90 days of opening a new Tech CU checking account, also open a new Tech CU certificate with a minimum 18-month term and a minimum $1,000 opening balance. $50 credit will be deposited to membership savings account at certificate maturity.
- Closing of certificate prior to maturity will forfeit $50 credit.
- Must be 18 years or older and reside in Santa Clara, Alameda, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, or Contra Costa counties. Offer valid only for individuals who open new-to-Tech CU checking accounts, have not had any account relationship with Tech CU during the previous 12 months, and have never caused Tech CU a loss of any kind.
- Offer not available on UTMA, HSA, IRA or business accounts. Rates and terms subject to change without notice.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Their basic checking account doesn’t come with any monthly fees. Account needs to be kept open for nine months otherwise you will forfeit the bonus.
Our Verdict
Tech CU used to be able to be opened nationwide, then they restricted it to California only and now only specific counties. In addition the actual bonus has gotten much worse, now you need to open a certificate to get the full $150 bonus. Because there was a better deal so recently available I don’t recommend this one. Fingers crossed they started offering better bonuses again in the future.
Big thanks to reader, Yati who let us know. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.
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- 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
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I was able to open using an ID address and also working in Oakland and as a member of FFA. They pull Chex since they asked me about it and I had to explain why I had many inquiries to which I said that not all of them resulted in accounts being opened.
I messaged them if I was eligible for that offer and they said that you had to be a TechCU@Work member, so similar to the Keybank offer. But they did say they have these two offers available:
To qualify for $50, open a new Tech CU checking account and, within 90 days of account opening, establish payroll direct deposit to the checking account of at least $500 per transaction/per month.
To qualify for $50, within 90 days of opening a new Tech CU checking account, complete at least one Bill Pay transaction.
Credits will be posted to savings account after initial direct deposit is verified and will be available to use after 6 months. If account is closed within 6 months of open date, credits are forfeited.
Account opened: 9/6
Req’s met: 9/28 ($260 DD)
Bonus posted: 9/30
Really weird, thought I would have to wait until 10/15 (paycheck is semi-monthly) but the bonus posted today. Will keep doing DD each paycheck for 9 months then close.
Also, $125 using CSP coded as purchase.
Was an SF resident and did this promo in early 2017. Got the $150 without any issue. Just wanted to provide a DP that Tech CU has been a great hub account for me with my other bank bonuses and I’ll continue to keep the account open. ACH pulls / pushes are usually next day and they’ve successfully linked to several banks (BBVA, Key, etc.) that USAA for whatever reason could not with trial deposits. Also Tech CU counts as DD’s for several accounts (e.g. WF).
tl;dr: helpful, straightforward, easy bank account to have open if you play the game.
My only complaint (which I’ve voiced to Tech CU) is that external transfers cannot be initiated by the app – must log in via web. Odd.
December 2016 DP: out-of-state customer can still open this checking account over the phone with rep, it’s just that you will not get the bonus. They’ll look at your chex report and some would call you asking reason why so many chex inquiries. As long as you can convince them you can still have the account open. In my opinion they are not like some of the banks/CU that would turn away customers immediately, although I don’t understand why you would apply for it if out of state.
I was lucky when the offer was public and online about two years ago, account bonus was actually placed on hold until about 6 months later where I could use it for bill pay.Still have a few cents there.
They had their $500 CC offer last year. I was declined due to too many inquiries and some other reasons I don’t remember.
Early account termination fee: None months, bonus forfeit….
would be nice, but it’s actually nine months 😉
I’m confused by the “recurring” term. If at least one recurring deposit, then does that mean at least 2 DD? I might be over thinking this, but recurring to me means at least 2.