[Expired] Fifth Third $200 Checking Bonus [FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MI, NC, OH, TN, WV]

This offer has now expired and is no longer valid. You can view the best bank promotions here.

Offer Overview

Maximum bonus amount: $200
Availability: Only in the following states: FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MI, MO, NC, OH, TN, WV (may be only for those within a 50-mile radius of a branch).
Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum mentioned; in the past, it’s needed to be $100 minimum. Click here to see what’s been working for the direct deposit requirement.
Additional requirements: Three bill-payments
Hard/soft pull: Soft
Credit card funding: None
Monthly fees: $11-$25, waivable
Early account termination fee: None listed
Expiration Date: ~~April 9th, 2016~~ ~~July 23rd, 2016~~ ~~September 30th, 2016~~ ~~December 31st, 2016~~ ~~March 31st, 2017~~ ~~June 30th, 2017~~ July 31st, 2017

Contents

1 The Offer
2 The Fine Print
3 Avoiding Fees
4 Our Verdict

The Offer

Direct link to offer

Receive a sign up bonus of $200 when you open an essentials checking account with Fifth Third bank when you complete the following requirements:
- Pay three bills using Fifth Third’s online bill payment service
- Direct deposit into the account (no minimum specified, has been $100 in the past)

The Fine Print

Offer not available to existing checking customers or to those with a Fifth Third checking account that has been closed within the last 12 months
Bonus offer not available to new Fifth Third Checking customers in St. Louis and Western Pennsylvania
Bonus offer available to new consumer checking customers, excluding Basic Checking and Express Banking
Bank reserves the right to limit each customer to one new account-related gift incentive per calendar year
ssential Checking account must be opened between 6/29/17 and 7/31/17
All requirements must be met and qualifying activity must be initiated and post to the account within 90 days of account opening to obtain $200 bonus
Bonus will be deposited into your new checking account within 10 business days of completing requirements
All bank bonuses are treated as interest and you’re required to pay interest on them

Avoiding Fees

The easiest option for most is to choose the Essential Checking account which has an $11 monthly fee. The fee can be waived by maintaining an average monthly balance of $1,500 or more across your savings and checking accounts.

The fine print indicates that the Military Banking and Student Banking accounts should also work for this bonus.

If you are in the military, choose the Military Banking option and you’ll have an additional option for getting the monthly fee waived by receiving $500 in direct deposits each month.
If you are a high school or college student age 16+, choose the Student Banking option for no monthly fee at all.

Our Verdict

This offer is almost always available (seems to disappear for a few days/weeks after it expires and then comes back). It’s great that you can open the account online and the bonus requirements are fairly easy to meet. Here’s what I’d do if I lived in the targeted area:

Open an essential checking account
Add $1,600 via a direct deposit method that has qualified in the past (this will keep the account fee free and also trigger the bonus requirement for direct deposit)
Pay three bills (total needs to be under $100 to keep the account fee free, or just add more funds initially and pay bigger bills)
Wait for the bonus to post
Withdraw funds and close account

Because this bonus is fairly easy to meet and we have lots of data points, I’ll be adding it to our list of the best checking bonuses.

Big thanks to reader, Vijay who let us know. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.

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