The fine print of this offer has changed significantly. Because of this we are marking this promo as ended and we will write a new post on this offer shortly. In the mean time you can view a complete listing of all checking & savings promotions by clicking here. Update: new post is now live.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: Nationwide
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $200+
- Additional requirements: None
- Hard/soft pull: Soft, make sure you don’t opt in for overdraft protection otherwise it will be a hard pull
- Credit card funding: No
- Monthly fees: $8, waivable
- Early account termination fee:Â $25 if closed within six months.Â
- Expiration date: January 12th, 2015
The Offer
- Receive a $200 checking bonus from Nationwide when you do the following:
- Open a new Nationwide E-Checking account with a minimum opening deposit of $50 using offer code 02106460
- Set up an automatic monthly direct deposit of at least $200 (this must be received within 60 days of account opening)
The Fine Print
- Valid until January 12th, 2015
- Account must remain open for at least 90 days to receive $200 bonus
- Bonus will post within two weeks after the 90 day requirement is reached
- Limited to one offer per household
- Offer not available to existing customers
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Nationwide’s echecking account comes with a monthly fee of $8. This is waived if you do one of the following:
- Receive a direct deposit of $25 or more and 8 debit card point of sale transactions (the debit card requirement is not listed on the offer page, but it is listed here. We’d recommend completing it to avoid the $8 fee)
- Maintain a combined average daily balance among your Nationwide Bank deposit accounts of at least $10,000 (excludes CD balances)
The Nationwide Bank fee schedule states that there is an early account termination fee of $25 if you close your account within six months.
Our Verdict
I always try to aim for at least $100 when going after bank account sign up bonuses, in this case it’s $200 so I’ll be making use of this offer. Here is how I’ll be completing it:
- Open eChecking account with promotional code 02106460, making sure I don’t opt in for overdraft protection to ensure that a hard credit inquiry is not done.
- Fund the account with at least $50 from an external bank account
- Get my employer to change $200 of my payroll per month over to this new account (usually I’d just do an ACH transfer from an existing account but there are no data points that this will work. It might be worth waiting for these data points to come in if you’re not able to change your employers payroll details). This will trigger the $200 bonus and also help to keep the account fee free.
- Purchase 8 $0.5 amazon gift cards per month to fullfill the debit card requirement. Here are some other techniques for fulfilling this requirement (loading your Chime card is also another good way)
- Wait for my bonus to post
- Wait six months after the account was opened to avoid the early account termination fee
- Withdraw funds to my regular checking account
- Close the eChecking account
This bonus is a bit more work than some, but it’s definitely worth doing. We’ve added it to our list of the best bank account bonuses currently available.
