This offer has expired, but you can view the current offer here.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $250
- Availability: AL, AR, FL, GA, MD, MS, NC, SC, TN, WV, VA, and D.C
- Direct deposit required: Yes, up to $2,000. Almost anything will trigger this requirement, but they often request you bring in pay stubs to prove your depositing your full pay check into your account.
- Additional requirements: Yes, see below.
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- Credit card funding: Up to $1,000 (although there have been reports of cash advances and issues with CC funding)
- Monthly fees: $7, waivable with direct deposit of $100 or more or minimum daily balance of $500 or more
- Early account termination fee: $25 if closed within 6 months
- Expiration date: June 17th, 2016
Contents
The Offer
- There are two offers currently available (you’re not required to open the savings account, but that gives you an extra $50). You need to use promotional code ‘MAY16CHKONLYOL’ if you’re just opening the checking account and ‘MAY16CHKSAVOL’ if opening checking & savings account:
- Earn up to $150 when you open a new Essential Checking with direct deposit and a new Savings Account
- Earn $100 when you open a new Essential Checking account online, deposit at least $100 into the new account within 14 days of opening, and make $500 or more in qualifying direct deposits within 60 days of account opening
- Earn an additional $50 when you also open a new Essential Savings account and deposit at least $5,000 in new balances within 14 days of account opening. You must maintain a balance of $5,000 for 60 days after checking account opening
- Earn up to $250 when you open a new Select Checking with direct deposit and a new Savings Account
- Earn $200 when you open a new Select Checking account online, deposit at least $100 into the new account within 14 days of opening, and make $2,000 or more in qualifying direct deposits within 60 days of account opening
- Earn an additional $50 when you also open a new Select Savings account and deposit at least $5,000 in new balances within 14 days of account opening. You must maintain a balance of $5,000 for 60 days after checking account opening.
- Earn up to $150 when you open a new Essential Checking with direct deposit and a new Savings Account
The Fine Print
- The client must be a new SunTrust personal checking client (clients who already have a personal checking account with SunTrust, as a primary or secondary account holder, are not eligible for this promotion)
- The client must not have closed a personal checking account within 180 days of the promotion start date (on or after November 4, 2015)
- Offer available only to U.S. Residents with a U.S. address in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia
- Reward is limited to one per household
- A qualifying Direct Deposit is an electronic credit of your salary, pension, Social Security or other regular monthly income deposited to your account by your employer or an outside agency. Transfers from one account to another or deposits made at a banking location or ATM do not qualify as a Direct Deposit
Avoiding Fees
The full fee schedule can be viewed by clicking here.
Essential Checking – $7 Monthly
This is the account that is required for the $100 bonus, the monthly fee on this account is waived if you do any of the following:
- 10 or more debit card transactions
- Minimum daily balance of $500+
- Total monthly direct deposits of $500+
Select Checking – $15 Monthly
This is the account that is required for the $200 bonus, the monthly fee of $15 is waived if you do anyof the following:
- Total monthly direct deposits of $2,000+
- Minimum daily balance of $2,000+
- Total relationship balance of $10,000+
- SunTrust first mortgage with SurePay
Essential Savings – $0 Monthly Fee
This account has no monthly fee and can be opened in the $150 offer.
Select Savings – $7 Monthly Fee
Monthly fee is waived if you do both of the following:
- Have a minimum daily balance of at least $1,000
- Set up an automatic transfer of at least $25 from your checking account each month
Early Account Termination Fee
If you cancel your account within six months, they will charge an early account termination fee of $25
Our Verdict
The $200/$100 bonuses are the standard offers from Suntrust, what is new is the extra $50 savings bonus. The $200 checking bonus is well worth doing, so if you haven’t done that I’d highly recommend it. Let’s work out if it’s worth doing the saving bonus or not. You’re required to deposit $5,000 and keep it in there for 60 days, if you put that same money into a 1% account you’d earn ~$8.3, but if you put it into a 5% account you’d earn ~$41.6. The other thing you need to keep in mind is that you need to keep $1,000 in that account to keep it fee free (and to avoid the early account termination fee).
[Read: “Which High-Interest Savings Account Should I Get?”]
Personally I don’t think the savings bonus makes sense, better to make use of a 5% account instead as that’s more of a long term solution. If you’ve already maxed those out, it might be worth a look though. I’ve added this to our list of the best bank bonuses, because as I stated the checking $200 bonus is well worth doing.
Please share your data points and experiences in the comments below.
Hat tip to @MattMcCombs17
