[Expired] Santander $225 Checking Bonus [NH, MA, RI, CT, DE, NY, NJ & PA only]

Deal has ended, view more Santander deals by clicking here.

Update 10/11/20: Extended until December 31, 2020.

Update 7/1/20: Extended until September 30th, 2020. There is also now a $300 bonus

Offer at a glance

• Maximum bonus amount: $225
• Availability: Must be a resident of: NH, MA, RI, CT, DE, NY, NJ & PA
• Direct deposit required: Yes, one or more totaling $500 $1,000 (see what counts here)
• Additional requirements: Account must be open for a minimum of 90 days
• Hard/soft pull: Soft, see below
• Credit card funding: Up to $500
• Monthly fees: $10 – $35, waiveable
• Early account termination fee: $25 if closed within 90 days of opening
• Expiration date: June 30, 2017 September 30th, 2018 December 31st, 2018 March 31st, 2019 December 31st, 2019 June 30th, 2020 September 30th, 2020

The Offer

Direct link to offer. You can open the account online (and do up to $500 in credit card funding) or print out a coupon using the above link and bring it in-branch to open. Note that Santander has not yet fully rolled out this offer — so, while there is a link for the Simply Right Checking account, there isn’t yet a direct one for the Basic Checking & Premier Plus Checking accounts even though they are also eligible.

• Receive a $225 bonus by opening an eligible new checking account with the promo code supplied and doing the following:
  • Receive direct deposits totaling at least $500 $1,000 within the first 90 days, AND
  • Keep your account open for at least 90 days.
• Tip: On the funding page the option to uncheck the $3 paper statement fee is grayed out and you have to remember to change it to Paperless option after getting online access to avoid $3 paper statement fee. Hat tip to MarcoPolo.

 

 

The Fine Print

• Offer is not available if any account owner is a current deposit customer of Santander or had a Santander deposit account in the last 12 months prior to account opening.
• Cannot be combined with other offers.
• Eligible new account must be opened between 7/1/2018 – 9/30/2018.
• In order to receive the bonus, the account must remain open and in the eligible product type at the time of bonus payout. In addition, the account must have a positive balance at the time of bonus payment.
• Bonus is considered interest and will be reported to IRS on Form 1099-INT.
• If multiple accounts are opened with the same signer, only one account will be eligible for the bonus.
• Direct deposits include deposits made by your employer or a federal or state government agency or retirement benefits administrator and generally payments made by corporations or other organizations. They do not include deposits to your account that are made by an individual using online banking or an Internet payment provider such as PayPal.

Avoiding Fees

Basic Checking

There is a non-waiveable $3 monthly service fee.

Simply Right Checking

There is a $10 monthly fee that is waived when you make any financial transaction that posts during a calendar month*. Includes deposits, withdrawals, transfers or payments. Excludes fees, rebates or adjustments posted by Santander.

*based on the footnote “per service fee period”, you should interpret this to refer to a transaction posting during each statement cycle (as you would expect) — if your statement cycle does not match up with the calendar month.

Premier Plus

Not that I think anyone here is considering this account, but there is a $35 monthly fee that is waived by maintaining $75,000 in combined balances in deposits and investments held with Santander Investment Services, OR 6,000 in total monthly direct deposits.

Our Verdict

Considering that $150 seems to be their new standard offer, and that offer easily made our best bank bonus page, this is fantastic. Do note that it has a very limited lifespan (59 days) and that the overdraft protection agreement is quite confusing. You are forced to agree to it when applying online, but you’ll want to select “Some overdrafts” instead of “All overdrafts” to avoid the hard pull. I’ve already taken the plunge, and I think this offer is worth your while. If you set up an online banking login during the application process, you can check the status of your application by logging in at this link.

Though I will likely keep the account around a while longer than 4 months, I see little reason to deviate from Will’s plan, as laid out in his $150 post:

• Open a Simply Right Checking account (not Basic).
• Fund $500 with a non-Citi/Discover/American Express card, preferably with a cash advance limit as close to $0 as possible. You may have success with Citi now-a-days.
• Do a $500 direct deposit to meet the direct deposit requirement and waive the first monthly fee.
• Withdraw however much you wish.
• Do an automatic bill pay (to wherever) of at least $1, monthly, to keep the account fee-free.
• Wait 90 days from account opening, then wait another 30 days for bonus to post.
• Close account.

I imagine this will quickly be added to our bank bonus database. Please keep in mind that Santander has cracked down on what counts as a direct deposit, which is why you see PayPal specifically excluded. You can go here for Will’s excellent write-up on the subject and can view recent data points here.

Hat tip to reader XC.

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:

• A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
• 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

Post history:

• Update 4/11/20: Deal has been extended until June 30th, 2020. Hat tip to reader Xatos
• Update 1/3/2020: Deal has been extended 3/31/2020.
• Update 10/22/19: Deal has been extended until December 31st, 2019. Hat tip to John F
• Update 7/1/19: Extended until September 30th, 2019
• Update 4/13/19: Bonus is back and valid until June 30th, 2019. Hat tip to reader Dan LBR
• Update 1/12/19: Bonus is back, but it isn’t as appealing as before as they recently offered $300. Hat tip to reader Beefer
• Update 5: Bonus is back for Q4. hat tip to reader Skippy
• Update 4: Bonus is back for Q3. Hat tip to Danny Deal Guru.
• Update 3: Santander has renewed the offer for quarter 2. I’m republishing because the offer is the exact same and many answers can be found in the comments. The refreshed offer contains the state restrictions on the banner.
• Update 2: Reader Paul points out that the offer is now restricted to those who are residents of: NH, MA, RI, CT, DE, NY, NJ & PA
• Update 1: I am re-publishing this because Santander has been processing applications & deposits. You may find that the $150 offer is linked in your account disclosures (see this post), but a representative confirmed to me that the $150 offer being linked is a system error and that anyone who used the correct promotion code (WINTER225) after February 1 at midnight (eastern time) is registered for the $225 bonus. You will receive something like 7 pieces of mail from Santander: the big packet should have a sheet indicating you are signed up for the $225 offer.
• Santander has had $225 to $350 checking account bonuses available by targeted mailer for a while. Now, reader XC has brought a public $225 checking offer to our attention, which looks like it has replaced the now-expired $150 offers (for the short while that it is valid).