Published on September 27th, 2019 | by William Charles

[Expired] [Targeted] Bank of America $500 Checking Bonus

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Offer at a glance

Maximum bonus amount: $500
Availability: Targeted
Direct deposit required: $10,000 within 90 days, or reach a deposit requirement
Additional requirements: See below
Hard/soft pull: Soft, as long as you opt out of overdraft protection
ChexSystems: No
Credit card funding: None, but you can fund with a debit card up to $250
Monthly fees: $12, avoidable
Early account termination fee: None
Household limit: None listed
Expiration date: December 31st, 2019

Contents

1 The Offer
2 The Fine Print
3 Avoiding Fees
- 3.1 Monthly Fees
- 3.2 Early Account Termination Fee
4 Our Verdict

The Offer

No direct link to offer, showing for some when logged into their Bank of America accounts

Bank of America is offering a bonus of $500 when you open a new checking account and complete ONE the following requirements:
- Set up and receive qualifying direct deposits totalling $10,000 or more within 90 days of account opening
- Make qualifying deposits of $50,000 or more in new money into your personal checking account within 30 days of opening and maintain that balance for 90 days

The Fine Print

All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

Monthly Fees

Easiest account to keep fee free seems to be the Bank of America Advantage Plus Banking account. This has a $12 monthly fee that is waived if you do any of the following:

Maintain a minimum daily balance of $1,500 or more
Receive a direct deposit of $250+
Students under age 24 are eligible to have this fee waived while enrolled in high school, college, university or a vocational program.
Preferred Rewards clients get this fee waived (waiver applies to first 4 checking accounts).

Early Account Termination Fee

As far as I know there is no early account termination fee.

Our Verdict

Previous best bonus has been $300, that was recently publicly available. This requires $10,000 in direct deposits, this might be a struggle for some readers although in the past some work arounds have worked and it should be possible to cycle the funds making it a little easier. It’s a shame that this is targeted, because I do think it’s definitely worth doing. I think they have targeted this towards people with cards such as the old Merrill+ card, so they probably see these as high value customers and thus the $500 bonus. If this was a public bonus I’d be adding it to the list of the best checking bonuses.

Hat tip to reader Daniel H

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:

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Justin Thorne

Got targeted for the $300 offer with 4k total deposits over 90 days, which I was not when I checked last week.

channelz28

I also got the same offer. Funny as I only just closed my checking account a few months ago.

If you can’t do Direct deposit or fake it, I don’t think depositing 50k on account with tiny interest is worth.

missjenniferd1🦉 🦁

yeah, he’s not suggesting to hold the funds there, he’s suggesting the dir dep option. it’s in the verdict section.

Frito Pendejo

Not targeted, I have three sock-drawered BoA cards

Barry Egan's Pudding

Got targeted for a $500 bonus on a business checking account with $20,000 total deposits in 60 days, but not for the personal account.

Kyle

That’s a good offer if you can swing it. I am currently doing the Biz offer.

Tom

What do you need to satisfy requirement for the Biz offer?

Barry Egan’s Pudding

$20k deposits within 60 days (and $3,000 minimum balance to keep account free)

Tom

OK. thanks. But do you need to have some small business?

josefismael

I also have a sock-drawered Merrill+ CC. When I log into the online banking portal, where would I go to see targeted offers? I’ve got a ‘Special offers and deals’ but that’s always credit card sign up bonuses. (I’m in MN if that matters)

Firefly

Got email today for $300 bonus after $4,000 DD within 90 days. It’s not listed in my “special offers”. This is the first time I’ve been targeted for personal checking bonus. I got the business checking bonus last week.

I got targeted for $300 offer last week. Timed out during application and offer is no longer in my account.

Be careful with starting the process.

CtownBin

Darn, I have a Merril+ card, and got targeted in September for the $350 bonus, which seemed good at the time so I went for it. Something tells me I’d have been targeted for this one had I waited. Win some lose some, $350 is still decent.

Gin Fizz

Got targeted email for the $500 bonus. Only relationship with BOA is Alaska CC < 1 year. Application went to pending, but was approved 3 hours later. As a result, was never offered opportunity to fund with debit card. Customer service said there is 8-week grace period with no monthly fees, but advised that I should fund account with at least $100 ASAP to prevent possible zero-balance account closure.

[Expired] [Targeted] Bank of America $500 Checking Bonus

The Offer

The Fine Print