Update 1/14/24: Extended until April 30, 2024.
Update 9/9/23: Deal is back until December 31, 2023. Hat tip to reader EW
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $250
- Availability: California only, assume you have to go in branch
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: Deposit $10,000 and maintain for the first 90 days
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: $7, avoidable
- Early account termination fee: $20, six months
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date: September 28th, 2018
Contents
The Offer
- California Bank & Trust is offering a bonus of $250 when you complete the following requirements:
- Open a qualifying business checking account (Inspire, Growth, Interest or Connect) with an opening deposit of at least $10,000
- Maintain a balance of at least $10,000 for the first 90 days
- Make at least five qualifying transactions in the first 90 days (Mobile Remote Deposit, Remote Deposit Capture, debit card purchase, ACH credit, or wire transfer (credit or debit)
The Fine Print
- Offer available to accounts opened between July 9 – September 28, 2018.
- To receive the business checking bonus, the account must be a Business Inspire, Business Growth, Business Interest, or Business Connect checking account, maintain a minimum balance of $10,000 for 90 days from the account opening, and perform five (5) of any of the following transaction types within the first 90 days; Mobile Remote Deposit, Remote Deposit Capture, debit card purchase, ACH credit, or wire transfer (credit or debit).
- There may be a fee associated with these transactions.
- Applicable bonus will be deposited into checking account within 60 days of completion of qualifications and is limited to one (1) bonus payment per customer tax-id number.
- All tax liabilities, if any, associated with the benefits are the responsibility of the recipient, and the recipient may receive an IRS interest tax reporting statement that includes the retail value of the benefits.
- Offer is not available to existing CB&T business checking customers, public agencies, Political Action Committees, fiduciary accounts or campaign accounts. Offer subject to change at any time.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
Business Inspire checking is the easiest account to keep fee free. This account has a $7 monthly fee that is waived if you do any of the following:
- Maintain a $1,000 minimum balance OR
- Conduct $1,000 or more in transactions (debits or credits) each month
Early Account Termination Fee
According to the fee schedule there is an early account termination fee of $20 if the account is closed within six months.
Our Verdict
Basically a $250 bonus for depositing $10,000 for 90 days (although you’d need $1,000 deposited for another 90 days to avoid monthly fees and early account termination fee). Works out to be a return of about 10% APY, although obviously only across that 90 day period. As far as savings bonuses go that’s actually pretty good. Given it’s a soft pull I’ll add to to the best bank bonuses. Keep in mind they are strict on the documents required for opening.
Usually when California Bank & Trust has a bonus these others do as well:
- AmegyBank: Texas only
- California Bank & Trust: California only
- Nevada State Bank: Nevada only
- Vectra Bank: Colorado
This isn’t the case this time, although AmegyBank does have a similar bonus.
Big thanks to reader, Curmudgeon who let us know. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.
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
The new Terms makes this a very good promotion!
If I deposit $50K I would make an extra $765 vs 5.2% Savings.
Not only that, they confirmed (after checking with the back-office) that I could open two Sole Prop accounts, one using my SSN and the other my EIN.
They sent me several documents to fill out which we did for two accounts each (P1 & P2), and uploaded them using secure messaging.
However, they then stated that they will not open any accounts for us (P1 & P2). No explanations given (They didn’t run Chex etc yet).
We have had credit cards with them for the same Sole Prop w/o any issues…..
I wonder if anyone has been able to open Sole Prop Accounts with them…?
A phone rep at the main call center said that account openings under promotional bonuses need to be opened in a branch. I called my local branch (in Encino, CA) to make an appointment. The branch rep said that it would be fine to open a business checking account for a sole proprietorship without a fictitious business name, which trips up a lot of branch bankers.
But she said that, in order to be approved for a business checking account, her manager will need to visit the site of my business and sign off on it. I told her it’s just a home office. She said that he will still need to visit and verify that there is a “desk, computer, files, etc.”. Very odd.
If they’re this tight about it, I feel like they will probably be strict about wanting to see other documentation and check Chex, so I’ll probably sit this one out.
I have an update on this offer.
Gadget - Bank Bonus Geek 🔗, I would be curious about your expert opinion about the offer below if you have any experience with this bank.
Previously, this bonus required maintaining the required balance for 90 days plus 10 transactions. The terms have now been revised to require 10 transactions plus maintaining the balance solely during the third calendar month after account opening: “To receive the cash bonus, the account must have at least an average ledger/current balance [in the required amount] in the third full calendar month after account opening.” https://www.calbanktrust.com/business/landing/business-checking-bonus-offer/
This seemed like a surprisingly positive change, so I had my local branch manager confirm it with the back office and this is what they said: “We measure the account balance in the 3rd full month after the account is opened. We do that because some businesses need time to move funds around, and we don’t want to penalize them for that. So, the customer only needs to open the account with the minimum required but must have an average balance of at least $10,000 in the 3rd full month to qualify for the promotion.”
The bonus tiers are as follows:
Average ledger/current balance during third calendar month
Bonus
APY
$10,000
$250
~25-30%
$25,000
$500
~20-24%
$50,000
$1,000
~20-24%
$100,000
$1,500
~15-18%
$250,000
$2,500
~10-12%
The stated APY range is based on how close to the beginning and end of the third calendar month one moves money in and out. The APY would be a bit lower if one chose to keep $1,000 in the account before and after to avoid the $10 monthly fee and the $20 early closure fee — but one can simply move $1,000 in and out each month to avoid fees via transactions.
This seems like an attractive offer for those willing to go into a branch.
Looks like a really good offer. I have nothing to say about this bank. Sounds like you did your homework already. It’s a little odd they don’t list the tiers on the site.
RM GL!
The link you pasted does not work though due to characters added at the end. DoC’s direct link works though.
I am going to assume you must open the account in a branch since there they have the “contact us” message form. That will limit who will be interested.
I can get at least 5% elsewhere, so:
90 days for the $10K is “costing” me $125
another 90 days for the $1K is “costing” me $12.5
So net gain is $250-$137.50= $112.50
Not worth it (for me)
Thanks for posting this, as I didn’t do the math yet. I’m pretty much only chasing bonuses of a few hundred dollars plus at this point because it seems like a lot of work for a small payout.
I lived 2 years in CA, moved to FL for 6 years, want to move back to CA, can I apply ?
zip 94555 wat not targeted
This Bank very chexsystem inquir sensitive. went to bank open account deposit 20000 into this bank. Everything goes fine. After 2 weeks later. Banker called me said I open 3 new account in three month which is much risk for them…we have to close your account. They did not use chex system in the same day. But they watch your account in whole month after you open new account with this.
I opened my account about two months ago with this identical offer that expired May 31st. No hard pull. I opened in branch. They do expect you to have full business records to share with them. State of California registration, corporate documents, etc.
For the credit card or checking account?
It looks like they’ve also got a 500 on 5k CC deal, which is interesting as well. Also 6 months of float. Wonder if their cards reports to the personals/how sensitive they are to multiple biz CCs.
I’m sort of tripping out about the 3 “flavors” – points and statement credit I get, but if the 3rd one (cash) deposits to a linked checking account instead of being a statement credit, does that mean it’s taxed? The 3rd card is better than the statement credit one, because it has 2% back at least for a little while and the statement credit one is just a low APR thing.