This offer has expired, you can view more business checking bonuses here.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: Only available to residents who live within a 50 mile radius of a 5/3rd branch. Use this to find out how far you are from the nearest branch. They have branches in the following states: FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MI, MO, NC, OH, PA, TN, WV
- Direct deposit required: None required
- Additional requirements: Three online bill payments
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- Credit card funding: Unsure
- Monthly fees: $11-$20, waivable
- Early account termination fee: None listed, in the past you’ve been required to keep it open for 9 months.
- Expiration date: April 4th, 2015
Contents
The Offer
- Open a business checking account with Fifth Third bank, maintain an average monthly balance of $1,000 for 90 days after account opening, make three online bill payments
The Fine Print
- Valid until April 4th, 2015
- Not available to existing checking customers or to those with a Fifth Third checking account that was closed within the last twelve months
- Limit of one new account-related bonus each calendar year
- $50 minimum deposit required
- All requirements must be initiated and post to the account within 90 days of account opening
- Bonus will be deposited within 6 weeks of completing requirements
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
I wasn’t able to find any mention of any early account termination fees but in the past if you closed the account within 9 months you were charged something, it doesn’t look like this is applicable anymore though. Fifth third offers three different business checking accounts.
Standard Business Checking
This account has a $11 monthly charge, it’s possible to get this waived if you do any of the following:
- Maintain a combined monthly average balance of $3,500 across your business checking, savings & CDs OR
- Spend at least $500 per month across your Fifth Third business credit cards OR
- Have a personal Fifth Third Private Bank or Fifth Third preferred checking account
Business Premium Checking
This account has a $25 monthly service charge, this is waived if you do any of the following:
- Maintain a combined monthly average balance of $10,00 across your business checking, savings & CDs OR
- Have a Fifth Third business loan or line of credit OR
- Have Merchant Services and you spend at least $500 per month across your business credit cards.
Business Elite Checking
This account has a $35 per month service charge, this is waived if you do any of the following:
- Maintain a combined monthly average balance of $25,00 across your business checking, savings & CDs OR
- Have a Fifth Third business loan or line of credit OR
- Spend at least $500 per month across your business credit cards plus have one of the following: Electronic Deposit Manager OR Cash Management Essentials
Our Verdict
You’re going to need to keep this account open for at least 19 weeks (13 weeks because the $1,000 needs to sit there for 90 days and another 6 weeks while you wait for the bonus to post) or 4 months. Your best option to keep the account fee free will be to sign up for a standard business checking account and keep $3,500 in funds there to keep it fee free, you’d be forgoing about $11 in interest that you would have received if you had it invested in a 1% checking account.
That said, I still think this is a fantastic deal and I would be completing it if I lived within the service area. You’ll need a legitimate business to sign up for this bonus and it might be a hassle if you’re not wanting to switch over your merchant services as well, but they are also offering a $1,000 MasterCard gift card if they can’t beat your current rates.
We’ve added this to our list of current business checking accounts bonuses, if you have any experiences with this bonus please let us know in the comments below. Fifth third are also offering a $200 & $250 personal checking bonus.
Direct link to offer | Screenshot of offer
Hat tip to Benton for letting us know about this offer, he could win $225 for doing so