Published on February 24th, 2020 | by Chuck

[Expired] [CA only] Provident Credit Union $300 Checking Bonus With Debit Spend & 2 Direct Deposits

Offer at a glance

Maximum bonus amount: $300
Availability: CA only
Direct deposit required: $500 twice, see below
Additional requirements: Spend $600 on the debit/credit card, see below
Hard/soft pull: Hard pull for membership (report of soft pull in branch)
ChexSystems: Unknown. ChexSystems sensitive
Credit card funding: Up to $1,000
Monthly fees: None, but there is a $10 joining fee (waived online)
Early account termination fee: None
Household limit: One
Expiration date: February 29, 2020

Contents

1 The Offer
2 The Fine Print
3 Avoiding Fees
4 Our Verdict

The Offer

Direct link to offer

Provident Credit Union is offering a bonus of $300 when you open a new checking account with promo code 1019, and complete the requirements below.

To earn the $300 New Account Bonus, simply do these three things for two months, starting the month following your account opening:

Make purchases of $300 or more using a Provident debit and/or credit card
Have direct deposits or automatic credits of at least $500
Enroll in online banking and e-Documents with valid e-mail address

The Fine Print

Offer expires February 29, 2020.
APY (Annual Percentage Yield) as of January 1, 2020 and is subject to change. To receive 2.01% APY on balances up to $25,000, 0.08% APY on balances beyond the first $25,000, and ATM rebates, three requirements must be met: (i) Make purchases of $300 or more using a Provident debit and/or credit card** per month, (ii) Have a monthly direct deposit or ACH transfer (automatic debit or credit) post to the account, (iii) Maintain enrollment in e-Documents. If the 3 requirements are not met in their entirety, the APY will be 0% and no ATM rebates will be issued for that month.
IMPORTANT: All qualifying purchases and transactions referred to as “per month” or “monthly” only count towards the requirement of the month in which they POST, which will be on a business day (Monday – Friday) and may take one or more business days from the purchase/transaction date.
Automatic or electronic payments using your checking account and routing number are not considered purchases. By providing your payee with your debit or credit card number, your posted automatic payments will be counted as eligible purchases. Debit card cash-back amounts, cash advances on credit cards, and checks do not count towards qualifications. Only one Visa credit card can have its purchases count towards your qualifications each month (whichever one that is selected on the account on the last business day of the month). If you have more than one Super Reward Checking account, credit card purchases on one credit card cannot meet the requirements of more than one checking account.
$300 Checking Bonus: You must be a new Provident Credit Union member, 18 or older and reside in California. You are not eligible if you are a current owner or signer on a Provident Credit Union personal or business account or if you have been an owner or signer on a Provident Credit Union personal or business account within the last two years.
One New Account Bonus per household/business.
To be eligible, you must open one of the following checking accounts: Super Reward Checking, Provident Checking or Simply Free Checking; all other checking accounts are not eligible for the bonus.
New Account Bonus offer may expire anytime.
The minimum balance for the Membership Savings account is $5.00.
You must fund your Checking account within the first 60 days of account opening with a minimum deposit of $25. If you fail to fund your Checking account within the first 60 days you are no longer eligible for the New Account Bonus and your account(s) will be closed.
In order to qualify for your New Account Bonus your account must be active and in good standing for two consecutive months following the month that your account is opened. All qualifying purchases and transactions referred to as “per month” or “monthly” only count towards the requirement of the month in which they POST, which will be on a business day (Monday – Friday) and may take one or more business days from the purchase/transaction date.
Your account is deemed active by: (1) making purchases of $300 or more using a debit and/or credit card2 per month, AND (2) performing monthly direct deposits or automatic credits of at least $500 into your checking account, AND (3) enrolling in Provident’s online banking service and e-Documents with valid e-mail address. If your account remains inactive after 90 days from account opening you are no longer eligible for the New Account Bonus.
Your account is in good standing if you: (1) demonstrate responsible account management—such as making regular deposits to bring your account to a positive end of day balance at least once every 30 days (including the payment of all credit union fees and charges); (2) avoid excessive overdrafts suggesting the use of Courtesy Pay as a continuing line of credit; (3) there are no legal orders, levies or liens against your account.
New Account Bonus: We generally pay the New Account Bonus by crediting your Provident Credit Union Checking account. If Provident funded your savings account at account opening, you will receive the difference between your initial $5.00 Savings account bonus and the stated bonus within 120 days of account opening.
We may report the value of the New Account Bonus to the IRS and any applicable taxes are the responsibility of the member.

Avoiding Fees

Monthly Fees

Your best option is to open the Super Reward Checking account which has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and also earns the 2.01% APY when requirements are met.

Membership Enrollment $10

If you enroll with provident then you must pay a $10 membership enrollment fee. Although apparently it’s possible to get this waived if you apply online.

Early Account Termination Fee

None of the Provident checking accounts come with an early account termination fee.

Our Verdict

The bank’s most recent offer was for $300 when you maintain $10,000 deposit. This offer has a spend and direct deposit requirement for two months, but no money tied up. It does come with a hard pull if you are sensitive to those. Looks overall like a pretty good deal if you can meet the requirements. Some are saying you can even stack a $50 referral bonus on top of this. I’ll add this to the list of the best bank account bonuses.

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:

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Leave a Reply

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Jun

I signed up for this offer in February and debit card and DD starts following month of account opening. This means March and April. Bank ACH transfers are counted towards the bonus.

Jackson Yee

Which bank ACH did you push from that worked?

Jun

Any bank will qualify.

Nick

I did an ACH push from Chase and it still says I haven’t satisfied the requirement. Is there a waiting period before it works?

Jun

I’m doing ACH push from Chase as well. How do you know that you haven’t satisfied the requirement?

Maverick

Does it not have to be an automatic debit or credit? There’s a separate form on their website to set this up.

I did that in branch and it shows I’ve met requirements for March.

traveler

what counts as dd for this bank?

Jun

You can use real DD or automatic transfer which qualify for the bonus. Any bank transfer coming from an external bank to Provident CU will count towards the bonus according to the rep.

SpicyPadThai

Just applied online and pending. Had 5+ accounts last year. So far I don’t think it’s hard pull

Alex

You’re getting the bonus on multiple accounts?

SpicyPadThai

No. I made 5+ new checking accounts with other institute

SpicyPadThai

Update: denied. Very Chexsenstive

how many new accounts did you open within the last 6 months?

Bambino

Yikes. I also went to pending. Around ~5-6 bank accounts within the year, not looking good.

how many new accounts did you open within the last 6 months? Some people mentioned they only count accounts opened within the past 6 months.

SpicyPadThai

I probably opened 3~5 accounts within last 6 months

Mike

Anyone know what’s the chance this is going to be extended?

James

It’s now a soft pull, not a hard pull.

Chuck

You signed up in-branch or online?

Maverick

It’s a soft pull regardless, if you opt out of Courtesy Pay.

Applied online, no hard pull, denied for too many Chex inquiries.

Went into branch, Experian soft pull, approved after explaining reasons for the pulls.

ETHAN

does money order count for the 300?

Peter

Any good strategies for the DC spend? $600 is a fairly high opportunity cost… 🙂 Does cash back count?

Quan Titative

I guess maybe a money order ? USPS takes Debit cards.

Maverick

How about Venmo? Should be simple enough to send to P2 / friends and have them return it.

tavert

According to the terms no. Money orders show up as “quasi cash” in their online banking but seem to count against the debit spend requirement tracker. Will find out in a few months if they qualify for the bonus.

Raj

How strict are they with household limits ? last year got my account opened, thinkin to open for spouse this time

Thanks

Clarence Weatherspoon

anyone who needs a referral for a $50 Visa gift card on a Provident checking account feel free to request one from me: happyrefs @ gmail dotcom

Bob

Why do you need us to email you? Could you post your referral link directly?

Clarence Weatherspoon

i would if I could.. but it’s not a single link.. the way Provident set-up their program.. an individual link gets e-mailed to the e-mail address that you specify.

Mike

I am concerned if signing up the referral offer will disqualify the regular bigger bonus. Any DP?

Clarence Weatherspoon

Mike I can’t say for certain because this my first time ever using their referral system. I’m not aware of any datapoints on the question. I would suggest to go for the higher bonus first, and trying to stack the extra $50 gift card on top of it. I just wanted to try to give people the option for the extra $50 GC.

Mike

For the additional $50 referral bonus, there isn’t any downside to signing up for the regular offer first, and then stacking it with the extra $50:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/ca-only-provident-credit-union-300-checking-bonus-no-direct-deposit-required/#comment-912925

Bob

I applied online and is queued for human review. When do you suggest I fill out this referral form? After my account is opened?

Mike

Yes, I would wait until the account is opened. Just make sure you are using the same information.

Mike

I am concerned if signing up the referral offer will disqualify the regular bigger bonus. Any DP?

Mike

Sign up for the bigger offer first. I’ve never seen any DP of someone getting denied the main bonus. Occasionally some banks won’t allow stacking the referral offer but the main bonus is still honored.

AnHeroicHippo

This was definitely not a hard pull for me just a few months ago. Always opt out of the overdraft protection (“Courtesy Pay”) to be sure.

COBOLCODERUSEALLCAPS

Did you open this in a branch or online?

cynthia

Denied. 8 Chex inquiries in last 12 months. No HP.

Alex

Chuck The DP links for Chase credit card funding don’t go to the comment, they go to another site.

Nick

Anyone know if a venmo payment with their debit card satisfies the $300 monthly spend requirement?

August

Account Not Yet Opened

Thank you for your application. Unfortunately, our system was unable to automatically open the account you have selected. However, your application will be reviewed and we will contact you shortly with additional details.

Click here to return to the Application Home page.

Nick

Update: venmo does satisfy the requirement

Yati

Declined due to chex. 7 new accounts in last 3 months, should have known better…

[Expired] [CA only] Provident Credit Union $300 Checking Bonus With Debit Spend & 2 Direct Deposits

The Offer

The Fine Print