Extended through 30 June ‘24
Update 1/2/24: Extended until March 31, 2024
Update 10/3/23: Extended until 12/31/23
Update 6/29/23: Extended until September 30, 2023
Update 4/17/23: Extended through 6/30/2023.
Update 1/12/23: Extended through March 31, 2023.
Update 10/19/22: Extended through December 31, 2022.
Update 10/8/22: Extended through 12/31/2022.
Update 7/4/22: Extended through September 30, 2022.
Update 4/2/22: Extended through 6/30/22
Update 1/4/22: Extended through 3/31/22
Update 10/4/21: Extended through 12/31/21
Update 4/12/21: Extended until June 30, 2021.
Update 1/2/2021: Extended until March 31, 2021.
Update 10/11/20: extended until December 31, 2020.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $500
- Availability: AL, CA, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MO, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, VA, WI and WV
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: $12-$50
- Early account termination fee: $25, six months
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date:
September 30th, 2020 March 31, 2021September 30, 2021
Contents
The Offer
- PNC is offering a bonus of up to $200/$500 when you open a business checking account. Bonuses are as follows:
- Earn $200 with a business checking account when you complete the following requirements:
- Maintain the minimum average cycle balance of $5,000 for each of the first 3 statement cycles
- Make at least 20 total qualifying PNC Bank Visa® Debit Card transactions and/or PNC Bank Mobile Check Deposits[3] within the first three statement cycles
- Earn $500 when you open a Treasury Enterprise Plan or Analysis Business Checking and maintain a minimum average cycle balance of $30,000 for each of the first three statement cycles
- Earn $200 with a business checking account when you complete the following requirements:
The Fine Print
$200 bonus:
- You may earn a $200 reward if you open a new PNC Business Checking or PNC Business Checking Plus account.
- To qualify for the reward, the new checking account must be opened between July 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020, and the following conditions must be met: (a) average cycle balance of $5,000 must be maintained in your new checking account for each of the first three statement cycles; and (b) at least 20 total qualifying PNC Visa® Business Debit Card transactions must be made within the first three statement cycles. Your new checking account must be open in order for you to receive the reward, which will be credited to the eligible account within 90 days after all conditions have been met and will be identified as “Credits NEW BUS BONUS” on your monthly statement.
- Only business checking accounts with statements that cycle monthly are eligible for this offer. Business checking accounts that receive statements daily, weekly or quarterly are ineligible.
- Already established, converted or repurposed PNC checking or savings accounts are not eligible.
- Average cycle balance is defined as the average total within your business checking account at the end of your statement cycle. A qualifying debit card transaction is defined as any debit card purchase made at point of sale using your signature or PIN; or a purchase made electronically or online using your debit card number, including recurring payments. Any combination of qualifying PNC Visa® Business Debit Card transactions is acceptable but must equal 20 within the first three statement cycles.
- New account will not be eligible for offer if any signer has signing authority on an existing PNC Bank business checking account or has closed an account within the past 90 days, or has been paid a promotional premium in the past 12 months. If multiple accounts are opened with the same signers, only one account will be eligible for the premium. For this offer, signing authority will be defined by the customer name(s) and Social Security number(s) registered on the account.
- Offer may be extended, modified or discontinued at any time. The value of the reward may be reported on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1099, and may be considered taxable income to you.
$500 bonus:
- You may earn a $500 reward if you open a new PNC Treasury Enterprise Plan or Analysis Business Checking account.
- To qualify for the reward, the new checking account must be opened between July 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020, and the following condition must be met: average cycle balance of $30,000 must be maintained in your new checking account for each of the first three statement cycles.
- Your new checking account must be open in order for you to receive the reward, which will be credited to the eligible account within 90 days after all conditions have been met and will be identified as “Credits NEW BUS BONUS” on your monthly statement.
- Only business checking accounts with statements that cycle monthly are eligible for this offer. Business checking accounts that receive statements daily, weekly or quarterly are ineligible. Already established, converted or repurposed PNC checking or savings accounts are not eligible. Average cycle balance is defined as the average total within your business checking account at the end of your statement cycle.
- New account will not be eligible for offer if any signer has signing authority on an existing PNC Bank business checking account or has closed an account within the past 90 days, or has been paid a promotional premium in the past 12 months. If multiple accounts are opened with the same signers, only one account will be eligible for the premium. For this offer, signing authority will be defined by the customer name(s) and Social Security number(s) registered on the account.
- Offer may be extended, modified or discontinued at any time. The value of the reward may be reported on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1099, and may be considered taxable income to you.
Avoiding Fees
Business Checking ($200 Bonus)
This account has a monthly fee of $12 and is waived if you do ONE of the following:
- Make $1,000 in business credit card purchases with a linked PNC credit card
- Maintain an average minimum monthly collected balance of $500
Treasury Enterprise Plan ($500 Bonus)
This account has a monthly fee of $50. This is waived when you maintain $30,000 Average Combined Monthly Collected Balance in the master and all additional beneficiary business checking accounts
Early Account Termination Fee
There is a $25 early account termination fee if the account is closed within the first six months.
Our Verdict
The standard bonus is $200, the best bonus we’ve seen was $400 and that only required a deposit of $10,000 to trigger. I’m not sure if we will see that offer again, but it’s significantly better than the $500 bonus. I’ll still add these bonuses to the best bank bonus page but it might be better to wait for a possible return of that $400 offer.
Hat tip to reader Rob
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
Extended through 30 June ‘24
would they open business checking for a sole proprietorship under my name, i.e. without “doing business as”?
Did anyone apply within the last week and got application pending, and no notification of approval but logging in to the personal now there’s 3 business checking accounts? Really strange
Stiffed myself nuclear.
Billing cycle date changes monthly because it’s last weekday. Should be obvious to anyone but I slipped up.
11/27/23: Opened account
11/30/23: Deposited $5001
Dec-Jan 2024:used debit card 23 times with Amazon reload and Costco food court
03/15/24: $200 bonus posts (Dec, Jan, and Feb were the full-month statement cycles)
Did anyone get the 1099 for this bonus?
1099 finally arrived on March 29.
Denial DP:
I’ve opened 20 some odd accounts in the last 2 months. PNC is my first rejection. I tried twice and rejected both times.
Currently, $500 bonus isn’t worth it. For an extra $300 you are locking an extra $25k. The same amount in 5% HYSA would earn ~$310 over 3 months.
“Average ledger balance of $5,000 must be maintained in your new checking account for each of the first three statement cycles”, and their statement cycle seems to be based on calendar months, so it looks like if I opened the account in mid-September, I should be able to pull the fund out at the beginning of December without jeopardizing the bonus, although it is not 3 full months yet?
This is something I’m curious about too. First three statement cycles sound like first 3 months to me (even if account was opened mid month). I joined in the middle of October and the average balance was only $4,000 so not sure if I’m hosed or not. Hoping it’s first 3 full cycles.
I called customer service a while ago, and I was told if the remaining days in the first month is smaller than XX days (I did not take notes and do not remember the exact number) then they could count the second, third, and fourth months, and if the average balance for the first month meets the requirement despite it is not a full month, they would count the first, second and third month.
A bit of an odd experience for me. I applied OOS (Colorado) and was initially denied, but then received another email a couple hours later asking me to set up an appointment with one of their business client associates to open the account. We were able to do this remotely (over Microsoft Teams), where she asked me several questions about my business, and I had to show 2 forms of ID. The appointment took about 45 minutes total and she was able to set me up with my online banking account.
They require a $100 opening deposit (can be done online but you need to push it from another account). I plan to deposit $8000 by day 10 to get me to $5K average statement balance.
jbooey Thanks, the video meeting is convenient. Mind sharing what questions were asked?
Business age, revenue, type/purpose, etc? And the ID — did you just hold them up to the camera, or have to upload?
She asked pretty general questions, e.g. Tell me more about your business, how do you plan to accept payments from customers, what will you be using the account for, what types of operational expenses do you foresee incurring, etc.
And yes, I had to hold up my ID and credit card to the camera.