[IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, OH and WI only] Associated Bank $600 Checking Bonus

Extended to 30 September 2025

extended through June 30, 2025

Extended to 12/31/24

Update 6/18/24: Extended to 9/30/24

Update 3/26/24: Extended until  6.30.24

Update 12/22/23: Extended until March 31, 2024. 

Update 8/3/23: Extended until December 31, 2023.

Update 7/13/23: This is now a $600 checking bonus.

Update 4/30/23: New link. Valid until July 31, 2023

Update 2/13/23: Deal is back and valid until Apr. 30th, 2023. Hat tip to reader Ethan

Update 11/13/22: Deal is back, now with a $200 savings bonus. Hat tip to das1996

Update 3/3/22: This is available in more states now, terms now state ‘IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, OH and WI.’ Hat tip to reader Michelle B

Update 11/3/21: Deal is back, but sadly only $400 instead of $500. In addition the terms state you can’t have received a bonus in the last 24 months or had a checking account in the last 12 months.

Offer at a glance

  • Maximum bonus amount: $600
  • Availability: IL, IN, MN & WI only
  • Direct deposit required: Yes, $500+
  • Additional requirements: See below
  • Hard/soft pull: Soft
  • ChexSystems: Yes
  • Credit card funding: Up to $1,200, no American Express cards.
  • Monthly fees: None
  • Early account termination fee: Bonus forfeit if closed within 12 months
  • Household limit: None listed
  • Expiration date: May 31st, 2021 June 30, 2021 March 31, 2022 December 30, 2022

The Offer

Direct link to offer (must use promo code 1400 for both bonuses or use code 1300 for the $400 checking bonus)

  • Associated Bank  is offering a bonus of up to $600 when you open a new checking account and complete the following requirements:
    • Receive recurring direct deposits totaling $500 or more within 90 days of account opening
    • Bonus you receive depends on your average daily balance (days 31-90):
      • Total average daily balances of $1,000-$4,999.99 will earn $300,
      • $5,000-$9,999.99 will earn $400,
      • over $10,000 will earn $600.
  • They are also offering a $200 savings bonus when you open a new account with a minimum of $25,000 remaining on deposit for 90 days

 

 

The Fine Print

  • Offer limited to a new personal Associated Bank checking account opened and funded through May 31, 2021.
  • Receive up to $500 bonus with required minimum opening deposit (Associated Access Checking: $25, Associated Balanced or Choice Checking: $100; deposits from existing accounts do not qualify) and direct deposits totaling $500 or more within 90 days of account opening.
  • Determining your bonus: 90 days (or the previous business day), after opening your checking account, we will calculate the sum of the average daily balance for all your open Associated Bank deposit accounts for days 31-90. Total average daily balances of $1,000-$4,999.99 will earn $200, $5,000-$9,999.99 will earn $300, over $10,000 will earn $500.
  • All personal Associated Bank checking, savings, money market, IRA and/or CD account balances are included in the calculation to determine your total average deposit balance. Accounts must be titled with the same primary account holder to qualify for the bonus. Deposit balances from business, HSA, investment, minor or private banking accounts are ineligible.
  • The bonus will be deposited into the new Associated Bank checking account within 120 days of account opening.
  • Account must be open at the time the bonus is paid and must remain open for a minimum of 12 months.
  • If the account is closed within 12 months, Associated Bank reserves the right to deduct the monetary bonus from the account prior to closing.
  • Offer limited to one per customer and cannot be combined with other offers.
  • Offer limited to one per customer and cannot be combined with other offers. New customers opening online are limited to IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, OH and WI. Offer not available for customers who have received a new personal checking account monetary bonus within the last 24 months and have or have had an Associated Bank checking account within the last 12 months.
  • Associated Bank colleagues are not eligible.
  • Primary owner on the account must be 18 years or older to qualify.
  • Person to Person payments and transfers from external accounts do not qualify for the required direct deposit transactions to receive the monetary bonus.
  • For tax reporting purposes, the bonus will be reported to the IRS on Form 1099-INT.
  • The offer is subject to change, at Associated Bank’s discretion, at any time without notice and other exclusions may apply.

Avoiding Fees

Monthly Fees

Associated access checking account has no monthly fees to worry about. You do need to opt into eStatements otherwise you’ll be charged $4.

Early Account Termination Fee

There is no early account termination fee, but the account needs to be open  for 12 months or the bonus is forfeit.

$50 Referral Bonus

You can also refer friends if you visit here. Previously you’ve been able to get referred and also get the bonus, it looks like that will stack as well because the brewers referlive page specifically mentions the $500 bonus. In addition person signing up for the account can get a Christian Yelich bobblehead (these are going for $20-$50 on eBay, but I imagine price will come down). Please do not ask for or share your referrals in the comments. Instead you can use this dedicated page.

Our Verdict

We’ve seen previous bonuses of $175 + $100 and $400. This new offer is for more money and you don’t need to open a savings account (but you do need a high average daily balance for 30 days, but still less than the previous $400 offer). The other offers had direct deposit optional though. I still think this is the best offer by far and will be adding it to the best bank bonus page.

Hat tip to reader Arthur D

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
    William Charles
  • On December 22, 2023, 08:00
Tags: credit card fundingdirect deposit requiredIL bank bonusesin bank bonusesmn bank bonusessoft pullwi bank bonuses

View Comments (1349)

  • I did not receive the bonus (Ally fake DD did not work). I plan to close it as it's been open 6 months. Do I need to wait 24 months before applying again - am I reading this correctly?

    Terms:
    "Offer limited to one per customer and cannot be combined with other offers. New customers opening online are limited to IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, OH and WI. Offer not available for customers who have received a new personal checking account monetary bonus within the last 24 months and have or have had an Associated Bank checking account within the last 12 months. Primary owner on the account must be 18 years or older to qualify. For tax reporting purposes, the bonus may be reported to the IRS on Form 1099. Associated Bank colleagues are not eligible. The offer and APY are subject to change, at Associated Bank’s discretion, at any time without notice and other exclusions may apply. (1454)"

    • No, you're reading it incorrectly. You didn't receive the bonus, so you don't have to wait 24 months. You will have to wait 12 months after you close the account.

  • Approved 6/30, confirmation email states "Access Checking - Promo 1382". To receive bonus can you real DD $500 then transfer $10k from another bank?

  • Adding a DP - opened checking account for P3 and funded $500 with Chase Sapphire. It coded as cash advance.

    • So weird - I used a Chase Hyatt Business card for $3k and it coded as a sale. You would think all Chase cards would code the same.

  • @guest_1010697 Associated seems to have closed the joint account workaround (https://www.doctorofcredit.com/il-in-mn-wi-only-associated-bank-500-checking-bonus/#comment-1342365) -- unless I am doing something wrong.

    Tried to open a joint savings account just now through my login with me as an existing customer (opened in branch OOS earlier this year) and P2 as the new customer. My information was auto-filled. Added P2 as a joint applicant, checked the box stating that her address was the same as that of the primary applicant (our OOS address), filled in her SSN/DL info, and tried to move on to the next page. Got an error ("Unfortunately, we are not able to open accounts in your area"), with the state in P2's address (CA) highlighted in red ("State/Province is invalid"). Nothing in my address was flagged.

    Do you have any thoughts? The only other thing I can think of is to open the savings account on my own and then try to add P2 either by phone or by calling my banker at the branch where I initially opened -- but that seems like it would attract unwarranted attention, and is probably unlikely to work.

    • It's been many years since I did the joint account to bring in P2, I cannot remember the details now. It's possible they are cracking down on OOS and I might be in the soup next time I try to open a new checking account.

      • Sorry to have been the bearer of (potentially) bad news. Since we have not heard any similar reports from folks using the credit card trick, my guess is that this is restricted to completely new customers like my P2. But time will tell, I guess. @guest_1010697

  • Ok so problem: apparently the promo code wasn't applied when I applied online through the link. Has anyone else experienced this and know what to do? It's tough to search through the post history for this scenario. The Rep says my best bet is to a call a branch and see if they can add it

    • @guest_2073142 I wasn't sure my account was enrolled either. Out of curiosity, does your checking account have a number after it? I think mine was listed as Access Checking – 1351 and at the time DPs were saying that showed the account was enrolled in the bonus.

        • Hmm, was just a thought. Since you already involved the bank, your best bet might to be just to run through promo requirements and see what happens. If you took screenshots, you might be able to argue it if it doesn't show. Not sure it helps, but the terms in my offer stated: Offer limited to one per customer and cannot be combined with other offers. New customers opening online are limited to IA, IL, IN, KS, MI, MN, MO, OH and WI. 

          • @guest_1076869 Do you think if I submitted to CFPB the bank would enroll me in the promo? Or does CFPB only help if I have already completed the reqs?

    • Ugh, called one branch and they said I just need to do the reqs for the promotion to show. Didn't seem like they knew what they were talking about so I called a second branch. Second branch said that actually first branch did enroll me but then checked with a supervisor who said I am not eligible because OOS. Seemed like she put a note on the account too. I think they are misreading their own rules and don't know what they are talking about.

      Wondering if this warrants getting CFPB involved. Would suck to have opened the CC for only the measly $150 bonus.

      • Called branch rep back to contest reading of the terms, but after checking with back office they held that "new customer" means "new deposit relationship" and that my CC was new anyways.

        To me that is not what the terms say so I am thinking of getting CFPB involved. But not sure what CFPB pressure could do since I haven't "done" the bonus yet; would Associated Bank be likely to enroll me in the promotion?

        Can I get your thoughts? @guest_1010697 @guest_2014692 @guest_1097964 @guest_1076869

        Also a bit worried that contesting about this could lead to changes in the terms in the future

        • As you've already experienced you probably won't be able to get anyone to fix the missing promo code and a CFPB complaint won't help with that either. Best to close the account and chalk it up as a loss. Sometimes things like this happen when trying to sneak in from OOS.

        • Did you save the “Account Summary” pdf from your account opening? If so, what does it say for the account type?

          • @guest_2014692 No I did not, but logging into the app tracker the type just shows Access Checking

          • Gotcha. Yeah the promo code definitely wasn’t applied then. Wasn’t sure if it was a case of CSRs giving incorrect information.

            I think if the promo code wasn’t applied as part of the opening, you might be SoL. Unless you have screenshots of the application process showing either the promo or the URL containing the promo code query string, unfortunately I don’t see you winning a case. It’s up to the bank’s discretion at this point.

            What the back office said seems nonsensical to me though. The terms don’t state “new customer”. They just say you have to open a new checking account. Further, the CC doesn’t invalidate the made up “new deposit relationship” requirement, so wtf are they even on about?

          • Darn, I did not screenshot the intermediate page. Thank you for your advice. Unless someone thinks different, I think I will just close the checking account (which might motivate them to enroll me) and wait for the 12 month timer to reset before churning, which would mean my CC wasn't a complete waste.

            The terms they are referring to are about the state restrictions of who can open online. According to their fake interpretation, if I am a "new customer" i.e. have a "new deposit relationship", then I can't enroll online OOS.

          • Those are some real mental gymnastics. Their fake opening restriction, which clearly doesn’t apply as you were already able to open the account, doesn’t make them unable to attach the promo.

            I do agree with you on closing the account, but that’s just my two cents.

        • Sorry for double tag, Celia. This comment went to review and I didn't think it would go through

  • So there are a ton of old DPs about people's money getting locked up when they tried to move in the large amounts for the $10k hold requirement. Does this still happen or did they fix their system or did we learn a way around it?

    • @guest_2073142 General recommendation is to both push and pull funds using an established external bank account as opposed to using your newly opened account (Associate Bank in this case) to initiate transfers.

      • So if I wanted to do a CD for the hold requirement, I would need to push $10k to my Associated Bank checking account, then open the CD and transfer from my checking?

  • For anyone doing this now - do you see "Promo Code 6020" when you start the process?
    There is no way to enter 1400 that I could see.
    Thanks.

    • You should use the promo code that is being prefilled by the bank's webpage, which appears to be 6020 now. Don't go off the DoC webpage notes as they are likely old and outdated. @guest_2073244

      • Thanks, that's what I did. I try to screenshot everything along the process as well in case the CFPB is involved later on.

  • DP

    03/03/25 Opened with a $25 deposit
    03/14/25 $10K real DD
    03/28-06/06 Recurring DD >= $500, every 2 weeks
    06/05/25 $600 bonus posted

  • For those doing OOS trick via CC, you can just begin the app like normal then sign-in inside the app, rather than sign-in first and navigate within the portal to apply for an account. That way, you can have more confidence that the promo will be applied (even though other people say any new account is auto-enrolled).
    Also I was approved for checking same day I as I got access to online banking (several days after CC app)

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