Published on August 26th, 2018 | by William Charles

[PA] Citadel Bank – $300 Checking Bonus + $100 Savings

Update 09/16/18: As far as I can see, there is no end date listed anymore.

Update 08/26/18: Deal is back and valid until September 15th, 2018. Hat tip to reader Tyler.

Offer at a glance

Maximum bonus amount: $400
Availability: Must live, work, worship, or study in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia Counties, or the city of Lancaster, PA or if a member of your family or household is already a customer, no matter where you live.
Direct deposit required: $500+
Additional requirements: See below
Hard/soft pull: Soft
ChexSystems: Unknown
Credit card funding: Up to $500
Monthly fees: None
Early account termination fee:
Household limit: One per lifetime
Expiration date: ~~July 21st, 2018~~ ~~September 15th, 2018~~ None listed

Contents

1 The Offer
2 The Fine Print
3 Avoiding Fees
- 3.1 Monthly Fees
- 3.2 Early Account Termination Fee
4 Our Verdict

The Offer

Direct link to offer

Citadel Bank is offering a bonus of up to $400 when you open a new checking. Bonus is broken down as follows:
- Receive $300 when you receive a direct deposit of $500 or more within 60 days of account opening
- Receive $100 when you open a Citadel High Yield Savings account (minimum balance of $10,000, also must be maintained for 30 days ) or Citadel credit card (minimum credit limit of $1,000)

The Fine Print

All standard account requirements apply.
The Cash Bonus offer may not be combined with any other offer. Offer available to new checking customers only.
Customer must not have closed a Citadel checking account within the last 12 months and/or received a checking sign-up bonus or award previously.
Limit one offer per household per lifetime.
To qualify for $300 Cash Bonus, a direct deposit of $500 or more must post to new checking account within 60 days of account opening. Direct deposit transactions are limited to payroll, social security, and government benefits.
For the additional $100 Cash Bonus, checking Cash Bonus offer requirements must be met, and customer must open any Citadel credit card with a limit of at least $1,000 and/or open a Citadel High Yield Savings account.
Minimum balance required to open Citadel High Yield Savings – $10,000.
Minimum balance must be maintained in the High Yield Savings account for at least 30 days after account opening in order to receive the additional $100 bonus.
Limit one additional $100 Cash Bonus per account.
To receive Cash Bonus(es), customer must contact Citadel by calling (877) 780-1615 or visiting a branch after completing requirements for each bonus.
Checking account must be open for 60 days before Cash Bonus is awarded.
Cash Bonus will be awarded after sixty days, once Citadel confirms the requirements have been met.
Account must be in good standing at time of incentive processing in order to receive Cash Bonus.
Cash Bonus must be requested within 60 days of meeting the promotion requirements.
Cash bonus may be reported on a 1099-INT.
Offer expires July 21, 2018.
This limited time offer may be withdrawn or changed at any time.

Avoiding Fees

Monthly Fees

They offer a free checking account with no monthly fees to worry about.

Early Account Termination Fee

Citadel bank does not charge any early account termination fees from what we could find.

Our Verdict

Opening a credit card will almost certainly result in a hard pull, so that isn’t worth doing. The high yield savings account earns 1.5% APY, so it isn’t worth keeping long term but it might make sense to open and keep funds in there for 30 days to trigger the $100 bonus. Previously they had a $250 checking bonus with no direct deposit requirement. Personally I’d take $50 less to not have to deal with the direct deposit requirement, but no gaurantees that bonus comes back and some people might prefer the extra $50. I do think this is worth doing if you live in an eligible area, so I’ll be adding this to our list of the best checking bonuses.

Big thanks to reader, Z Nut who let us know. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:

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Wish I held out on the $250 bonus to get this one.

greedycat

“or if a member of your family or household is already a customer,” not sure what exactly this line means. Any leeway to qualify?

Bill F

I opened an account last year because my sister was a member (she lived in one of the counties.) I did not, so I used her as my “in” to qualify. I wouldn’t have been able to open otherwise. I doubt there is any leeway, as they called to confirm who/what my relation was, but YMMV.

u/closertothesunNA

Thanks, useful DP.

William Charles

It means if somebody you live with or a family member is already a member you can join and the normal restrictions don’t apply.

Frito Pendejo

I wonder if they actually enforce the lifetime bonus limit. I got it a few years ago.

Joe S

I’m sitting here thinking the same thing…

These small-ish banks/CU perform manual reviews for bonus, and therefore you are double checked with their records. Just a speculation about this bank though.

Novacat05

Dang, just literally sent an SM this morning to close my account from the last promo, which was only $250. Oh well.

dave

Any data points from those of you that have done this before about what counts as DD? Didn’t see any listed elsewhere. Thanks.

William Charles

Previous deal didn’t require a DD

dizzy

They refused to pay out the bonus to me last time, apparently my opening deposit with the correct amount (I want to say $50) took them 2-3 weeks to process, and an additional deposit of some cash at an atm (to their credit, they mailed materials including debit card very quickly) went through first and they didn’t care that I did the required # of transactions for the bonus.

I had just moved back to Philly so qualified with my actual lease…and was actually hoping to use it for my real checking since I prefer credit unions (if you have to play the game with banks might as well use ’em for what they’re worth IMO). I had tried to open this account a year prior when I worked part-time in Philly, the application was denied tho I don’t know if it was bc of that, or since I was actually online applying out of state (my other work was overseas mostly).

Anyway buyer beware.

Agreed about the buyer beware. Had a bad experience with them, too.

dave

Just applied. Submitted personal info and they did a ChexSystem report. Then before could choose what account wanted to open, got this message..

Thank you for choosing Citadel! We have received your application. A representative from our eBusiness Department will contact you within 24 to 48 hours to review.

Peter

I’ve been a member here for a couple years after the $250 bonus. Honestly they are a huge PITA. Constant fraud locks when I just am initiating an external transfer from their online banking to an already saved/used account that requires me to call them to verify (wait on hold, etc.)

Has happened 75% of the times I’ve done external transfers initiated from their online mobile banking.

Mahesh

what are the options other than direct deposit from payroll?

William Charles

This is always found at the top of the post. Under direct deposit there is a link: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/knowledge-base/list-methods-banks-count-direct-deposits/#Citadel_Bank.

Philly

Hi Will,

It says that there are no DPs on that. Is there any new information about possible DD methods?

Samuel Hershey

Was able to open account even though i do not live in the city of lancaster. Seems like as long as you lived in lancaster county you were good.

newbie

eligibility criteria: you are eligible if a member of your family or household is eligible to be a customer, no matter where you live., does that means they don’t have to have an account with them? Correct?

samuel hershey

funding the account with a bank of america cash rewards coded as a purchase on the card. Taking awhile to post in my account balance though. I am switch my actual DD to this one because since u have to call in to get the reward I am pretty sure they manually review it. Also the people at the branch were really nice so I might actually keep the account open, if everything goes smoothly

Amy

You may want to contact them, because I’ve had the same issue. I used Chase CC which posted as a purchase, but they apparently are not showing an initial deposit and nothing is pending. I sent them a picture of the transaction posted and they are looking into it…

Tyler

I actually just got a mailer for this same deal with an expiration of 9/15/18, so I believe it was extended

Tyler

William Charles this was extended to 9/15/18

John

Savings interest is now 2%

[PA] Citadel Bank – $300 Checking Bonus + $100 Savings

The Offer

The Fine Print