Posted by William Charles on January 12, 2020
Bank Account Bonuses

Published on January 12th, 2020 | by William Charles

12

[CA only] California Credit Union $100 Checking Bonus

Offer at a glance

  • Maximum bonus amount: $100
  • Availability: You must live or work in San Diego, Riverside or Orange County, CA
  • Direct deposit required: Yes, $500+ per month for at least three months
  • Additional requirements: Digital banking
  • Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
  • ChexSystems: Unknown
  • Credit card funding: Up to $500
  • Monthly fees: None with eStatements
  • Early account termination fee: None
  • Household limit: None
  • Expiration date: None listed

The Offer

Direct link to offer

  • California Credit Union is offering a bonus of $100 when you open a new eChecking account and complete the following requirements:
    • Must enroll in digital banking
    • Must establish a recurring direct deposit with a minimum of $500 per month (three required before bonus posts)

The Fine Print

  • Restrictions apply.
  • $100 offer applies to NEW eChecking accounts for NEW members only, who enroll in Digital Banking and establish a recurring Direct Deposit with a minimum of $500 per month.
  • Recurring Direct Deposit must be a Direct Deposit or Payroll Deposit.
  • Limit one (1) bonus per member.
  • Direct Deposit must be established within 120 days of membership opening to qualify for bonus.
  • Three (3) months of recurring Direct Deposits must be credited to the account before qualifying for the bonus.
  • The bonus will be added to the checking account within 8-12 weeks from the qualifying date and will be reported as income.
  • Refer to the current rate sheet for regular dividends to be paid on eligible balances.
  • The bonus is not included in the calculations of regular dividends and is not recurring.
  • The bonus will be forfeited by the member if the account does not remain open for a minimum of 6 months.
  • All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

Monthly Fees

There is no monthly fee as long as you opt in for eStatements

Early Account Termination Fee

I couldn’t find any mention of an early account termination fee in the fee schedule.

Our Verdict

Relatively small bonus but it’s a soft pull and you can fund with a credit card so I think it’s worth doing if you’ve already done the bigger bonuses available to you. I’ll add this to our list of the best checking account bonuses.

Hat tip to reader SpicyPadThai

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:


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Shirley
Shirley

I applied for this checking offer at the same time their 5%, 5 month CD was offered last year.

There was no hard pull and only chexsystems was checked. They did ask about the number of inquiries on my report (more than 15 in the past year) but was not a problem in being accepted.

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January 12, 2020 2:05 pm
Thomas
Thomas

Credit Card Funding available?

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January 12, 2020 2:22 pm
Shirley
Shirley

They did have a way to fund by CC but I didn’t use that method so don’t know how much they’ll allow.

Reports by others were conflicting as to if and to how much they allowed, read about them here:

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/ca-only-california-credit-union-5-month-5-apy-cd/

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January 12, 2020 3:45 pm
Erik
Erik

I had talked to a manager about CC funding and she sent me a screen-shot of the web-page. Max $500. We can even do it it in branch and she confirmed that it will code as Purchase.
However, due to the problems we had opening our accounts (wrong Driver License number per the CU) we had to come back and I then forgot to use the CC to fund our accounts :-(.

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January 12, 2020 4:01 pm
Erik
Erik

I had same experience as Shirley.
1. Soft pull from Equifax (P1 & P2). However, my BD was wrong per Equifax so I had to correct that before approval.
2. They inquired about multiple recent accounts per Chexsystems, but they accepted our explanations (P1 & P2).

3. Something very strange though:
both P1 & P2 showed wrong driver license number. They insisted that they got the info from Equifax. I contacted Equifax and they insisted that they do not have my DL number. I have no idea why we both (P1 & P2) showed as having incorrect DL numbers with the CU. After several escalations to management, they finally approved the accounts after contacting the DMV to confirm the numbers.
Does anyone have any idea on how to correct this????

p.s. I even opened 5% CDs for my kids :-).

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January 12, 2020 3:53 pm
Jason
Jason

How did you explain to them about multiple recent account openings ?

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January 12, 2020 4:59 pm
Erik
Erik

I said that I had money that I moved around when interest rates were lowered (reward accounts have max limits), I added myself as joint on relatives & kids accounts and I opened business accounts.

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January 12, 2020 5:09 pm
Onyxi
Onyxi

Memorizing this answer 😆

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January 13, 2020 2:23 pm
J Ro
J Ro

Can fund $500 with cc. Tried nfcu flagship. Unknown as to purchase or not yet.

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January 12, 2020 4:45 pm
J Ro
J Ro

Purchase!

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January 13, 2020 11:01 pm
All Rise
All Rise

“Recurring Direct Deposit must be a Direct Deposit or Payroll Deposit”

Does an ACH transfer qualify as a “Direct Deposit”?

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January 15, 2020 12:58 am
Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes

Nobody knows yet.

I’m doing the previous bonus and my 3rd DD from Fidelity won’t be until this Wednesday and then it can take 8-12 weeks from that point before the bonus is posted

I’m also starting real DD’s Wednesday just in case since they give plenty of time to meet the requirements.

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January 20, 2020 11:49 am
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