[Extended] Chase $900 Checking + Savings Bonus

View Comments (6430)

• I haven't received the bonus for Savings account, can I still close Checking account?

• redacted

• "Can fund up to $50 with a debit card online" -- it's no longer an option when I opened the accounts just now.

• Am I crazy for considering only meeting the requirements for the $300, and not completing the $15k savings deposit?

  I'd have to sell mutual funds in order to transfer $15k. I'm sure I'd come out ahead compared to me just leaving the money alone, but I'm not sure it's really worth the effort.

  • Yeah that’s really your call on if you want to spend the effort of moving 15k around for the extra $600. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing just the $300, but don’t lock yourself out for 2 years if you believe that you can do the $900 in the near future.

  • Most of us aren't doing this just for the $300 checking bonus, which Chase already offers all year round.

    If you only do the $300 bonus, you'll be locking yourself out of the $900 combo bonus for the next 2 years. If you don't have the liquidity for the savings component, then this bonus really isn't for you.

• I'm hoping to sign up for this $900 bonus soon. But the only fake DD methods really available to me right now would be eBay or Raise/GCX. (I do have Treasury Direct, but changing the payout account on there and then changing it back sounds like a possible nightmare I don't want to go through.) I'm now seeing recent DP's in this thread that eBay stopped working for DD. Has Chase, after all these years, suddenly cut off the fake DD methods within days of me finally being ready to do this? Or is it just eBay that no longer works? As of now I would plan to do Raise/GCX. But are we confident it will still work? The last DP I see saying it worked is weeks ago. And if it doesn't work, I'm not sure I have any way to do the DD qualification. Am I going to have to skip this offer just because I can't do the fake DD?

  Also how do you avoid fees with this offer once you get the bonus if you don't have a real DD method? If I can make it all work, I'd get the last of the bonus in the savings account around 115 days after signup, I guess. I'd prefer to withdraw most of the money but leave the accounts open until the 6 month mark before closing. Is there a way to downgrade these to avoid fees like with many other offers? Otherwise, I'm not seeing any good way to avoid the fees. Do I have to just close the accounts right after the bonus arrives and I withdraw the money even though I prefer not to close immediately just so as not to have lots of early closes on Chex?

  • As far as my first question, I'm hoping that at least one of eBay, Raise/GCX or Treasury Direct will work for the fake DD. And from what people say, TD shouldn't be too troublesome to just add an account for a T-Bill payout if it comes to that. I hope people will post new DP"s on which DD methods are still working.

    Can anyone comment on the second part of my question though? With other offers I've done, I downgraded the account to a no-minimum account right after getting the bonus to avoid fees. Can that be done with this Chase Checking and Savings combo? If not, and if we're using fake DD so we can't meet some big regular DD minimum ongoingly, how do we avoid fees once the bonus is paid and we withdraw most of the money?

    • There is no fee the first month.

      Day 30 - Day 60 you will have a high enough balance in the savings acct to avoid the fees.

      Day 61... You can reduce the savings balance to $300 to avoid the Savings fee in the future months. On the checking, do a DD of $500 per month, or maintain a $1,500 balance.

      Close when you see fit.

      These banks don't just jump out and charge fees instantly. If it does happen, it doesn't happen until statement close. It's good to worry, but don't avoid doing a $900 bonus because you MIGHT get one $12 fee. (good luck finding anyone in the comments charged a fee, BTW) @guest_2049397

      • I specified this is if doing fake DD. So not going to do $500 a month of fake DD's to avoid the checking fee. And maintaining a $1500 balance in checking for several months is a waste of interest I could earn on that $1500 elsewhere. I'd prefer to leave accounts open for 6 months with just a small amount in them. But here I'd have to leave almost $2000 in these accounts for several months extra. With other offers I did, this was all avoided by downgrading accounts. I'm assuming Chase doesn't allow downgrading like so many others and that's why I'm not seeing it mentioned here? Has anyone even tried to downgrade?

        I assume nobody in the comments was charged a fee because people are closing these accounts soon after getting the bonus? Or are you saying Chase just doesn't tend to enforce the fees even if you qualify for fees? I'm just trying to figure out if closing the accounts right after the bonus is my best move here despite not really liking to do that. As a policy, I want to leave accounts open 6 months, but I guess not if I have to leave a significant amount in to avoid fees over the last few months.

        I'd definitely do the bonus even if I did have to pay a couple fees. But I'd obviously rather avoid them.

        • As an example $1500 at 4.00% APY earns $4.91 interest per month at a HYSA but keeping that $1500 on deposit keeps you from having to pay $12 monthly fee and having to deal with sending the monthly $500 to stay fee free. This will also allow you to drop the savings balance down to $300 to avoid fees there also.

        • Good point. I guess the only question left is whether it's worth keeping the accounts open 6 months just to make the Chex report look better vs. just closing them right after the bonus. I try to keep accounts open 6 months as a rule but since I can't downgrade this one like I can with others maybe it can't hurt to just close these ones if I'm not making a habit of closing most of them too quickly?

        • They will eventually charge the fee, yes, of course. Probably after your 90 day mark or so, as most banks waive them for awhile.

          Why not use a "fake" $500 DD to waive the fee? Once a month the money falls in, and you pull it right back out. (just leave enough to cover the fee, just in case) Almost ANY ACH should work... way less restrictive than the bonus. I am using LendingClub, and I'm 99.9% sure there is NO WAY that works for the bonus. If it for some reason doesn't work, ask for a courtesy waiver.

          https://personal.chase.com/personal/checking

          There is nothing lower than these tiers of accounts that I know of. If you want to find out for sure, pick up the phone and ask. Military & senior citizens may/do have a waiver program but that's about it.

        • You're saying that what counts as a DD for the bonus is different than what qualifies as a DD for avoiding fees? I'm probably going to have to use Raise/GCX for the fake DD (assuming it still works). So I couldn't imagine selling $500 of gift cards every month just to do the DD to avoid fees. However, even if more things count as DD for avoiding fees, I don't know what I'd use for $500 of DD's monthly to avoid fees. Are you really saying any normal ACH qualifies as DD suddenly for avoiding the fees? Very confusing policy if so.

        • Yes, that is what I am saying. There is a difference between earning the bonus and getting the monthly fee waiver....

          Fee waiver on checking:

          "Electronic deposits made into this account totaling
          $500
          or more, such as payments from payroll providers or government benefit providers, by using (i) the ACH network, (ii) the Real Time Payment or FedNowSM network, or (iii) third party services that facilitate payments to your debit card using the Visa® or Mastercard® network"

          Earn the bonus for checking account:

          "Your direct deposit needs to be an electronic deposit of your paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security) from your employer or the government."

          Confusing? That's why banks have fine print.

        • @guest_1534778 mate, any indications/tracker to know if specific ACH will be counted to waive the monthly fee?

        • Oh so it's $500 of electronic deposits to avoid the fee, not specifically direct deposit. I think I got confused simply because in this thread I saw people talking about doing a monthly $500 direct deposit and thought that meant it had to be direct deposit to avoid fees just as for the bonus.

          That makes it a lot easier. Leave $300 in savings and ACH $500 to checking once a month while it's open. Still not sure if it's worth the hassle to do that for a few months just to keep it open 6 months to make my Chex look better or not worth it and should just close it after getting the bonus. I guess it depends how harmful having accounts closed before 6 months on Chex report is.

        • They use Early Warning Services (EWS), not ChexSystems.

          And, that is up to you if it's worth it.

          PNC, Capital One, KeyBank, and Bank of America are known to be EWS sensitive for some people, so there is incentive to not open & close as fast as possible.

  • I only did the $300 bonus and its a pain, i dont think the 900 is worth it imo. I ended up having to use teal DD but just today i realized my employer modified my DD quicker than i anticipated so i wont have the min $500/month deposit. I need to close my account within the next week

    • I'm not sure I understand how it could not be worth it for $900. Putting $!5,000 in the savings account for basically around 60 days for an extra $600 is fantastic. And for the $900 bonus, you don't need $500/month deposit to get the bonus, apparently only to avoid a fee. And even if you did get a fee or two, you're still only talking about a few dollars. But yes I guess you can just close the account before getting a fee.

  • I just did eBay and it says I completed the offer. Not sure they “fixed” it

    • Oh. Can you please make sure and post here whether you get your actual bonus from the eBay fake DD? Just so we can be completely sure it's working again?

  • Changing the payout bank on TD is actually really easy. I was anxious about it as well my first couple of times, but it’s so much more straightforward than I initially anticipated. FWIW, each transaction is a stand alone transaction, so there is actually no switching back and forth. You can use a different payout bank for different bills. I would suggest adding the Chase account to TD but letting it sit for a couple of weeks or so before actually using it.

    • Interesting. I had heard that sometimes people try to change the account and TD doesn't let them do it and then insists they send in paperwork or other things that take weeks or months to do. Is it possible that you just got lucky that yours went through smoothly and it's a crapshoot or are those stories I heard not true?

      Edit: When I search about this I find "Note that for security, adding or editing bank information may require completing the FS Form 5512." That may be what people are talking about. Also it says if the bank account doesn't verify properly you could get a hold on your account. Huge hassles that I'd really love to avoid by just being able to do eBay or Raise/GCX. Especially since if it takes long enough to get TD fixed it might be too late to use it for the bonus anyway.

      • In my experience, you can avoid the lockout/paperwork aspect *if* you initiate an ACH to/from your new account via e.g. trial deposits to/from another bank. This seems to register your account with ACH by creating a transaction. I suspect this is how TD verifies your account instantly...it looks to see if it's ever had an ACH transaction. If not, it fails to verify, and they force you to send in paperwork, etc.

      • IIRC from DoC discussions on this, the lockouts and other issues were happening with CofI, not TBills. I’ve only purchased TBills for this reason and have had no issues with adding/changing banks.

        • @guest_2070489,

          I am glad to see that you took my advice in said discussion and that it's worked out for you.

          @guest_2049397,

          I have purchased hundreds of T-Bills over the past 2 or 3 years and have changed over the "Destination Account" > 10 times and have never run into an issue. In fact, I had never had an issue before with TrD before yesterday when I was unable to add my BMO account to it. ☹

        • Thanks…always appreciate your help.

• SO when i opened my checking and savings account. I transfered the $15000 from an external account into the checking account then moved it into the savings account. Will i still get the savings bonus? or did i screw up not depositing directly into the savings?

  • You probably will not get the bonus automatically. You should reach out and ask for exception, as you met the spirit of the promotion. @guest_2086793

• Checking bonus tracker not showing up. Used the link hack but shows "This page is unavailable right now". Messaged CS and got comfirmation. Anyone got the bonus with similar situation?

• Oddly, I already received the $300 checking bonus and the only thing I've done was deposit $25 from my discover savings. I have a direct deposit set up but it hasn't deposited anything yet. Should be at end of the month.

  Should I have already gotten the $300 bonus?

  • That's awesome that Discover counts as a QDD. Your situation is similar to how I accidentally discovered that Orion counts as a QDD 2 or 3 years ago.

    • Yeah, based on this page and the comments, I didn't think an ACH from Discovery savings would qualify. I'm not sure if something changed with Discovery, or if it was just random luck, but I'll take it.

      • Something sure did change. Discover is now part of CO. Only time will tell if the change is a coincidence or not. 😉

  • open your chase app and see the status of bonus, could be that your discover savings counted as DD... and the only thing I can think, if it's not your discover, than you real DD as you stated, could be triggered prior posting, as some banks do, but I'm not sure if it's your case...

    • @guest_2086481,

      @guest_2086305 wrote "I have a direct deposit set up but it hasn’t deposited anything yet". I give it almost a 0% chance that the "real" DD that hasn't posted yet is what triggered the bonus!

    • It shows as a Discover Prearranged PPD

• Wise transfer into checking didn't work. Shows up as ACH credit.

  • A legit DD also shows up as ACH credit, and description as Firstname Lastname xxxxxxxxxx PPD ID: xxxxxxxx
    What does the description show up as from fake DD?

• Ebay posted to checking 6/16, was expecting bonus today and it has not posted. Ebay may be dead

  • bonus tracker tracks that bonus attached to your account? And it still not updated any direct deposit to your account? then Ebay could be dead...