Update 1/8/24: Deal is back and valid until 3/29. Hat tip to reader BD.
Update 10/2/23: Extended until 12/29.
Update 4/2/23: Extended until 6/30/2023
Update 1/15/23: Bonus is now $500 and doesn’t require merchant services.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $500
- Availability: In branch only [Branch locator]. Branches are in CT, DE, D.C., MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: Average daily balance of $5,000 for the 3rd full month after account opening
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems:Yes
- Credit card funding: No
- Monthly fees: $20, avoidable
- Early account termination fee: $50 if closed within 180 days of date opened, bonus forfeit if closed within six months as well.
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date:
June 28th, 2019 September 30th, 2020November 30, 2020
Contents
The Offer
- M&T Bank is offering a bonus of $500 when you open a new Tailored Business Checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Have an Average Ledger Balance in the account is at least $5,000 in the third full calendar month after the account was opened
The Fine Print
- We will credit $500 bonus (the “Checking Bonus”) to a new M&T Tailored Business Checking account opened between 1/1/2023 and 3/31/2023 if the Average Ledger Balance in the account is at least $5,000 in the third full calendar month after the account was opened. If the requirements are met and the Account remains open, the Checking Bonus will be credited to the Account within 45 days after the end of the third full calendar month after the account was opened. The Checking Bonus is reportable for tax purposes and is not available to employees of M&T Bank or any of its affiliates. The Checking Bonus is not available to customers who have had a non-personal M&T checking account within the previous 90 days of opening an M&T Tailored Business Checking account. Only one Checking Bonus will be awarded per customer regardless of the number of new M&T Tailored Business Checking accounts opened. A $50 Account Closure Fee applies if the account is closed within the time period referenced in the Commercial Deposit Account Fee Schedule.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
This account has a $20 monthly fee. This is waived if you:
- Maintain a $10,000 monthly average ledger balance
- Maintain $25,000 average ledger balance between checking & savings
- Make $2,000 in purchases on a linked M&T business credit card
- M&T bank merchant services account proceeds deposited
Early Account Termination Fee
$50 if closed within 180 days of date opened, bonus forfeit if closed within six months as well
Our Verdict
You will need to keep $10,000 in this account to keep it fee free and to trigger the bonus (or you could put $5,000 into the account and just pay the monthly fees). Either way the deal is still worth doing as the bonus is for $500. Keep in mind M&T also offer personal bonuses of up to $300 as well. I will be adding this to our list of the best business bank account bonuses.
Hat tip to reader ChurningFast
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
Post history:
- Update 10/19/22: Extended through 12/31/2022.
- Update 7/3/22: Back and extended until Sept 30, 2022.
- Update 5/16/22: Deal is back and valid until 6/30/22.
- Update 1/15/22: Deal is back and valid until 3/11/22.
- Update 5/31/21: Extended until 6/30/21.
- Update 4/27/21: Deal is back and valid until May 30, 2021. Looks like it can be opened online now. Hat tip to IS250
- Update 10/4/20: Deal good through November 30, 2020.
- Update 8/10/20: Monthly fee is waived for the first three months. Hat tip to Lazy Travelers
- Update 8/2/20: Deal is back and valid until September, 30 2020. Hat tip to reader crystal
- Update 3/21/20: Deal has been extended until May 15th, 2020.
- Update 2/2/20: Deal is back until 3/20/20 but checking bonus has been reduced to $300. I’d recommend waiting until the $400/$100 bonus returns. Hat tip to reader Ryan
- Update 7/28/19: Deal is back and valid until September 26th, 2019. There is also a $200 bonus that we will post about shortly.
DP – Bonus-earning and account-closing data points:
– 3/1/2023 – Account (Tailored Business Checking) opened online
– 3/8/2023 – $10,010 transferred in
– 7/18/2023 – $500 bonus deposited into account
– 2/27/2024 – Balance transferred out
– 3/4/2024 – Account closed (via phone).
what kind of business info do they need? can a sole prop with only some online resale business qualify?
got rejected due to Chex. They gave me a letter saying that my score is 9995 and my report has “A third party freeze alert”
Called check, my score is 0670, and there is no freeze on my account.
I have 6 inquiries in 2023 and 4 in 2022
Any comments?
I had many more than that and was approved last year.
Probably a system error. Not much you can do but should be able to reapply in a couple of months.
In addition to Chex, M&T also pulls EWS and LexisNexis. Do you have a security freeze on LexisNexis? I think most likely this is the issue. If you had a security freeze on SageStream, which is now part of LexisNexis, it would impact your LexisNexis freeze status, too. mariap
Thanks, I have both frozen. I had the same problem trying to open a Santander account.
Closed my account after 12 months. There is a $20 FINAL ANALYSIS CHARGE, but then this fee was waived.
rejected because of Chex info.
What’s the APR for this account?
How much do they ask about your business? We have a rental property in another state so Id say it was for receiving rent and paying contractors. I’m hoping that would be enough? Do I need to walk in with the money in hand via cashier’s check or can electronically deposit later?
Combined with the long payout time, none of these M&T bonuses seem appealing in a world of 5% savings accounts. You’ll come out ahead if you time everything right, but it doesn’t seem worth the risk/effort.
Hard disagree.
Please refer to the thoughtful responses to your similar comment in the M&T consumer checking post.
Locking up 10K for 6 months for $500 would yield a 10.25% APY vs 5% APY.
The entire community here is about churning and getting SUB
You could also do just $5k for 6 months which gives you 15.2% AFTER taking out the fee
The business checking account coupon I requested has expired but it says 3/29/2024 on the bank site. Will they give you any troubles?
got a “you’ll need to visit a branch to open new acct” message when i tried applying for the $400 personal checking acct offer.
Scheduled an appt at my nearest branch. Going to try to open up the biz acct as well.