[Expired]Citizens Bank $150 Sign Up Promotion – Easy To Meet Requirements

[Update: This offer has now expired, sorry! Make sure you join our mailing list and we will let you know whenever new bank account deals appear]

The Offer

• Open a One Deposit Checking from Citizens Bank™
• Make an additional deposit (of any amount) after your initial deposit
• Receive a $150 bonus

The Fine Print

• New customers only, a customer is considered new if they haven’t held a primary or secondary checking account with citizens bank for the last six months
• $150 bonus is reported to the IRS and you must pay tax on it
• Offer cannot be combined with any other offer
• Minimum opening balance of $25
• Bonus will be deposited before July 31st, 2014 and be labelled as Balance Builder Bonus
• Account is FDIC insured
• Account earns an interest rate of 0.01%
• Must be within Citizens Bank service area to qualify (enter your address details on the offer page to see if you do)
• Can be funded with credit card, check or debit card
• No early account closure fee
• Valid from March 1st until March 31st, 2014

Waive The Monthly Fee

• Monthly fee of $9.99 is waived if you have a deposit of any amount to the checking account that month

Our Verdict

I wasn’t expecting to be able to sign up in California, but they seem to process the coupon code without any issues (admittedly I didn’t actually try to apply for the account). You can fund with a credit card for a maximum of $1,000 which is useful for meeting minimum spend requirements or just earning a bit of extra cash back.

Unfortunately it looks like this account results in a hard credit pull from Equifax. I’d prefer to use a hard credit pull on a credit card sign up bonus, as I typically get more value than $150 ($170 if you include the extra $20 I’d receive for funding using a cash back card).

If it turns out this is a soft pull, I’ll jump on it but for now I’m giving this one a wide berth.

Offer link | Screenshot of the offer