Update 1/1/24: Extended until 12/31/2024.
Update 1/3/23: Bonus is now $300 and can also be done using a referral link again.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $300
- Availability: PA only, nationwide if you become Pennsylvania Recreation and Park Society (PRPS) for $20. See this comment.
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $200+ per month ongoing
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Hard pull
- ChexSystems: Yes
- Credit card funding: Up to $100 with a Visa or Mastercard
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date:
May 31, 2021 December 31, 2021December 31, 2023
Contents
The Offer
Direct link to offer (or use a referral link found here)
- PSECU is offering a bonus of up to $300:
- Get a $100 bonus when you use promo code LEVELUP, Log into digital banking (online or mobile) and Activate your debit card within 30 days of account opening
- Get a $100 Bonus when you Establish one or more qualifying payroll direct deposits that together total $200 per calendar month within 90 days of account opening
- Get a $100 Bonus! when you Maintain the qualifying payroll direct deposit(s) for 90 days after initial deposit
The Fine Print
- Participant must be a U.S. Resident.
- Promotion open to persons 18 years of age or older at the time the account is opened. One promo code per New Member. Additional promo code will be invalid.
- The recipient of the $100 bonus is solely responsible for payment of applicable taxes on that amount. If you have any questions, please seek the advice of a qualified tax professional.
- PSECU reserves the right to recall the $100 bonus if the member account is closed within the first year of establishing membership.
- PSECU reserves the right to recall the $250 direct deposit bonus if the payroll direct deposit(s) is/are not active for six consecutive months or if the member account is closed within the first year of establishing membership.”
- If PSECU is unable to confirm any qualifying monthly direct deposit is a recurring payroll deposit, or if the member is not in good standing as defined by PSECU’s Bylaws Article II, Section 1, PSECU reserves the right to withhold the payment of the $250 direct deposit bonus.
- If the member is not in good standing, at any time prior to the payment of the bonus, as defined by PSECU’s Bylaws Article II, Section 1, PSECU reserves the right to withhold the payment of the $100 bonus.
- Payment of the $100 bonus will be deposited into the Regular share within 45 days after the requirements are satisfied.
- This offer is only open to new members who meet PSECU eligibility requirements.
- All decisions of PSECU regarding this promotion are final. PSECU may terminate or change the terms and conditions of this promotion without notice.
- Employees, agents, and officials of PSECU and immediate family members of any of these are not eligible for this promotion.
- Subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations.
- Promotion open to persons 18 years of age or older at the time the account is opened.
- Limit (1) new member incentive bonus per tax identification number used to open a new account per rolling 12-month period.
- PSECU will only pay one new member incentive bonus per tax identification number per rolling 12-month period.
- This is a one-time offer available to new members only, who have not previously been a PSECU member within the last 12 months.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
They offer a free checking account with no monthly fees to worry about.
Early Account Termination Fee
I didn’t see any mention of an early account termination fee in the fee schedule.
Our Verdict
There is a hard pull, but that is less of an issue with how restrictive credit card issuers are now. This is significantly better than the $150 bonus offered in the past. I do think this is worth doing if you don’t care about hard pulls and will add it to the best bank account bonuses.
Hat tip to reader Ed I, Davis & ShawntheShawn
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
Post history:
- Update 1/2/23: Deal has been extended until 2/28/23. No longer available via referral and bonus reduced to $200 from $250.
- Update 1/11/22: Deal is now available via referral (person referring gets $50). Please do not share referrals in the comments below, they can be shared in this linked post here.
- Update 6/1/21: Extended until 7/31. Looks like direct deposits need to be active for six months as well.
- Update 4/10/21: Deal is actually available nationwide.
Can someone confirm Fidelity Bloom Save will work for fake DD?
any recent data points on chex sensitivity? i’d like to do this as soon as i can but want to know if i need to let current activity age out (and/or if it’s likely to fail due to chex sensitivity, i’d rather not waste a hard pull)
Wife wants to apply; however, she has no utility bills in her name to prove residence as they are asking? Anybody know what they will accept..she has ss card and id
They will accept your wife’s driver’s license with your current address, payroll stub with your current address, or W2 with your current address. We ended up using my wife’s payroll stub so I’m not sure what would work beyond that.
Reding the fine prints, it looks like the ten debit card transactions need to be done in 120 days after stage 1 requirements are met. Not sure if 10 debit card transactions done before completing stage 1 would count for stage 2.
I had signed up last November under LEVELUP promo. Then, I referred P2 a couple of weeks later and P2 also signed up under the same LEVELUP promo. I got a confirmation that P2 had used my referral link.
Both P1 and P2 earned their individual $300 bonuses. Then, I followed up with PSECU on chat for the referral reward. She asked about name and contact details of my referral. She said she would have to submit the case to their Marketing Department, who would call me with an update. A couple of days later, they did call and said that I had qualified for 3 referral rewards!!! I see a deposit of $150 in my Savings account. I also received three separate emails, presumably one for each reward.
I don’t know who my other two referrals are, but whoever you are, thank you!
It also means that we were able to stack referral with the SUB.
William Charles Chuck Will you consider starting a referral thread for those who have not signed up?
A referral page already exists and it is linked in the post. Another DP
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/share-your-psecu-checking-referral-links-here/
The only real difference is the promo code, RIGHTNOTEREFER vs RIGHTNOTE.
Oh, ok – sorry, I must have missed it.
Well, the problem is that not everyone is able to post link there, I posted my link and never appear in that page. Scroll down that page a bit, other people were reporting same problem and the problem is not resolved.
9:10pm 3/21/24: Applied with “rightnote”promo from California. Hard pulled Experian. Application went pending and Asked to upload DL, I did that. I was not asked to fund at time of application and did not see anything asking if I wanted to join Pennsylvania parks and recreation. I am assuming they changed things up based on others comments below.
I also did not see anywhere in the application where the promo was applied, only went through the link and it told me promo was in the right hand corner. Beyond that I did not see it anywhere else.( I don’t want to call, but is this normally what happens)
I’ll update as I go…..I expect, if approved I will use referal to recruit p2 since I’m seeing a 50.00 referal bonus here.
Update: 10am 3/22/24: Psec requested copy of Ss card and utility bill. Uploaded, now pending review.
Update: 12:30 3/22/24: approved through email correspondence. Link sent to complete my application and set up my account with username and password. After setup I see….Hmmm….25.00 already in account? Wondering if they will pull this back since it didn’t come from my pocket.
1/1/24: applied for account
1/4/24: account opened
2/1/24: $500 real DD
2/4/24: ten ~$10 Amazon reloads
3/1/24: received $1 in savings account, believe this is for the ten debit card reloads in the previous month at $0.10 per purchase since I had over $500 in DD in February
3/1/24: $500 real DD
3/18/24: $200 bonus received for first stage
As far as I can tell, I never received an email about completing the first stage bonus, unless I deleted it over 30 days ago. I received the first $200 at 46 days after meeting the terms, maybe because yesterday was a weekend.
Thank you. It does look like they are paying right around the 45 day mark.
3/5: account opened with Rightnote promo
3/13: $501 push from Capital One 360 Checking
3/16: Received an email informing me that I have completed stage 1 of the bonus and will receive the $200 bonus within 45 days.
Could anyone help me confirm the ach number for the checking account is the same with the share number online? Tried to use the share number to link on Fidelity as an external account, but Fidelity told me it failed, which makes me confused. I know the share number is different from the member account number.
The only place I could find the checking account number is on the checks they sent me when I opened the account.
You can secure message PSECU and they can give you the checking account number if you really want it.
However numerous people have used Fidelity here and you probably just didn’t wait long enough. Sometimes it takes a day or two for systems to sync up if you have a brand new account.
There’s also a way to trick Fidelity into allowing you to do manual trial deposits… If I remember correctly, you just put in bogus login information, and then it’ll ask you if you want to do trial deposits. I don’t remember the exact steps because I don’t do it very often.
I was not able to link Fidelity either. I had to use Cap1 360.
I completed the requirements for this bonus and I’m considering on closing the account. Is this account churnable?
It’s churnable. Codetrader
See my comment here:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/pa-only-psecu-100-250-checking-bonus/#comment-1768573