[GA only] Cornerstone Bank $100 Savings & $200 Checking Bonus
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200 checking & $100 savings
- Availability: Seems to be in branch only. They have locations in GA [Branch locator]
- Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum specified
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Hard Pull/Report of soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: Six months, bonus forfeit
- Household limit: None mentioned
- Expiration date: June 30th, 2017
The Offer
- Cornerstone Bank is offering a $200 checking bonus and $100 savings bonus. The offers are as follows:
- Checking $200 bonus requires the following:
- Open a new free checking account, depositing at least $100 at account opening
- Have your direct deposit made to this account within 60 days of account opening (direct deposit needs to be an electronic deposit of your paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security) from your employer or the government)
- $100 savings bonus has the following requirements:
- Open a new savings account
- Deposit a total of $5,000 or more in new money within 10 business days of account opening
- Maintain a balance of at least $5,000 for 90 days from date of deposit
- APY is 0.25%
- Checking $200 bonus requires the following:
The Fine Print
- Checking offer is not available to existing Cornerstone checking customers.
- Savings offer is not available to existing Cornerstone savings customers.
- Both offers are not available to those with fiduciary accounts, or those whose accounts have been closed within 90 days or closed with a negative balance.
- To receive the $200 checking bonus: 1) Open a new Cornerstone Free Checking account, which is subject to approval; 2) Deposit $100 or more at account opening; AND 3) Have your direct deposit made to this account within 60 days of account opening. Your direct deposit needs to be an electronic deposit of your paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security) from your employer or the government. After you have completed all the above checking requirements, we’ll deposit the bonus in your new account within 30 business days.
- To receive the $100 savings bonus: 1) Open a new Cornerstone Savings account, which is subject to approval; 2) Deposit a total of $5,000 or more in new money into the new savings account within 10 business days of account opening; AND 3) Maintain at least a $5,000 balance for 90 days from the date of deposit. The new money cannot be funds held by Cornerstone or its affiliates. After you have completed all the above savings requirements, we’ll deposit the bonus in your new account within 30 business days.
- The Annual Percentage Yield (APY), for Cornerstone Savings effective as of 03/01/2017, is 0.25% for all balances.
- Interest rates are variable and may change after the account is opened. Additionally, fees may reduce earnings on the account.
- You can receive only one new checking and one new savings account opening related bonus each calendar year and only one bonus per account.
- Bonuses are considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT.
- Account Closing: If either the checking or savings account is closed by the customer or Cornerstone within six months after opening, we will deduct the bonus amount for that account at closing.
Avoiding Fees
The savings & checking accounts both have no monthly fees to worry about. You do forfeit the bonus if the accounts are closed within six months though.
Our Verdict
Update: Really not worth considering as it’s a hard pull to open the account, you’d be better off signing up for a credit card with a high cash sign up bonus instead.
Let’s look at both bonuses independently:
- Checking bonus is a good deal if you live near a branch and it’s a soft pull.
- Savings bonus requires tying up $5,000 for 90 days, basically getting a 2% return over a 90 day period. That’s better than any other savings account and is worth doing if paired with the checking bonus.
If anybody signs up, please share your experiences in the comments below. For now due to the unknowns it won’t be added to our best account bonus page.
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- 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
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Unfortunately, since it’s in-branch only and they don’t have Saturday hours, I likely won’t be able to take advantage of this offer – especially since the I-85 collapse and the resulting traffic makes lunch break account opening runs next to impossible.
If I do venture out to a branch, I’ll be sure to update.
Thanks, Jimbo. Surprised they don’t add Saturday hours with the collapse.
Will do it and post updates later.
Thanks, keep us updated!
Opened account today and no HP on credit report yet. Went to the branch at Decatur and made sure with banker that there’s only Soft Pull. Will update if ended up getting HP.
SMH. I got hard pull on equifax as well.
I will go fo this either this week or next.
for*
Thanks, keep us updated!
I went to branch this afternoon, and they said it will be a soft pull and but they are able to get my full report (I didn’t get any hard pull trigger email which I’ve set it up with bureaus). They checked with me on my BOA CC fiasco and after my explanation on how BOA messed it up with CC, they said they see the same notes in all the bureaus report (looks like BOA has agreed its an err from their part). I didn’t try for CC funding. No household restrictions and its IN-BRANCH only…
Did they mention how quick the bonus will post?
It’s a hard pull, I can see it now when I refreshed my credit report…now need to fight with these guys to remove it from my report since they said it will be soft pull
That sucks, Vijay! Thanks for taking one for the team, updating our post now.
I am going to the Sandy Springs branch tomorrow and will update you back with DP’s…
Spoke to the branch manager, they insisted it should be a Soft pull by showing documentation that it’s a soft pull, saw my credit report and they were also wondering why it shows up as Hardpull. The manager is very kind and she requested me to wait for 30 days to see whether it goes away, if not she will make sure to get it out of my report.
Anyway, I got the bank’s documentation showing its a soft pull…YMMV if you’re trying…
Thanks, Vijay! Keep us updated
I opened the savings and checking accounts yesterday. No hard pull showing for me. The mobile app and online banking website services are not great.
I would suggest you to refresh your credit report in credit karma or any other source you use. Mine initially didn’t trigger hard pull for a day and then when I refreshed my report it showed up as Hard pull.
Thanks, can anybody else chime in on hard/soft pull? Now we have two conflicting DP.
Hard pull on experian, 2 employer DD’s of $100 on April 28th and May 15th, think 30 business days would be around mid June so hopefully bonus posts by then.
sorry meant equifax in the above comment
I spoke to a banker today and she informed me that they don’t even have the option to do a hard pull. She also mentioned that credit karma doesn’t always report things accurately and that you would need to check your actual credit report to see that it’s not listed as a hard pull.
You’re right. my banker also showed me in his system that there’s no option for them to have a hard pull. They are 100% sure that its Soft pull and they also indicated that around 10 customers complained that they saw an hard pull from ‘Credit Karma’ for which the banker asked them to directly check with Equifax and to their surprise Cornerstone bank pull doesn’t even show up in Hard Inquiries. The banker indicated to me that for some reason Credit Karma is showing their pull as hard pull for checking account which is incorrect. Hope it helps someone!
Is it a hard pull? Is there more data for this?
It seems that this offer is now Available Nationwide.
Online application: https://www.cornerstonebankga.com/4q-350
Cornerstone Bank is offering a $350 bonus when you open a new Cornerstone Bank Checking and Money Market Account by December 31, 2017.
Please provide data regarding whether this is a hard or soft pull, as well as credit card funding.