Expired: This chase bonus has now finished, you can view all current Chase bonuses here.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $150
- Availability: Nationwide
- Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum. Click here to view what triggers this bonus
- Additional requirements: None
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- Credit card funding: Up to $500, no Chase cards
- Monthly fees: $10-12, waivable
- Early account termination fee: Bonus taken back if closed within six months
- Expiration date: October 15th, 2014
The Offer
- Open a Chase Total Checking account, set up direct deposit and receive a $150 bonus
The Fine Print
- Deal expires October 15th or until stocks last. Chase usually gives out a set number of coupon codes for each bonus, once they are all gone the deal will close.
- Not available to existing Chase checking customers or those whose accounts have been closed within the last 90 days, also closed to those who have closed a Chase account with a negative balance
- Direct deposit must be made within 60 days of account opening
- Bonus will be posted within 10 business days (Chase batch processes these and they are handed out on Tuesdays)
- Limit of one Chase checking bonus per calendar year
- If account is closed within six months of account opening the bonus will be deducted at closing
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
The Chase Total Checking account comes with a monthly service fee of $10-$12 which is waived if complete any of the following:
- Have monthly direct deposits totaling $500 or more
- Keep a minimum daily balance of $1,500 or more
- Keep an average daily balance of $5,000 or more in any combination of qualifying Chase checking, savings and other balances
There is also an early account termination fee, if you close your account within six months then Chase will deduct the bonus.
Our Verdict
You can only get one Chase checking bonus per calendar year, because of this I’d recommend waiting for a higher sign up bonus. You can currently get $400 (no direct deposit) & $500 coupons on eBay that have a $200 and $300 Chase Total checking component, we’d recommend either picking up one of those or waiting until another public $400 offer comes about.
If I was going to complete this deal, here is how I’d do it:
- Open a Chase total checking account using the coupon, do $500 in initial funding using a non-Chase rewards card (+$10 if using a card that earns 2% cash back)
- Do a direct deposit of $1,000, using one of the methods which has been reported as working. This would trigger the bonus and keep the account fee free (as it now has a balance of $1,500). (+$150)
- Wait six months
- Transfer money out into my regular checking account
- Close account and wait until next year to do another Chase promotion
In total you’d net $160 minus taxes, which isn’t bad for a few minutes of work. You’d still be much better off with the $400 and $500 coupons though. We’ve added this bonus to our list of checking bonuses. You can view the best savings and checking bonuses here.
If this deal expires, remember you can always find out what the best Chase coupon is by going here.
[Read: Best Credit Card For Every Day Purchases, Up To 3% Cash Back]
