This offer has expired. You can view more checking deals here.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $125
- Availability: You must live within their service area which is NY and the following counties: The Bronx, Kings County, Manhattan, Queens County, Nassau County, Staten Island, Suffolk County, Westchester County
- Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum amount specified
- Additional requirements: No
- Hard/soft pull: ?
- Credit card funding:Â Cannot be funded with a credit card
- Monthly fees: $0-$10
- Early account termination fee: $0
- Expiration date:
June 30th, 2014Extended till December 31st
The Offer
- Open a checking account with Ridgewood Savings Bank with the promo code “YES” and set up a direct deposit.
The Fine Print
- Valid until June 30th, 2014
- Minimum opening deposit of $25
- Direct deposit is required within 60 days of account open and must be recurring. The following are qualifying direct deposits: payroll, federal/state government benefit or pension benefit.
- Not available for existing customers or those who have closed an account in the last 90 days
- Bonus will post within 90 days of account opening
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
You can avoid monthly fees of $3 (associated with the Basic. Checking with interest & Acorn checking with interest have a $10 fee) by opening a student advantage account (no fees and no requirements) OR a free checking account.
If you open a free checking account you must complete the following requirements to keep it fee free:
- Sign up and use a qualifying direct deposit
- Sign up for online banking
- Maintain a combined total balance relationship of $2,500 or more in your Ridgewood accounts
There is no mention of any early account termination fee in any of their fee disclosures which we could find.
Our Verdict
This isn’t a bad deal, but by no means is it a great deal. There is also way to much uncertainty around this offer and as such I wouldn’t advise signing up for this checking account promotion. Â If you do decide to do this deal, please share with everybody in the comments on whether it was a hard or soft credit pull to open the account. We haven’t added this to our best checking sign up deals for 2014, mostly due to it only being available to those in NY and also the fact that we don’t know a lot about this deal currently.
Direct link to offer | Screenshot of offer
Just a data point their: Just opened this account and you can NOT fund this account with a CC
Thanks Mordy, glad to see you becoming active in the comments as well as on twitter. Updated this post with your data point.