Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: Nationwide
- APY: 4.3%
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: No for Online Savings
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: No
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date: 9/29/23
Contents
The Offer
Direct link to offer, targeted bonus. Sent out via e-mail, subject line is ‘Maximize your savings with a Boost Bonus’
- Discover is offering a bonus of $150/$200. Bonus you receive depends on the amount you deposit by 9/29/23 and hold until 10/30/23:
- Deposit and maintain $15,000 and get $150 bonus
- Deposit and maintain $25,000 and get $200
The Fine Print
- To qualify for a Savings Boost Bonus, deposit directly to the selected savings Account (“Account”) a Required Deposit Amount (“RDA”) of $15,000 in New Funds (i.e., not currently on deposit at Discover) to earn $150 Bonus OR $25,000 in New Funds to earn $200 Bonus between 9/8/23 and 9/29/23 11:59 PM ET (“Funding Period”). Maintain a minimum of your Account Balance as of 9/6/23 11:59 PM ET plus RDA (“Hold Amount”) from 9/29/23 11:59 PM ET to 10/30/23 11:59 PM ET. RDA may consist of multiple deposits made during Funding Period. RDA funds must be credited to Account by end of Funding Period to be eligible. Any funds added over qualifying Hold Amount are excluded from Hold Period requirements. Maximum Bonus eligibility is $200.
- Important: Customers with an existing Online Savings Account were selected at random to receive the offer. Only one account per customer is eligible. The offer is non-transferable. No promotion code or enrollment is needed. Account must be open when Bonus is credited. Bonus to be credited to Account by 11/30/23 and is subject to reporting on Form 1099-INT. Offer ends 9/29/23. Offer may be modified or withdrawn without notice.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
Discover’s Online Savings Account does not have any fees, nor any minimum balance requirement
Early Account Termination Fee
There is no mention of an early termination fee according to the Online Savings Account Guide.
Our Verdict
Unlike the bonus for new account holders, you actually need to keep the funds in the account for roughly one month. The account does earn a base rate of 4.30% APY and with this bonus it adds another ~12% APY but you obviously only get that through the very short period. Still worth doing though if you were targeted.
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- 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
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
Discover’s promotional email subsriptions never seem to work for me.
More of a meta discussion, but what do you think Discover uses the customer data from this promotion for? If a person takes advantage of the offer, Discover has to pay them the bonus (which I understand probably comes from banks funds allocated for customer promotions). Does Discover then target this customer (who has more liquid capital) with higher equity offers for mortgages or something else? Do they sell this data to 3rd party brokerage to target these customers with investment strategies?
I’m curious how a bank can use these rarer-type of promotions for their favor.
The first thing Discover does is send it to EWS along with every other transaction you make, from $0.00 up.
Then it metastasizes. EWS offers it for sale to anyone with a ‘permissible purpose’ which means any financial entity you do business with at the very least.
No doubt it ends up in the databases of dozens of other spook agencies too.
A little confused in email saying “If you’d like to claim your bonus, here’s how it works–you have $6,500.00 in your Online Savings Account. Using the $150 bonus as the example: Deposit New Funds: Add $15,000 to your Account for a total Hold Amount of $21,500.00 by 9/29/2023. You can make one or more deposits of New Funds totaling $15,000 or more before 9/29/2023. New Funds are defined as not currently on deposit at Discover or transferred between Discover accounts. Please allow for deposit processing and hold times as it may result in not meeting the offer end date on 9/29/2023.” So I can’t transfer the original 6500 to another bank then transfer 6500+8500 back to discover to qualify this promo? Anyone can help me understand please?
I think you can withdraw the $6500, but then you’d need to deposit 6500+15000, not just 6500+8500. “Maintain a minimum of your Account balance as of 09/06/2023 11:59 PM ET plus RDA (“Hold Amount”) from 9/29/23 11:59 PM ET to 10/30/23 11:59 PM ET”
You have to have your starting balance plus $15k (or $25k for $200 bonus) in place by 9/29 and keep that same minimum through 10/30.
That initial balance of the 6.5k is your $0 starting point. It’s their way of making sure you add all new money and not transfer out and back in.
This is too bad!
i got targeted. I have 2 savings accounts with discover. They were my first online bank so I have them both opened since 2015 probably. They just sit with $1 in them as I don’t use discover anymore but I never closed them out. 1 account was targeted last year actually for this same promo and now the 2 account I had is targeted with this promo this year. It’s extra free money so yay. Just keeping my savings in T-bills anyways.
I hate lucky draws.
i’m not targeted but i’m still waiting for the 500$ bonus with 50,000$ deposit.
I discovered my Discover accounts have not been discovered by Discover for this Discover savings bonus.
I didn’t know discover offered these types of bonuses for existing users. I recently unsubscribed from some promotional emails from them but maybe I should re-subscribe
I’m targeted. Can someone do the math and tell me which of $15,000/$150 bonus and $25,000/$200 bonus is a better deal?
Welp, that’s what I get for keeping my money with them and not buying some treasury bills or better HYS account. Guess it’s time to move it out of there so I can get targeted
Have a bunch of money in there and I was targeted. P2 has little money in and wasn’t targeted so I don’t know the rhyme or reason for the targets.
I have less than $30 in there and wasn’t targeted so don’t feel bad for leaving it in.
same
Their current APY is 4.30%, which isn’t that bad although not the best. I use them as a hub account because they don’t currently enforce a 6 transfer limit and never bother me for five figure transfers.