This bonus has expired, you can view current M&T bonuses by clicking here.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $250
- Availability: AZ, CT, DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $100
- Additional requirements: Open MyChoice account
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Yes
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: Avoidable
- Early account termination fee: $50 180-days
- Expiration date: March 31st, 2017
- Household limit: None listed
Contents
The Offer
No direct link to offer (go to mtb.com/checking and enter promo code QO, but read our verdict first)
Open a new M&T MyChoice Premium checking account by March 31st, 2017 with the promotional code QO and receive a sign up bonus of $250 when you do the following:
- Set up a qualifying direct deposit of $100 or more within 90 days of account opening
The Fine Print
- Qualifying direct deposits include but are not limited to electronic deposits such as payroll or social security and do not include electronic money transfers or credits such as account-to-account transfers or those made through internet payment services
- Bonus will post to the account within 90 days of meeting the direct deposit requirement
- Limited to one bonus per customer
- Offer may vary by region and product
- Offer is nontransferable
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Unlike other M&T bank promotions, this one only works on the MyChoice Premium checking account.
MyChoice Premium Checking $24.95 Per Month
This account has a $24.95 per month fee, this is waived when you do either of the following:
- Keep an average daily balance of $7,500 or more in the account per monthly service charge cycle OR
- 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
In the past (here & here) people have successfully gotten the bonus without being targeted, but YMMV as always. M&T is a bit crazy with the bonuses at the moment, they also have another promotion code required offer for $200. Public offer for $150 and another public offer for $160 (will post about this shortly). In the past people have been able to churn these offers as well, not sure how long that is going to last. The other good thing about M&T is that they post the bonuses very quickly after meeting the requirements.
The downside to this bonus is that you need to keep it open for 180 days to avoid the $50 account termination fee and the monthly fee is $24.95. You can waive it but that requires a deposit of $7,500. If you compare this directly to the $200 offer you’re basically tying up $7,500 for 180 days for an extra $50 – not a good deal for most people.
I won’t add this to our best checking promo list until somebody that wasn’t targeted confirms they got the bonus. Update: Confirmed and also confirmed that stacking works.
Hat tip to soft_bespoken on /r/churning
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- 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
I had previously opened an account using the QH code. I used CapOne360 to fund and the bonus posted immediately. I then used this code–QO–and funded with CapOne360 again. The DD went through on 6/27 and I haven’t received the bonus as of 7/2. Should I be concerned?
This code is long expired. Have seen comments on other M&T threads that expired codes did not yield bonus.
How are folks transferring funds out of account? Trying to avoid $3 fee…
@Matt K
The same way you transferred funds into the account.
Request a transfer from a bank that doesn’t charge a fee. Chase in my case.
If the maintenance fee is $3, it sounds like you opened the Basic Checking Account and there is no way to avoid the fee on that account according to their fee schedule.
Is this offer really expired?
Looks like it, unless somebody tries and it still works.
Were you able to try it?
DP: Everything happened successfully on the same day (4/18/17): $100 transaction using Venmo posted to trigger DD requirement, $250 bonus posted, and account was downgraded to EZChoice Checking with a secure message.
@Summit
Great way to kill the golden goose.
Better to wait for few days before downgrading the account. There is nothing to lose by doing so. Better to fly under the radar then flying high and getting shot down 🙂
Just my 2 cents.
+1. Why tempt fate by bringing this to their attention?
I would have liked to have waited, but it was nearing the 30 day mark since account opening so I was about to get hit with the $30 monthly fee if I didn’t downgrade soon. Poor planning on my part since I was traveling for work when my debit card arrived and couldn’t activate it to do the transactions last week to raise less suspicion.
@Summit
No worries.
We have all been there 🙂
Anyone have problems trying to set up an external account for transfers? It says I’m not authorized. I activated my debit card today, so if I still can’t set up a transfer tomorrow, I guess I will have to call them. I really don’t want to do that, but it’s getting close to the 30 day mark of when I opened the account so I want to make sure I get the ACH transfer deposited so the bonus can post in time before I downgrade the account.
Here’s a screenshot of the page denying me access for bank to bank transfers: http://imgur.com/a/vkYHv
What are you trying to transfer?. If you are trying to meet the Direct Deposit Requirement, then you must be transferring from an external bank account to MTB account.
I guess I assumed that blocking transfers applied to incoming and outgoing transfers. I’ll try starting the transfer from my other bank to see if that works.
I think I’ll have to eventually fix this problem though, since I’ll want to get the money out at some point.
You should still pull with out with an external bank. M&T charges $3 to do transfers from their site
You just need your debit card to unblock from internal transfers too.
And you should always push pull from your external account when doing these bonus accounts.
Update on this: Within 24 hours of activating my debit card, the screen changed and asked me for the debit card pin. After putting it in, transactions were enabled (internal and external).
Lesson learned: Always activate the debit card 🙂
First time it happened that the bonus did not post the same day as the DD.
Opened account on 3/29, went to pending and they requested to FAX SS Card and utility bill via letter dated 3/30. Received letter dated 4/4 that the account approved followed by debit card.
Set up DD and the DD posted yesterday and still no bonus.
Should I be worried and contact them since maybe the account opened after the promotion was over ?
@DoC
Someone else mentioned they opened the account a week after the code expired and they still got the bonus.
Thank @Ken
You are very helpful.
I’ll hope for the best.
Do you recall where you saw that? Multiple DPs or just one?
There’s half a dozen posts, so it’s impossible to know where I saw it. But I follow all of them and remember seeing it at least once. I would not personally use expired or recycled codes.
Don’t contact the bank, won’t help you and it just flags your account. Account opening date doesn’t matter, based on when you applied.
Thanks @DoC
Makes sense not to contact them as I don’t want the gravy train to stop.
Thanks for the reassurance too 🙂
It’s been three days and still no bonus 🙁
I will push another $100 and see if that triggers the bonus.
Otherwise I’ll have to take the loss and move on to the next bonus code(s).
This is how I would proceed too since account minimums are so low and there seems to be a seemingly unlimited supply of new promo codes.
I pushed another $100+ but no dice.
Well….you wins some, lose some.
Can I write if off as a loss while doing my taxes next year?
Who are you using for push the DD?
Practically every bank’s ACH works for this deal since I have not seen any DPs for it not working with any other banks.
I have used Capital One and Ally successfully in the past.
I was able to downgrade account by messaging them after I got the bonus and about 10 days after opening account.
There is a new $250 bonus expiring May 31, 2017. Same T&C as above, but with promo code QH. Source: mailer.
Can you send me the mailer pretty please? [email protected], thank you in advance!
I SMed to downgrade my account, and they said I need to go into the branch. So I tried on the phone and it worked. Then DW called and was told they can’t do it by phone; need to go in to branch, so she tried SM. Waiting for reply…
any updater? are you in an eligible state?
Does anyone know if the expiration on this promo code got extended?
I only ask because it seems that the M&T codes often get extended.
@Reg
AFAIK Only $150 promotions get extended.
All others get new codes.