Terms state “have not had an open checking account within the last 18 months, and have not caused the credit union a loss in the past.”
I think this means an account with REV Federal Credit Union, but the terms aren’t clear.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: Field of memebrship here.Don’t qualify through any of the channels above? Make a one-time donation of $15 to Friend of the Foundation to qualify for membership.
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $500+
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Unknown
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: Up to $1,000
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: None listed
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date: None listed
Contents
The Offer
- REV Financial Credit Union is offering a $200 bonus when you open a new checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Open a new qualified checking account (i.e. Premier, Bulldog)
- Open a 12 Month Savings Builder Certificate
- An aggregate of at least $500 must be electronically deposited into the qualified checking account within 45 days of account opening
- The following requirements must be met each month:
- Have monthly electronic deposits totaling $500 or more
- Spend at least $500 every month with your REV debit and/or credit card.
The Fine Print
- Members must be at least 18 years of age, have not had an open checking account within the last 18 months, and have not caused the credit union a loss in the past.
- To receive the $200 deposit (bonus), the member must open a Qualified Checking Account*** (i.e. Premier or Bulldog Checking) in conjunction with a 12 Month Savings Builder Certificate in which the bonus will be deposited and an aggregate of at least $500 must be electronically deposited into the qualified checking account within 45 days of account opening (electronic deposits may be in the form of direct deposit, mobile deposit capture, ATM deposit, or ACH transfer from another institution).
- Any bonus earned will be reported to the IRS for tax purposes.
- The member may deposit funds into the Savings Builder Certificate at any time.
- A forfeiture of the $200 bonus will occur in the event either 1. the Qualified Checking Account is closed before the initial maturity date of the Savings Builder Certificate , or 2. if any withdrawals from the Savings Builder Certificate occur which may be subject to an early withdrawal penalty fee as outlined in the Truth-in-Savings Rate and Fee Schedule.
- In addition, a forfeiture of the $200 bonus may occur in the event the monthly qualifications of the Qualified Checking Account are not met throughout the initial term of the Savings Building Certificate.
- Member is only eligible to receive one $200 deposit (bonus) regardless of the number of 12 Month Savings Builder Certificates that are opened.
- This promotion is for a limited time. Please see Credit Union for details.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
Early Account Termination Fee
Requirements need to be met for 12 months or bonus is forfeit.
Our Verdict
Don’t think this is worth doing as you need to meet the requirements for 12 months and that is ~$6,000 in spend. We won’t add this to our list of the best bank account bonuses.
Hat tip to john
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
Looks like the “qualifying direct deposit” can just be any ACH electronic deposit. And couldn’t the $500/mo debit card spend be a money order each month?
Yes. You must have missed the 3 or 4 hints that I made in this post regarding that idea. 😉
I guess I’m eligible now as I opened Easy Checking before but the latest updated terms only restrict holders of Premier or Bulldog Checking Account within the last 18 months. Not seeing a way I get to $500 spend monthly unless I get creative with estimated tax payments.
I applied for this offer almost 2 weeks ago. During the app, the CD required a $500+ deposit. The Checking didn’t require a deposit and the Savings required either $5 or $10. Since the CD only pays 3.75% for 12 months, I chose to fund it with a “low” amount of $501. I funded the Savings with $499 and funded the Checking with $0. I funded 2 accounts instead of 3 to lower the chances of a fraud alert occurring with my Bac credit card.
My app went pending. After submitting the app, I immediately received an alert from OnAlert about my Chex being pulled. Later that day, I was emailed by a rep with a link to complete verification with Plaid. I completed that on my phone by taking a pic of my license and took a selfie.
Over a week passed without me hearing anything. I called Rev to try to get an update and spoke to a rep and she opened my accounts while we were on the phone. The $499 charge went through but Bac declined the $501 charge due to a fraud alert. I received a text from Bac about the fraud alert and answered “Yes” that it was indeed me that made the purchase!
I called her back and let her know what happened and she sent me a new link to try the funding again. There was no option to fund the CD so I funded the Checking instead with $501. She confirmed that not funding the CD was fine. The charge went through this time.
So in a way I lucked out that the 2nd charge didn’t go through because now I won’t have $501 locked up in a 3.75% CD for 12 months. She said that the Checking will start paying 4% in April so that’s not too bad. I will probably leave some money in there to meet the monthly requirements going forward. She told me that money can be added to the CD but cannot be withdrawn.
I ordered my debit card and set up online banking with no snags. I confirmed with the woman that signature or PIN purchases are fine for the monthly spend requirement like I speculated in my earlier comment here: #2020930 .
All of the people from Rev that I spoke to were really nice. The $200 is supposed to get added to my CD between 30 and 45 days from account opening, according to her. She even implied that if I were to miss 1 or 2 (but not 3+) months out of the 12 months that they wouldn’t take back the $200 from the CD. Regardless, I will try my best to meet the requirements each month, starting in April.
I used my CCR to fund my accounts and here is my not so great DP for that: #2032700 .
Knowing the certificate doesn’t need to be funded makes this offer at least a little bit better. That $500 in debits still would kill it for me. As I think you said before though, you could use the card at grocery and get cash back to rack up the spend quickly. Best of luck with this one, I hope you see a payout.
To be clear, the application requires the CD to be funded with at least $500 so you probably won’t be able to avoid that. I just “lucked out” into not funding it at all.
BTW, I never mentioned getting CB at the grocery store so maybe you are thinking of someone else that said that.
I saw this offer promoted in their member email newsletter today, doesn’t look like the phrasing limits the offer to new memberships only anymore? (Still salty they pulled a fast one, leads me to believe they won’t honor it even if I tried meeting all their terms, so prob not gonna try for it anyway, but still- I doubt their revamped terms are working well, and rewriting the terms to exclude the most enthusiastic among them probably didn’t have the marketing boost they’d hoped for) https://www.revfcu.com/save-more/
This comment might be of interest to you: #2031568 .
Good to know, and prob why they’ve removed the “new member” restriction. Still wary of trying for it without data points on what actually counts toward the monthly $500 spend- that is a lot of spend that could be earning rewards elsewhere and if you blow it the first month because you don’t know what works yet, you jeopardize the whole bonus :-/
Stay tuned for a future comment from me. 😉
These guys totally pulled a fast one on us. They said to wait until March for the promo to return when I called to close the CDs the first time. This promo is completely different…on to the next.
This comment might be of interest to you: #2031568 .
Got denied about a week ago, should I try again?
Sure, why not?
Did you end up trying again? If so, what happened?
I do believe this bank is in the top 10 for worst banks ever!
Too much monkey business for me to be involved in.
Does anyone know if you could CC fund Rev’s free checking account?
I was able to cc fund a total of $1k when I opened during the “unofficial” offer in Feb
Okay, REV just got stranger! I tried to close via chat and was asked by the AI to email them at a particular address. A short time later I received an email that was unbelievably strange! This is the response:
“HI,
Please call our member experience team at 800.832.5550.”
When I called the number, someone was trying to sell me a Medicare supplement! The last 4 digits are correct. The 832 is NOT! Good grief!
I called the close my account today. The number I used was 800-845-5550. Took like 5 mins
I called the same 800-845-5550 this morning to close my accounts.
I used that number as well to close mine. I told the CSR about the strange email I received. I sent the email to the correct address but the reply actually came from [email protected].
The lesson is never trust AI!