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Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: Must be a Californian resident
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $500+
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown, ChexSystems sensitive
- Credit card funding: $100
- Monthly fees: $18, avoidable
- Early account termination fee: $50, six months
- Household limit: One
- Expiration date: September 30th, 2019
Contents
The Offer
- Fremont Bank is offering a bonus of $200 when you open a Freedom checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Use promo code Freedom200
- Deposit a minimum of $100 to open the account
- Make $500 or more in qualifying direct deposits within 60 days of account opening
The Fine Print
- Offer valid for new Fremont Bank personal checking clients only.
- Clients who already have a personal checking account with Fremont Bank as a primary or secondary account holder are not eligible for this promotion.
- The client must not have closed a personal checking account within 180 days of the promotion start date (on or after August 15, 2019).
- The primary account holder must be 18 years or older at the time of account opening.
- Offer available only to legal U.S. residents with a U.S address in California.
- Account bonus is limited to one per household.
- The offer is non-transferable and may not be combined with any other offers.
- Offer subject to change and may be discontinued at any time.
- Offer available to accounts opened online only and does not apply to account opened in a branch.
- The account bonus will be credited to the new Freedom Checking account within 30 days from the end of the month after the qualifying direct deposit is made.
- “Freedom 200 Bonus Offer” will appear on the checking account statement when the bonus is credited to the account.
- The new account must be open and in good standing at the time the bonus is credited to the account.
- The account bonus will be forfeited if the account is closed before the bonus is posted to the account.
- If the account is closed within six months of opening an account closure fee may be charged, see Deposit Account Agreement Book for more information.
- Bonus is considered interest and will be reported to the IRS on Form 1099-INT as required by applicable law. Client is responsible for any taxes.
- A qualifying Direct Deposit is your salary, pension, Social Security, or other regular monthly income totaling $500 or more electronically deposited to your account during the statement period by your employer or an outside agency. Transfers from one account to another, or deposits made at a branch or ATM, do not qualify as a Direct Deposit.
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
This account has a $18 monthly fee (plus $2 paper statement fee). This is waived if you do any of the following:
- Recurring $500 direct deposit to your checking account or
- $2,500 minimum daily balance or $5,000 with Combined Balance Option or
- Automatic Loan Payment to an existing Fremont Bank personal mortgage loan or Home Equity Line of Credit.
Early Account Termination Fee
According to the fee schedule there is an early account termination of $50 if closed within six months of account opening.
Our Verdict
Last year they offered a bonus of up to $500, but that required a deposit of $50,000. Most people would have done the smaller easier Freedom checking bonus and that was only for $150 but didn’t require a direct deposit. This bonus is slightly higher but does require a direct deposit this time. Still worth doing if you live in the area, from memory last year the bonus was pulled early so I’d recommend signing up now if you’re interested.
Hat tip to Sean K
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
Deal Extended William Charles Chuck
Link: https://www.fremontbank.com/personal/checking/cornerstone
Peek you have to have a mortgage with them to get the bonus. I checked in branch after getting denied online
Davis Ah I never read the top, it is stated at the top:
“Do you have a Fremont Bank mortgage or Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC)? Then discover the distinctive benefits of a Cornerstone Checking account and banking where you borrow.”
William Charles Looks like there’s a $150 promo, CA only, unless I’m missing the expire date, I don’t see one:
https://www.fremontbank.com/personal/checking/cornerstone
Pulled all of my funds from the checking account on April 6 and when I logged in today, the account was gone. Looks like no need to call to close as it will be done automatically once you zero out the account.
Anyone close their account yet and how did you go about it?
I hit 6 months 3/19/2020. I will be waiting til then. I will be calling to close. I couldn’t find a secure message option and based on how the application process went I doubt email will be sufficient.
Kyle ❤️ will you be transferring all of the money out before calling or have them send you a check?
Read comments on previous bonuses with Fremont that they zero’d out the account and Fremont closed the account automatically.
Hmm I hadn’t seen that. If it happened immediately I might go that route but I’d prefer to make sure the account is being closed rather than hoping they will close it. It would be preferable to me to pull the funds myself rather than waiting on a check.
One said they closed within 24hrs while the other indicated something like 3 weeks (though don’t know if he didn’t look before the 3 weeks and it closed sooner).
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/ca-only-fremont-bank-150-500-checking-promotion-direct-deposit-not-required/#comment-659996
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/ca-only-fremont-bank-150-500-checking-promotion-direct-deposit-not-required/#comment-731047
I hit 6 months on 3/23/2020. I pulled funds out via ACH from Chase. Transfer completed 3/25 and today 3/26 I called to close the account. The closing process took 4 minutes. as mentioned in a previous comment #852877 I did not receive the bonus and attempted several Transfers in attempt to meet the bonus requirements none of which worked. I didn’t lose money on this deal but it did tie up $2500 for 6 months. Glad to be done with this one.
Kyle ❤️ good to hear it was easy. Will be doing mine next week.
UPDATE: Account automatically closed in 2 days after I zero’d out the account, didn’t have to call.
It’s official, none of my transfers triggered the bonus and I have some DP’s on what did not work. I pushed $500 into Fremont from the following personal checking accounts without success: Chase, SoFi Money, Varo, Ally, Discover, IncredibleBank, Chime, Union Bank, & Unify FCU. William Charles
Got my bonus also:
Real DD 11/1 $500+
Bonus posted 11/4
Got the bonus today.
Real DD 10/10 $500
Real DD 10/25 $250
Bonus posted 11/4
Legit DD on 9/20, and bonus on 11/04.
So today is technically 30 days since the end of the calendar month when my qualifying direct deposit was made. Still haven’t received the bonus. I even verified with the rep originally that the bonus was attached to my account. I’ll monitor for a few more days and update when it comes in. Anybody get their bonus yet?
DD on 10/10. No bonus yet either.
Forgot to say my company DD was on 09/20
Although, at one time, I did withdraw all money which made my balance 0$ and the rep called me to deposit some money in there to avoid an automatic closing of the account. I wonder if that can cause some issues. (I deposit money via Zelle after the call)
I got approved today. Email came too late to call for an account number.