Update 7/1/25: Extended to to 12/31/25
Update 12/30/24: Extended to 6/30/2025
Update 10/1/24: Extended to 12/31/2024
Update 6/27/24: extended to 9/30/24
Update 3/31/24: Extended to 7/1
Update 2/21/24: Deal is back and valid until 3/31/2024. Hat tip to reader Gadget
extended to 3/31/2024
Extended until 1/31/23
Extended until 12/28/2023
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount:Â $400
- Availability:Â NH, MA, RI, CT, DE, NY, NJ, PA, or FL
- Direct deposit required:Â Yes, $5,000+
- Additional requirements:Â See below
- Hard/soft pull:Â Soft pull
- ChexSystems:Â Yes
- Credit card funding: Â None
- Monthly fees: $3 – $10 avoidable
- Early account termination fee:Â $25, 90 days
- Household limit:Â None listed
- Expiration date:Â 10/03/2023
Contents
The Offer
- Santander is offering a $400 checking bonus when you open a Santander Select checking account and complete the following requirements:
- have $5,000 or more in direct deposits within the first 90 days
The Fine Print
- Get $400 when you open a new Santander Select® Checking, Simply Right® Checking, or Santander® Private Client Checking account ($25 minimum opening deposit on all) by 10/03/2023 and have direct deposits totaling $5,000 or more post to this account within the first 90 days.
- Account must be opened in a branch.
- The 90 day period begins the day of account opening, unless the account is opened on a weekend or holiday, in which case the period begins on the first business day after account opening.
- Offer is transferable until redeemed by the addressee and we reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to limit the number of times this Promotion Code may be used. You must be 18 years or older.
- Offer is not available if any account owner is a current checking customer of Santander or had a Santander checking account in the last 12 months prior to account opening.
- Offer cannot be combined with any other bonus offer.
- Promotion Code must be entered at new account opening to be eligible for this offer, and cannot later be added to an account, or changed, unless it is presented and applied within 14 days of account opening.
- The account must remain open in an eligible account type until payment of bonus, which will occur within 30 days thereafter.
- In addition, the account must remain open and in good standing to be bonus eligible. Bonus is considered interest and will be reported to the IRS on Form 1099-INT.
- If multiple accounts are opened with the same signer, only one account will be eligible for the bonus.
- For new checking account customers only.
- Offer is only available to residents of NH, MA, RI, CT, DE, NY, NJ, PA, or FL (Florida Eligibility: This offer is only eligible online in ZIP codes within Miami Dade, Monroe, and Broward Counties, including ZIP code 34141).
- Â Offer expires 10/03/2023. This offer is subject to change at any time.
- Offer is only valid with use of a Promotion Code. Promotion of this offer may end at any time.
- Qualifying Direct Deposits include your paycheck, pension, government benefits (such as Social Security), or other eligible regular monthly income from your employer or the government electronically deposited to your checking account. Direct Deposits do not include teller deposits, wire transfers, debit card transfers, ATM, Online and Mobile Banking transfers or deposits, person to person transfers (such as Zelle® or Venmo), or a merchant advancing payroll using a debit card.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
- Simply Right has a $10 monthly Fee, waived with one transaction* – a deposit, withdrawal, transfer, or payment – posted during the calendar month.
Early Account Termination Fee
$25 if closed within 90 days
Our Verdict
Not as good as the last $500 bonus. Although the direct deposit requirement is lower for the $400 tier. In any case a lot of people try to cycle these santander bonuses so if you’re eligible it’s probably worth just taking this bonus as I doubt we will see anything better in the short term.We will add this to our list of the best bank account bonuses. If you have issues with applying try using firefox.
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
During the application, I specified $25 initial deposit to be funded from my Discover Savings. At end of application, it displayed message: “Your Funds Didn’t Transfer. We can’t transfer right now, but don’t worry: your account is open. You can enroll in online banking to add funds to your account”. It then showed my account# and initial deposit $0 (instead of $25).
I login online and I saw the new Santander Checking with $0 balance.
1) From the message, “can’t transfer right now”, will Santander attempt to transfer initial deposit LATER or it will not transfer at all?
2) Can I just do push $5010 from Fidelity to satisfy the 5k bonus requirement or must I do $25 initial deposit funding first before 5k pushes?
3) If I need initial fund first, must it be done by Santander initiating a pull from external bank or can it be done by external bank initiating a push to Santander?
Note: No Chex pull when I applied online as New Customer (from laptop) even though I had existing login profile.
4.26.25 – applied, instant approval (lol/24)
May/June – Real DD – hit $5000 total in June
7.29.25 – $400 bonus credited
4/28: Opened
5/12: $5k push from Wise
7/7: $5k push from Fidelity
7/29: $400 Bonus Payment
With no bonus tracker and no Wise DP’s, I chickened out and did a Fidelity push just to feel more certain
When you open online, what are the funding methods? Do they force you to use Plaid?
2025-04-21 Open
2025-05-02 DD1
2025-05-16 DD2 – Qualified 5k+
2025-07-20 Evaluation Day
2025-07-22 $400 Bonus on Day 92: “BONUS PAYMENT”
04/18 – open
3x real DDs deposit before end of May total $5k
$1 deposit in June and July to avoid fee
07/18 – $400 posted
04/22/25 – account opened
05/02/25 – $1000 push from Schwab Brokerage
05/12/25 – $2500 push from Schwab Brokerage
06/04/25 – $1600 push from Schwab Brokerage
06/17/25 – received an email titled “[name], only 30 days left to earn your bonus”
07/16/25 – $400 bonus posted
I received a targeted mailer from Santander that stated “Earn up to $800 with a new checking account” on the front. I was bummed as I recently opened an account for the $400 public offer. I think that this is the 1st time that I had ever received a targeted Santander offer.
I then opened it and reviewed the terms and felt a lot better. The $800 offer requires a Private Client Checking account, which requires $250K to be in the account at all times, making the deal a complete non-starter for me.
Interestingly, the $400 offer in the mailer requires a Santander Select Checking account, while the public offer that I signed up for, allowed a Simply Right Checking Account.
There was also a lowly $200 offer for the Simply Right in the mailer.
I got a mailer today for an $800 bonus for opening a Santander private client checking and having 10k in DDs in 90 days. However, private client checking requires a 250k balance. Tempting to try to get the bonus but it probably wouldn’t post for 3/4mo and by then I imagine they’ll bother me about the 250k balance
Pretty late to report, but I just wanted to include a data point that the bonus posted within 90 days of account opening with real direct deposits.
8/22 – Account opened
Multiple real DD’s
~11/15 – Received $400 bonus
Closed account in March.