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Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount:Â $300
- Availability:Â CO, NE, KS, OK, IA, MO, AR, IL, KY, AND TN
- Direct deposit required:Â Yes, two totaling $500+
- Additional requirements: Use promo code, have $3,500 in daily balances.
- Hard/soft pull:Â Unknown
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding:Â Unknown
- Monthly fees:Â None
- Early account termination fee:Â $25, 12 months
- Household limit:Â None
- Expiration date:Â 1/31/25
Contents
The Offer
- OakStar Bank is offering a $300 bonus when you open a new checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Use promo code 2025WELCOME300
- Requires two recurring qualifying direct deposit transactions for a cumulative total of $500+ each statement cycle
- A daily balance of $3,500+ throughout the 90 day timeframe
The Fine Print
- Disclosures: New Customer Cash Offer Terms & Conditions. Must achieve the qualifiers listed below and keep the account open for 90 calendar days from the date of account opening.
- Cash offer will post automatically to the subject account within 30 calendar days of achieving all qualifiers.
- Requires 2 recurring qualifying direct deposit transactions** for a cumulative total of $500 for each statement cycle. Requires a daily balance of $3,500 throughout the 90-day timeframe.
- Requires the account to be enrolled in and receive eStatements for the entire 90-day time frame to qualify.
- Only new account holders are eligible for this promotion. Current account holders are not eligible.
- OakStar Bank associates do not qualify.
- Checking account promotion ends 1/31/25.
- Account must be opened online and by 1/31/25.
- **Qualifying direct deposit transactions include payroll, Social Security, or government benefits. Person-to-person transactions do not qualify.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
E-Star checking has no monthly fees as long as you opt for eStatements.
Early Account Termination Fee
$25 fee if closed within 12 months according to the fee schedule.
Our Verdict
Seems like a good bonus, annoying you need to keep the account open for 12 months but at least there are no monthly fees. Please share if it’s a hard/soft pull in the comments below.
Hat tip to reader p
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
OakStar Bank $300 Checking
01/21/25 application
01/27/25 account opened (close 02/01/2026 to avoid ETF)
01/29/25 $3500 opening deposit from SoFi
02/14/25 $500 DD
02/28/25 $500 DD
03/14/25 $250 DD
03/28/25 $250 DD
04/11/25 $250 DD
04/25/25 $250 DD
05/08/25 Received $300 bonus
1/28/25 – applied, had to send in utility bill
1/31/25 – approved
2/3/25 – $3500 Fidelity ACH, $501 chase biz payroll
2/4/25 – $501 chase biz payroll
2/21/25 to 5/2/25 – $275 real DD every 2 weeks
5/6/25 – $300 bonus posted
1/27 account opened with $3500
Used Chase Business checking to push $250+ twice a month for 3 months.
5/6 $300 bonus posted
Opened 1/28 with $3500, performed 2 transfers per month from Chase Biz. Bonus posted 5/6, or 98 days since opening.
1/29 – Account Opened with $3750 deposit
2/14 – $251 Real DD
2/28 – $251 Real DD (repeat every 2 weeks)
05/6 – $300 ONLINE ACCOUNT OPENING REWARDS
Followed up with CS after reading here that it may not be “average” daily balance. CS confirmed, 5 day cushion after opening then $3,500 min required every day. My deposit didn’t hit until day 10, so they say I’m already disqualified. Terms seem pretty muddy to me, but with the CFPB dead now, fighting it seems like a waste of time. Will be pulling money today.
I did a small push from Relay Financial business checking to OakStar with memo of “Payroll”.
One it cleared at OakStar, it coded as CCD.
“PAYROLL FIRSTNAME LASTNAME CCD”
Thoughts?
I’ve never seen the code “CCD” be used before. I searched online, and CCD is used to code business payments to vendors. I’m not sure if that will qualify as a DD.
FWIW, I used real DD, and it coded as “PAYROLL COMPANY NAME PPD”
Chase Business Checking codes as
“PAYROLL FIRSTNAME LASTNAME PPD”. Probably the way I’ll go moving forward.
Yah, you really can’t go wrong with Chase Biz!
Is it expired?
Page is still up but expired per terms. Accounts have to be opened by 1/31/25
Did you by chance check if it will still work by calling them? Will give them a call tomorrow if not.
Like
MOTDOC I’m concerned about the $3,500 daily balance requirement vs. a more typical avg. daily balance. I messaged CS for clarification and they just copy-pasted the terms (which make it sound like you needed to have opened the account with $3,500+). I’m hoping this is just a case of the terms being poorly written.
I selected to fund via a connected bank account during the application, but the actual transfer still took 1-2 business days before posting to OakStar. That means I have a few days of $0 balance. The only possible way to have a $3500 balance beginning on day 1 is to open in-branch with cash or check. I’m pretty confident that they will look at the average daily balance over the first 90 days, so I plan to just add a bit more $$ to compensate for the $0 days.
As far as what works to trigger the bonus (as there are no current DPs): Theory incoming!
Not sure if this holds any weight, but hear me out… I just noticed the app interface for OakStar is identical to the app for Simmons Bank that I recently opened an account at for a different bonus posted recently. (https://www.doctorofcredit.com/ar-mo-ks-simmons-bank-900-checking-bonus/). It’s just different colors with same exact interface. They also had required the same identify verification to open the account, with taking your selfie (open mouth, close mouth, etc.)
Do we think there is any chance in hell they would have the same criteria for what counts as a DD? Maybe we can see what is working for Simmons Bank for testing with OakStar?
Please discuss.
they have the same interface as busey bank as well (which seemed to require an actual employer payroll dd to trigger their bonus- i had some issues getting the account added so ran right down to the wire to get the first direct deposit to work, none of my ‘fake’ options seemed to work- csr had said the bonus should post shortly after i met the requirements rather than waiting til the end of the promo period)- real dd coded as “[employer name] DIRECT DEP” while fidelity (regular brokerage acct) coded as “FID BKG SVC LLC MONEYLINE [my name]” and ach push from another bank coded as “[bank name] DR. TRANSFER ONLINE-BK”
i should say, those codes were for busey bank (which uses the same interface as oakstar), NOT oakstar itself
It’s just a theory at this point! Thanks for the data
Other banks/CUs with same interface as OakStar:
—OMNI Community Credit Union
—Pelican State Credit Union
—Busey Bank
—Old Second National Bank
They all also share the same 2FA number for sending out one-time codes: 53286
Definitely codes the same as Old Second National Bank. Fidelity shows up as PPD. Fidelity also showed up as PPD and worked for Old Second bonus. However, Busey is more picky (fidelity does not work) so risky to try fake DD