Published on January 15th, 2020 | by Chuck

M&T Bank $200-$400 Checking Bonus – Available Online [CT, DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV]

Update 1/15/20: There is a $400 bonus now.

Update 1/7/20: Deal has been extended until March 2, 2020.

Update 11/8/19: Deal has been extended until January 6th, 2020.

Update 8/20/19: Deal has been extended until November 4th, 2019.

Update 7/10/19: Deal has been increased to $300 for MyChoice Plus or Premium & $200 for EZchecking & basic. Hat tip to readers Sean A & Allen W

Update 7/2/19: Now available until August 19th, 2019

Update 5/14/19: Deal is now available until July 1st, 2019.

Update 4/7/19: $350 bonus now available in branch. Hat tip to reader Gerald

Update 2/26/19: Bonus has been extended until April 1st, 2019.

Offer at a glance

Maximum bonus amount: $100/$150/$200/$250/$350
Availability: CT, DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV
Direct deposit required: Yes, $500
Additional requirements: None
Hard/soft pull: Soft
ChexSystems: Yes
Credit card funding: None
Monthly fees: Avoidable
Early account termination fee: $50, 180-days
Expiration date: ~~July~~ ~~August 15, 2018 September 5, 2018 October 31st, 2018~~ ~~November 26th, 2018 January 16th, 2019 February 25th, 2019 April 1st, 2019~~ ~~May 13th, 2019~~ March 2, 2020
Household limit: None listed

Contents

1 The Offer
2 The Fine Print
3 Avoiding Fees
4 Our Verdict
5 Bonus history

The Offer

Direct Link to offer

Input your zip code and see what offers show for you:

($400 – in branch only) Open an M&T MyChoice Premium checking account and receive a sign up bonus of $400 when you maintain a $10,000 average daily balance in March & April 2020. Must use promo code CG
($350 – in branch only) Open an M&T MyChoice Premium checking account and receive a sign up bonus of $350 & maintain a $10,000 average daily balance in March & April 2020.
($250) Open an M&T MyChoice Plus or Premium checking account and receive a sign up bonus of $250 when you set up a qualifying direct deposit of $500 or more within 90 days of account opening. Promo code: TL or G.
($200) Open an M&T EZChoice, Classic, or Basic checking account and receive a sign up bonus of $200 when you set up a qualifying direct deposit of $500 or more within 90 days of account opening. Promo code: TL or TG.
~~($150)Open any new M&T checking account and receive a sign up bonus of $150 when you set up a qualifying direct deposit of $500 or more within 90 days of account opening. Promo code: TN.~~
($100) Open an M&T EZChoice, Classic, or Basic checking account and receive a sign up bonus of $100 when you set up a qualifying direct deposit of $500 or more within 90 days of account opening. Promo code: TL.

Promo code TN or TL pre-populates the promo code field when using the above link and inputting an eligible zip code.

The Fine Print

We will credit one cash bonus to the account if the account receives a total of at least $500 in qualifying direct deposits within 90 days of account opening.
Qualifying direct deposits include, but are not limited to, recurring electronic deposits such as payroll, pension or Social Security. Person-to-person, bank transfers or other electronic money transfers such as those made through internet payment services do not qualify.
Bonus will be credited to the account within 90 days of direct deposit activation as long as the account is in good standing and all of the eligibility requirements are satisfied at the time we seek to credit the bonus.
Bonus is reportable for tax purposes.
No more than one bonus will be awarded regardless of the number of accounts, titling on account, or the number of direct deposit arrangements established.
Bonus offer may vary by product and region.
Cash bonus offers are not available to employees of M&T Bank or any of its affiliates or to customers who have already received a bonus in connection with an M&T personal checking account within the preceding twelve-month period.
A $50 early close-out fee applies if the account is closed within 180 days of the date the account was opened.
This offer is valid on new checking accounts opened by 07/15/2018.
This offer is nontransferable.
All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them.

Avoiding Fees

EZChoice Checking

This account has no monthly fees.

Basic Banking

This account has a non-waivable $3 monthly fee.

Classic Checking

This account has a monthly fee of $4.95 that can be waived with any one of the following methods:

Have at least 1 direct deposit to your M&T Classic Checking with Interest account
Keep an average daily balance of $500 or more in the account per monthly service charge cycle
Make 10 or more debit card purchases or payments
Keep combined balances of $1,500 or more in eligible personal deposit accounts

MyChoice Plus Checking

This account has a monthly fee of $14.95 that can be waived with any one of the following methods:

Keep an average daily balance of $2,500 or more in the account per monthly service charge cycle
Have direct deposits to your MyChoice Plus Checking account totaling at least $1,500 per monthly service charge cycle

MyChoice Premium Checking

This account has a monthly fee of $24.95 that can be waived with any one one of the following methods:

Keep an average daily balance of $7,500 or more in the account per monthly service charge cycle
Keep total combined balances of $25,000 or more in eligible personal deposit accounts, loans and home equity outstanding balances, investments⁶ and business deposit accounts

Early Account Termination Fee

Looks to be $50 now if closed within 180 days.

Our Verdict

The direct link above is just a generic M&T website link, so the bonus should work for any zip code deemed eligible (not sure what the “not transferable” means in the fine print). I’m assuming this bonus is available in the the states listed above, as was the case last time around (note it won’t work in all areas in those states). Let us know if you see eligible areas elsewhere. Remember, you can’t do this if you’ve gotten a bonus within 12 months.

Thanks to reader Michael for letting us know about this bonus. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:

Bonus history

Update 1/17/19: Offer has been extended until February 25th, 2019.
Update 11/28/18: Offer has been extended until January 16th, 2019.
Update 11/01/2018: Offers extended until November 26th, 2018
Repost 09/17/18: There is now a $300 in branch offer. Details below. Hat tip to Lazy Traveler’s.
Repost 8/19/18: Offer extended through September 5, 2018.
Repost 7/19/18: Offer extended through August 15th.

824
Leave a Reply

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emergdoc67

This is confusing. The headline of the deal says you must open the checking account AND DD 500 by July 15. Next paycheck I can affect is 7/20. So I can’t do this.

Later on in the fine print it does say the DD must be within 90 days of account opening, in line with that doc has written here. perhaps just poor wording in the headline

Chuck

It’s saying that the account has to be opened by July 15. You have 90 days from opening for the direct deposit.

M&T has limited the sign up bonuses right? hold out for $200/300 bonus?

Beefer

I haven’t heard that personally. Their large sign-up bonuses are typically targeted toward existing/former customers so I doubt it.

The last time a non-targeted offer was more than $150 was the $200 offer in November 2017.

However, I think you’re mistaken. M&T has made it so that the bonuses are less churnable, not non-churnable. It used to be that you could sign up for as many accounts as you could fill the DD requirement for, so you could sign up for 15 bank accounts and get 15 $150 signup bonuses if you fulfilled them all.

Flea

Well, I for one believed it’s been over 12 months since I received my last bonus from them so… I’m goin’ back in! Will report again once I have something firm.

For those collecting data points, in the interim so far, I note they processed my application cheerfully and with no problem; but would not give me an account number at the end of it; rather, providing the traditional blank. I did say that I was an existing customer of M&T, and gave my current checking number with them. They did ask me for my zip code at the beginning of the process, after applying the DoC link. I do have live branches of the bank in my city. Identity verification questions were tough; but fair.

MarcoPolo

Good luck and thanks for being the guinea pig 🙂

Flea

Update: I’d say it’s not looking too good, as my initial account-opening deposit seems to be heading back to the bank, without my having done anything to initiate its happening. 🙁 I also checked the widget to be sure and my “seed account”, the only one still open, never received a bonus either; so it’s not a mistaken situation where I can’t count to twelve… I’ll update if they surprise me with a bonus, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Other than that, everything looks normal, no nastygrams via electronic or snail mail; and if my recollection is correct, the same thing in fact happened in the past (I pushed initial account funding in account-opening widget; initial account funding never made its way into my account, look for it though I might; a subsequent ACH push from a different linked external account, made its way into my account balance no problem).

MarcoPolo

Flea
Any more updates?

Flea

I was able to open and it’s still open, but Ally and Bluebird didn’t trigger squat, sadly. Possibly they are doing manual review, or I am on some type of mystery M&T blacklist. Gonna make one last push from Santander and see if that works.

MarcoPolo

Thanks Flea
Santander should work especially if you send it from a different account than yours.
Good luck!

Flea

Glad to say that Santander did work! 🙂

John

I was one of the people late last year that signed up and did not get a bonus as it was targeted. Since I didn’t get the bonus, do you think it is safe to apply for this one?

Yet Another Redditor

Chuck In the Northern VA area, I see a $100 and $250 bonuses

The code is TL for various accounts, two of which are –

EZChoice Checking
Get $100 Cash Bonus*
Get the essentials for no monthly maintenance fee
No monthly maintenance fee
No monthly minimum balance requirement
https://www.mtb.com/_layouts/15/UserControlForm.aspx?ProductId=E5&campaign=direct&ZipCode=20171&promo=TL

MyChoice Plus
Get $250 Cash Bonus*
WAIVE THE $14.95 MONTHLY MAINTENANCE FEE1 WITH:
Direct deposits of $1,500 or more per month, or
$2,500 or more average balance in this account
https://www.mtb.com/_layouts/15/UserControlForm.aspx?ProductId=H3&campaign=direct&ZipCode=20190&promo=TL

Chuck

Updated the post, thanks YAR!

Iggy

This is what I see today for PA.

Dylan

Code is “TN” and it’s not even available in the state of Tennessee? No respect?

SaRa

I had opened EZChoice Checking for a bonus in 2016 and closed my account in 2017. Can I still open this new checking account and take advantage of this bonus offer?

William Charles

” Cash bonus offers are not available to employees of M&T Bank or any of its affiliates or to customers who have already received a bonus in connection with an M&T personal checking account within the preceding twelve-month period.”

You last received a bonus in 2016, so you should be good to go.

taddy

Boo… I need to wait until October before I can attempt m&t again.

Input my zip code (I live in CT) but got the “Sorry, but this offer isn’t available in your area.” message.

Tom

In the past I put in corporate zip 14240 to get by the first screen. Then went thru the app with more actual address.

Great tip, that worked! Thanks!

Kit

That was an awesome tip, thanks!!!

DirtyLilRat

Did you get the bonus successfully using this technique?

I tried this tip and sucessfully got the bonus the day after my DD

Brian

I entered 14240 (I live in MI) and it worked! I’ll push from BBVA this week Thursday and report back if the bonus posts. Thanks @Tom

Melissa C

Thanks!

Mimi

I can confirm this works! Opened acct Oct 11, Santander DD posted Oct 18 and saw $250 bonus posted today!

Gerald

Anybody know if the once every 12 months rule applies for targeted offers? My wife was targeted shortly after opening an M&T account through a targeted offer.

Gerald

Never mind. It’s in the fine print.

Drew

Anyone get this message after applying?

Thank you for applying for an M&T Bank account. We are in the process of verifying the information you have provided.

You will be contacted by telephone or e-mail within the next three (3) business days.

Please retain the following confirmation number for your records:

Thank you for your patience and for choosing M&T.

Drew

I received a welcome letter in the mail today.

SamSimon

IF you got the bonus! Please share how fast you got the bonus after DD? thanks

Klad

07/05 – Account Opened
07/12 – $1510 Serve ACH posted
07/13 – $250 Cash Bonus

I am from Midwest but was in DC area, emailed the coupon from M&T site and opened the account in branch with out of state DL.. no questions asked, pretty easy bonus.. Thanks DoC as always.

ducksareawesome

Offer is back with $200 across the board now.

Chuck

ducksareawesome I’m still seeing the variation. What is the promo code it fills in for you to get the $200? I’ll add it to the post.

bax

Chuck

Thanks

ducksareawesome

21701 for instance. TL is the code used.

Ellie Arroway

I’m getting $200 across all accounts too. All are using promo code TL.

Chuck

Thanks, added.

Hodor

I’ve gone for two promos with M&T. Denied both times b/c I wasn’t “targeted.” Not wasting my time again.

Mr G

Not available in 22902 which is most certainly Virginia.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

M&T Bank $200-$400 Checking Bonus – Available Online [CT, DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV]

The Offer

The Fine Print