[IL, MN & WI only] Associated Bank $175+ Promotion, No Direct Deposit Required + $50 Per Referral

Extended until September 30th, 2019

Update 1/13/19: Brewers offer currently comes with two opening day tickets as well. As reader Michael points out even if you have no intention of going you should be able to flip these on StubHub.

Offer at a glance

Maximum bonus amount: $150
Availability: IL, MN & WI only
Direct deposit required: Optional
Additional requirements: Three bill pays or a direct deposit of $300+
Hard/soft pull: Soft
Credit card funding: Up to $1,200, no American Express cards.
Monthly fees: $11, waivable
Early account termination fee: Bonus forfeit if closed within 12 months
Expiration date: ~~February 26th, 2016~~ ~~March 31st, 2016 May 31st, 2016~~ ~~December 31st,~~ ~~2016~~ ~~June 30th, 2017 or~~ ~~December 31st, 2017 June 30th, 2018 March 31st, 2019~~ June 30th, 2019

Contents

1 The Offer
2 The Fine Print
3 Avoiding Fees
- - 3.0.1 Checking Account
  - 3.0.2 Money Market Account
- 3.1 Early Account Termination Fee
4 $50 Referral Bonus
5 Post Updates
6 Our Verdict

The Offer

Badgers Offer | Brewers | Packers

Open a Checking Account from AssociatedBank and receive a $175 bonus when you do the following:
- Open your account with a minimum opening deposit of $100 by (date that changes based on the offer you go for)
- Make three online bill payments OR add a direct deposit of $300 within 45 days of account opening
You can also get a $100 bonus when you open a money market account with a minimum opening deposit of $10,000. You must maintain that balance for 90 days to receive the bonus.

The Fine Print

$175 checking bonus:

Offer limited to qualifying checking accounts opened before March 31, 2019.
Minimum deposit required to open is $100.
Deposits from existing accounts do not qualify.
Customer must complete a minimum of three payments using online bill pay OR have one direct deposit of $300 or more to their account within 45 days of account opening.
Bonus will be deposited into their account within 75 days of account opening after meeting the qualifications.
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.
Customers with an Associated Bank checking account in the last six months, joint owners on an existing Associated Bank checking account and Associated Bank colleagues are not eligible. Popmoney® and transfers to external accounts do not qualify for the required transactions to receive the monetary bonus. Exclusions apply. Primary owner on the account must be 18 years or older to qualify. Offer limited to one per household, cannot be combined with other offers and is subject to change (at Associated Bank’s discretion) at any time without notice. For tax reporting purposes, a 1099 may be issued at year-end for the year in which the bonus is given.

$100 money market bonus:

Offer expires March 31, 2019.
A minimum opening deposit of $10,000 is required to receive the bonus and at least such amount must remain on deposit for 90 days to receive the bonus.
Deposits from existing accounts do not qualify; funds must be from outside of Associated Bank. $100 bonus will be deposited into money market accounts 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.
Primary owner on the account must be 18 years or older to qualify.
Offer not available to households who already have or have had a money market account at Associated Bank within the last six months. A

All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

Checking Account

There is a $11 monthly maintenance fee which is waived if you meet any of the following requirements:

$1,000 minimum daily balance
$2,500 in combined deposits
Direct deposits combining $500 or more per month
Under the age of 24 and enrolled in paperless statements.

Money Market Account

This account has a $16 monthly fee, this is waived if you have minimum balance of at least $1,000.

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. You’ll receive $50 Visa gift card per person you refer and they should still be able to sign up for the $150 bonus (if anybody successfully does this, please confirm). Feel free to share your referral links in the comments, but make sure you also let us know some useful information (e.g soft pull/credit card funding etc etc) or your referral link will be removed.

Post Updates

Update 09/25/18: If you open a Brewers account by November 1st you get the standard $175 checking bonus but you also get an additional $5 bonus for every game the Brewers win in September. They are currently on 14 wins in September (extra $70) with an extra four games to come. This makes the deal better than it normally is. Looks like the extra $5 is in Brewers Bucks, not cash. More details here Hat tip to reader Lo.
Update 04/11/18: Deal has increased to $175 from $150. Hat tip to reader Jennifer.

Our Verdict

This seems like a pretty good bonus, especially because there is no direct deposit required. It’s a shame that you can only fund $1,200 with a credit card, but $175 is still a good bonus. This is worth completing if you live in the target area and it’s one of the better checking bonuses out there. The money market bonus is basically $100 for depositing $10,000 for 90 days, that works out to be about 4% APY. Good but not great, there are better high yield accounts out there that are ongoing (update: It’s actually 3.08% when you take into account the $1,000 that must be deposited to be kept fee free. Making it significantly worse).

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