Link no longer works, if anybody finds one let me know in the comments.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $250
- Availability: IL, IN, MI, NV and OH Only
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $150+
- Additional requirements: None
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: $5.95, waiveable
- Early account termination fee: $25, 180 days
- Expiration date: None listed
The Offer
- Receive a sign up bonus of $250 when you open an eClassic checking account with Talmer Bank & Trust and setting up a qualifying direct deposit of $150 or more within 60 days of account opening.
The Fine Print
- The direct deposit needs to be an electronic deposit such as a paycheck or pension from your employer, or government benefits such as Social Security
- The initial direct deposit must be credited to your account within 60 days of the account opening date
- Within 120 days after receiving your first direct deposit, we will deposit $250 into the personal account. If the account is closed prior to the crediting date, the bonus will not be paid
- Offer is available to new Talmer Bank and Trust personal checking account customers only, and new accounts are subject to approval
- A new customer is defined as not having a personal checking account with Talmer Bank within the last 12 months
- Minimum opening deposit of $50. Limit one promotional payout per account
Avoiding Fees
Account needs to be open at the time of the bonus posting, otherwise you will not receive the bonus. You’ll also need to keep the account open for 180 days to avoid any early account termination fee. The eClassic account has a monthly fee of $5.95 is waived if you do any of the following:
- Have a minimum average daily balance of $500+ OR
- Have a combined minimum average daily balance of $5,000+ OR
- Enroll in eStatements OR
- Have a qualifying direct deposit
Our Verdict
This seems like a pretty easy bonus to meet and also keep the account fee free. Here is what I’d do if I was completing this bonus:
- Open an eChecking account
- Enroll in eStatements to avoid the monthly fee
- Change my payroll (or use an ACH transfer if not possible to try) and trigger the direct deposit
- Wait for the bonus to post and 180 days to be up (to avoid early account termination fee), close account
Shame you can’t fund with a credit card and you have to apply for the bonus in branch. Still we’ve added this bonus to our best of list, you can view that here.
Hat tip to Maximizing Money
Account Opened: 06/07/16
One Payroll DD of $150: 06/17/16
Still No Bonus
I opened 5/26, bonus just posted, 1 real DD’s first month, 1 fake DD from discover (looks like it doesn’t work using discover).
When did your first DD hit? Opened mine 6/5 with first DD 6/10….still no bonus but sounds like I should see it in the next few weeks.
Just for future reference for any other bank bonuses Talmer (soon to become Chemical Bank) may post.
They are very strict about what posts as a direct deposit. Venmo and ACH from multiple banks did not trigger the bonus. They flat out denied me the bonus for not having a legit DD.
What banks did you do an ACH from? Added the DP to our page.
I did fidelity…it should be noted that talmer has been acquired by chemical bank, I recieved a letter, so I doubt this $250 will ever be around again unless offered by chemical.
“They are very strict about what posts as a direct deposit.” FYI, they’re very strict about a LOT of things. On my wife’s account, she opened it, had 2 monthly direct deposits, and then before they awarded the bonus we transferred the following month’s direct deposit to another bank for a promo. Before they awarded the bonus, they checked and noticed the 3rd monthly deposit hadn’t come in and cancelled her bonus (even though the bonus had no wording about number of deposits required…simply said it had to be a “recurring direct deposit”, which it did recur once). I was able to give an explanation to the banker, switch the direct deposit back, and then 4 or 5 months later when they still hadn’t given the bonus, I called him back and he had to call some people to get it approved. Never had a bank that strict on a bonus before. I recall someone somewhere indicated they got their account closed down (and lost their bonus) because they deposited money orders into the account. Now I just discovered another thing they are strict about…zero balances. I never closed my account, and even kept it fairly active for the last year. Even while doing other bonuses I kept part of my paycheck going into there up until end of December. After that I still had a balance in there, paid a bunch of bills from it in early Feb, and then on Feb 8 I drew the balance down to zero. I now had a new reason to use the account, so I logged in today, but had no accounts active in my online profile. Called their customer support number, and they told me the account was closed on March 15th. That’s 35 days with zero balance and they just close it with no notice (didn’t get any calls or letters). Holy hell…I can understand 1 year, or even 3 months, but 35 days is pretty short. I used them, probably a lot longer than I should have (even though their online interface was absolutely horrid both before and after the chemical bank merger), because they seemed like a nice bank, had a local branch a mile from my house, and they had a nice personal touch. The guy at my local branch reached out to me personally a few times (including calling my wife when that bonus was rejected instead of just sending a form letter). When I first opened the account, someone called me up about a week later just to see if I was happy and to ask if there were any questions they could answer or help me with. But damn, they now seem more like a needy spouse. They apparently hover over you making sure you are well catered too, which feels like a nice caring touch, but what you don’t realize is that they’re apparently watching and analyzing your every move, and at the first sign that you might possibly be unfaithful they go… Read more »
I opened 3/11, bonus just posted, 2 real DD’s first month, no dd of any kind after, just did 2 fidelity transfers early june for insurance.
I also received my $250 bonus on yesterday.
Here are my details:
3/8/16 – Opened account and funded with $50 cash
3/25/16 – Real direct deposit coming from my employer for $150
4/1/16 – Another $150 employer DD
6/20/16 – Bonus of $250 posted
Glad I did this bonus!
Also received my $250 bonus yesterday.
2016/03/02 – Opened Account
2016/03/09 – Ally ACH for $150 (It showed as ALLY BANK P2P and categorized as “Uncategorized”, I doubt it met the DD requirement)
2016/04/25 – First Direct Deposit of $150 (Did this through Payroll at my work)
2016/06/20 – Received the $250 bonus.
Direct deposit was through my work, which automatically categorized as “Income : Paycheck”.
When I did an ACH from Ally, it showed as “ALLY BANK P2P ” and categorized as “Uncategorized”, so I don’t think Ally ACH worked for the DD requirement.
I didn’t do the referral.
I’d highly recommend this bonus. Compared to some other bonuses, there’s a longer delay, but I didn’t mind since I have to leave the account open for 6 months either way, and there’s no monthly DD requirements to avoid fees.
I just received the $250 bonus posted on my account yesterday. I received an extra $50 for referring my wife to open the account. Total, we received $550 for both account and the $50 referral bonus.
Check your account and make sure you receive the bonus. I opened my account back in 03/04/2016. While it took this long, but I think it worth the wait considering it was very easy process.
Is this dead? Link to the website shows “The resource you are looking for has either moved or is no longer available.”
I was holding off on opening until I moved next month (and closed my 5/3rd and Santander accounts).
Looks dead, does anybody know of any other links?
DDs were employer payroll.
Looks like the bonus posted for me this month, Talmer’s statements are somewhat cryptic, does not show actual date bonus was credited to account, simply says: “2016 interest paid-$250”. This would be around 110 days since account was opened. I maintained $150 recurring DD every month since opening the account.
What method did you use for DD?