[Expired] Salem Five $150 Checking Bonus

Deal has expired, replaced with a new deal offering free Netflix, Spotify, Birchbox, Harry’s, or Graze up to $14.95 per month for a full year.

Offer at a glance

  • Maximum bonus amount: $150
  • Availability: Nationwide
  • Direct deposit required: Yes, cumulative deposits of $1,500 within 60 days of account opening
  • Additional requirements: Use promo code STAR
  • Hard/soft pull: Hard (all datapoints are quite old though). Recent datapoint says soft, new dp say hard as well
  • ChexSystems: Unknown, sensitive
  • Credit card funding: None
  • Monthly fees: $15, avoidable
  • Early account termination fee: None
  • Household limit: None listed
  • U.S. Citizen: Yes or permanent resident alien if opening online.
  • Expiration date: None listed

The Offer

Direct link to offer

  • Salem Five Direct is offering a bonus of $150 when you open a new Star checking account and complete the following requirements:
    • Use promo code STAR
    • Receive cumulative direct deposits of $1,500 or more within 60 days of account opening

The Fine Print

  • This Star Checking offer is not available to customers with an existing personal checking account at Salem Five Bank.
  • Closed accounts that were opened at any time in the 12 months prior to account opening are considered existing accounts for the purpose of qualifying for this promotion.
  • Only available to new personal Star Checking customers with cumulative direct deposit funds of $1,500 or more made within 60 days of account opening.
  • Qualifying direct deposits are recurring electronic deposits of your paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security) from your employer or government. Person-to-Person and bank transfers between your accounts or accounts you have at other financial institutions or brokerages do not qualify.
  • Minimum balance to open the account is $10 in branch and $100 online.
  • Once the offer criteria is met, the bonus will be credited into the new Star Checking account within 10 days
  • All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

Monthly Fee

This account has a $15 monthly fee. This is waived if you do any of the following:

  • Monthly maintenance fee waived with payroll direct deposit
  • $1,500 minimum daily balance
  • Automatic transfer to a Salem Five Mortgage
  • Combined deposit/loan balance of $5,000 (excluding mortgage loan balances)

Early Account Termination Fee

There is no early account termination fee according to the fee schedule

Our Verdict

They also have a 2.05% APY savings account.  It looks like most of the time account opening results in a hard pull, but sometimes it’s soft. It also looks like they are ChexSystems sensitive. because of that we won’t be adding it to the best bank account bonuses.

Hat tip to Danny Deal Guru

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
    William Charles
  • On July 6, 2018, 09:00

View Comments (128)

    • Hardpull via Equifax

      Applied on 7/3. Asked to upload driver’s license. No HP at that point.

      This morning I got the hardpull and then received account open approval emails from Salem. They must pull it manually which explains the delay.

  • Anyone get a 1099-INT tax form from Salem Five for this bonus? Rep said that since I did not earn enough interest, a 1099-INT form was not generated or sent to me.

  • @will I was reviewing my Equifax credit report and saw this:

    8. Inquiries
    A request for your credit history is called an inquiry. There are two types of inquiries - those that may impact your credit rating/score and those that do not.

    Hard Inquiries
    Inquiries that may impact your credit rating/score

    These are inquiries made by companies with whom you have applied for a loan or credit. They may remain on your file up to 2 years.

    Date: 07/09/2018

    Company Request Originator:
    SALEM FIVE CENT SAVINGS BANK
    210 ESSEX STREET
    SALEM, MA 01970
    978-745-5555

    It looks like Salem Five did a hard credit pull when I opened the Salem Five Checking account in July 2018.

  • DP
    Easy close account after zero out balance and request through SM to CS:

    "Thank you for contacting us. We have received your request to close your zero balance account and it is now completed. Should you have any additional questions or need further assistance, please send us an email message. Sincerely, CS"

  • DP for DD:
    Opened with promo code "STAR". It is a hard pull.
    8/30/18 Preauthorized Credit - [My Full Name] *3579 - P2P $1500
    This was a transfer from my Capital One checking account (NOT Capital one 360).
    9/10/18 Preauthorized Credit - Square Inc T*5750 - [First 4 letters of my name] T*8510 $1500. This was a deposit from Square Cash.
    I have $1500 hitting my Capital One 360 Money Market account tomorrow, 9/19/18. I will transfer it over and keep you updated. On 9/5/18 I transferred $0.01 from that account and it showed up as Preauthorized Credit - CAPITAL ONE N.A. - CAPITALONE without any P2P language attached to it...

    • Can I ask when you opened a/c? I did a live chat with bank and was told that they discontinued the promo on 8/17/2018 so I wasn’t qualified for the bonus even though I got screenshot of promo when I opened a/c on 8/20.

  • I confirmed via chat today that the $150 offer is dead. However, they are now offering to cover your Netflix or other subscription (up to 14.95 per month) for a year, with the same requirements.

  • Could anyone tell me how to get my online banking User ID?
    TIA.
    BTW this offer seems dead.

  • Applied 8/17, and uploaded my driver license, received update today denied. Am in Knoxville TN no reason given yet.

  • Sent an SM today asking what steps to take to close. They responded simply to either bring the account to $0, or let them know I wanted to close and they'd mail me a check. Planning to zero out the account and send another SM to close.

    Kind of stinks this took a hard pull, because it was easy and quick.

    • And just to add a follow-up, once the account was drained, I sent another SM, and the account was closed the next day. No issues.

  • Just noticed your title says "Salem Five $150 checking bonus" but the line below the "direct link to offer" reads "Salem Five Direct"...... It's the "bank" that is offering the $150 bonus, not their online partner website "Salem Five Direct" . The link goes to the right place. Also, the 2.05 APY online savings you mention is offered at Salem Five Direct (but not from Salem Bank). Minor nuance, but it may confuse some.

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