Update 11/3/20: End date now December 31, 2020.
Update 9/27/20: The link states the end date for “enrollment” is 10/31/2020 and the end date for “qualifying” is 11/30/2020.
Update 8/15/20: The $125 bonus is now dead. The $75 direct deposit bonus is still valid until 9/30/20. You can also try to confirm that the $125 bonus is alive by contacting chat.
Update 8/14/20: Today is the last day for the offer. Just keep in mind it’s not showing on the offer page any longer (see update below). I’d recommend getting SoFi to confirm it before signing up. This page still shows the 8/14 end date.
Update 8/12/20: The link now stopped showing the offer (it’s supposed to be valid through August 14th). Multiple readers have confirmed with SoFi that the deal is, in fact, still valid. So I guess you’re supposed to just open the account without any special offer page, meet the conditions, and hope for the best? Maybe try getting written confirmation from SoFi in case of issue in the future.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: Nationwide
- Direct deposit required: Yes (for max bonus), $500+
- Additional requirements: None
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: ?
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date: August 14, 2020
The Offer
- SoFi Money is offering a $200 sign up bonus for new members, broken down as follows:
- $125 for opening an account and depositing $100
- Additional $75 for setting up direct deposit of $500+, or for depositing your stimulus check
The Fine Print
- To receive the bonus offer, participants must first apply and successfully open a SoFi Money cash management account.
- To receive the promotional balance, deposit(s) of $100 or more must be made in the new account by the new SoFi Money member; additionally, the $100 minimum balance needs to stay in the new member’s account for 90 days in order for the new member to qualify for a $125 bonus. Within 3 business days of such a deposit, qualifying participants will receive a $125 deposit into their SoFi Money account. This offer is limited to one per account.
- This is a limited time offer that will expire on 8/14/2020 at 5pm ET. SoFi reserves the right to expire the offer at any time.
- The deposit of $100 or more must be made into the new account prior to offer expiry.
- Participants must comply with the SoFi Money terms of use. Any fraudulent or returned funding will result in disqualification.
- Bonus amounts of $600 or greater in a single calendar year may be reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as miscellaneous income to the recipient on Form 1099-MISC in the year received by applicable law. Recipient is responsible for any applicable federal, state or local taxes associated with receiving the bonus offer, consult your tax advisor to determine applicable tax consequences. SoFi reserves the right to change or terminate the offer at any time or without notice.
Our Verdict
This is a terrific deal: it’s an easy $125 bonus, and not-too-difficult additional $75. Until now people were doing the $50 referral sign up bonus + $75 direct deposit bonus for $125; this new deal is much better. (I suppose if you are in 2-player mode, it’s just an extra $25, but for others it’s an extra $75.)
Interestingly, this time they made a new allowance of stimulus check deposit to count for direct deposit which theoretically could help a lot of people. It won’t help for those who get their stimulus via direct deposit, though. It seems likely that if you can somehow change your stimulus direct deposit to go to the SoFi account that could work as a direct deposit/stimulus option.
Also interesting, they consider the sign up bonus as 1099-MISC, instead of 1099-INT like other banks, and thus they’ll only report it if you end up with over $600 (meaning, if you don’t have any other bonuses, this $200 won’t be reported). You still need to self-report, but interesting that they do this differently from most other banks.
On a related note, there’s a deal for existing SoFi customers who never had a direct deposit to get $75.
Hat tip to reader Feb
