This promo has now ended, you can view the best current checking bonuses by clicking here
Update 10/20/19: Deal is back and valid through December 31st, 2019.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $150
- Availability: IL & WI, must live near a branch
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: 3 bill pays
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: Can fund up to $100 with a credit card visa, amex, MC, disc, diner’s, JCB allowed
- Monthly fees: None with eStatements
- Early account termination fee: $30, 90 days
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date:
September 30th, 2019December 31st, 2019
Contents
The Offer
- First National Bank and Trust Company is offering a bonus of $150 when you open a new checking account. Bonus is broken down as follows:
- Earn $50 per paid bill ($150 maximum)
The Fine Print
- To qualify for the full $150 incentive, a new consumer checking account must be opened between 08/01/19 and 09/30/19 and customer must pay 3 bills using FNBT’s online bill pay by 10/31/19.
- New checking account will not be eligible for offer if customer has an existing consumer checking account or has closed an account within the past 90 days.
- Customer will receive $50 for each bill paid online up to a maximum of 3 bills ($150).
- Amount will be credited to the eligible account by 11/15/19.
- Accounts closed for any reason prior to 11/15/19 will not receive the bill pay offer.
- Limited time offer.
- All incentives will be identified as “Bill Pay Incentive” on your monthly statement.
- The value of the incentives may be reported on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1099, and may be considered taxable income to you. Please consult your tax advisor regarding your specific situation.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
Standard checking account has no monthly fees as long as you opt for eStatements
Early Account Termination Fee
According to this page there is a $30 closure fee if closed within 90 days
Our Verdict
Easy bonus and no monthly fees to worry about. Because it’s a soft pull I’ll be adding this to our list of the best checking bonuses.
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- 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
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
Cancel via SM with zero balance. Spoke with a rep to cancel today and she said you can zero out and send a secure message or call to cancel, fyi
Got an email alert today!
2019-10-26 opened
2019-10-30 met bill pay requirements
2020-02-03 did another bill pay to keep the activity going
2020-04-23 $150 bonus payout
Mine posted on 04/23 as well
mine too
Well, it’s been 90 days and I haven’t seen the bonuses post (and I did make sure the account wasn’t dormant within the last 90 days). Anyone have another successful DP? I’ll try contacting the bank later this week.
Doh! 90 days after Jan 31 is April 30!
PSA: I complete the requirements (so easy) and just reached out to them to ensure I was on track to receive bonus (since all actions were legit) and I found out an important detail: they have 90 days to pay after the promotional period ends on 1/31/2020. AND as you’ll see in the pasted response below, the account must not be dormant, must have at least one transaction within the 90 day leadup to payment or else bonus is forfeited. Here are the exact requirements as noted by the online rep today:
“*To qualify for the full $150 incentive, a new consumer checking account must be opened between 10/01/19 and 12/31/19 and customer must pay 3 bills using FNBT’s online bill pay by 01/31/20. New checking account will not be eligible for offer if customer has an existing consumer checking account or has closed an account within the past 90 days. Customer will receive $50 for each bill paid online up to a maximum of 3 bills ($150). Amount will be credited to the eligible account within 90 days after the promotional period has ended. To remain eligible for the offer, account must remain open and active. Accounts with zero transactions within the 90 days leading up to bonus payment, will forfeit the bonus. Limited time offer. All incentives will be identified as “Bill Pay Incentive” on your monthly statement. The value of the incentives may be reported on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1099, and may be considered taxable income to you. Please consult your tax advisor regarding your specific situation.”
Thanks for the heads up! I’ll be sure to push/pull some money around those days.
How long does this take to pay out? Will it not be until beginning of the new year since it ends at the end of december?
The fine print on the current offer:
“To qualify for the full $150 incentive, a new consumer checking account must be opened between 10/01/19 and 12/31/19 and customer must pay 3 bills using FNBT’s online bill pay by 01/31/2020. New checking account will not be eligible for offer if customer has an existing consumer checking account or has closed an account within the past 90 days. Customer will receive $50 for each bill paid online up to a maximum of 3 bills ($150). Amount will be credited to the eligible account within 90 days after the promotional period has ended. To remain eligible for the offer, account must remain open and active. Accounts with zero transactions within the 90 days leading up to bonus payment, will forfeit the bonus….”
I opened an account during the first promo period and the bonus is supposed to pay out no later than today but I haven’t seen anything yet.
Denied with a zip 50 miles away from the nearest branch.
datapoint: not chex sensitive at all. system gave me member number (Is this a credit union?), account, and routing number all at opening of account. took 10 minutes and was auto-approved.
How many accounts in the last 12/24 months?
Around 30 in the last 24 months. Probably half as many in 12 months
Max CC funding is $100. visa, amex, MC, disc, diner’s, JCB allowed.
They must have recently limited it to $100. I funded with my Amex Everyday card for $5000 a couple weeks ago as no limit was listed then.
dang. coulda used that. they had a javascript form validator enabled when I went through it last night. I suppose you could try disabling that with a noscript-style browser extension, but YMMreallyV on that one.
I applied using a Chicago zip code and was denied due to being out of their eligible area.
Offer appears to be back, valid through the end of the year.