Fund New Checking Accounts With A Credit Card To Manufacture Credit Card Spending

If you’ve ever opened a checking account you’ll probably be aware that they allow you to fund the initial opening deposit with a credit card. Each bank has a different maximum (some as low as $300, others $1,000 and very occasionally even higher), different card and bank combinations will also code differently – some will be treated as a cash advance, where others will be treated as a purchase. Here’s the run down on how to increase your spend using new checking accounts:

1. Set your cash advance limit to $0 for any cards you’re planning to manufacture spend on. [Read our guide here on how to do that]
2. Find a bank account that allows you to fund with a credit card [View our list of banks that allow you to fund with a credit card and if certain cards are coded as a cash advance or purchase]
3. Make sure that bank doesn’t do a hard credit pull for opening a checking account [View our list to see if opening an account is a hard or soft pull]
4. Check to see if there are any monthly fees and what you need to do to keep them waived. Most checking accounts will have a monthly fee of $5-$25, these will be waived if you have a certain daily balance or receive a direct deposit from your employer.
5. Check to see if there is an early account termination fee. Most banks will require you to keep your account open for a minimum of six months to avoid this fee.

Does that seem like a lot of work for only $1,000 in credit card spend? It is, but here is where things get interesting. Whilst you might only make $20 from $1,000 in card spend (perhaps a lot more if you’re struggling to meet minimum spend requirements), where you make your real money is from bank account sign up bonuses.

That’s right, just like you receive a sign up bonus from a credit card, some banks offer you a bonus for signing up for their checking or savings account. Rather than a minimum spend requirement these offers require you to complete one or more of the following types of tasks:

• Receive a qualifying direct deposit of X or more (to qualify it usually must be an employer payment or government benefit. But a lot of ACH transfers will also trigger bonuses. Click to view our full list of methods that count as a direct deposit)
• Complete X debit card transactions (these can easily be met by making $0.15 amazon gift card purchases)
• Complete X Bill Pays (to meet these, just pay off the credit card you used to fund the account)

The bonus amount you’ll receive is largely dependent on the bank and varies anywhere from $50 to $600. To find the latest bonuses we suggest you checking out the following pages:

• Best current bank account bonuses
• Checking account bonuses category on the blog
• Saving account bonuses category on the blog
• Chase banking promotions