Update 1/24/24: Bonus is now $200. No referrals in the comments below, please go to this post to find referrals (closed for new comments). Direct deposit of $1,000+ required this time.
Update 12/27/23: Down to $100.
Update 10/15/23: Extended until Extended to 11/30
Update 8/30/23: Extended to 09/30. No referrals in the comments below, please go to this post to find referrals.
Update 8/3/23: Extended until 8/31
Update 7/12/23: Referral bonus has increased to $150 for the new member. Referrer gets $50. Valid through July 31, 2023. Terms link I don’t see the Swagbucks offer right now. (ht Steve)(Some people might prefer the $500 checking+credit line offer instead of this checking offer. See also this comment.)
Update 12/22/22: Referral reduced to $50.
Update 10/28/22: Extended until 1/31/2023.
Update 10/26/22: Premier savings account has been increased to 3.5% (note: that account is not available for Upgrade checking customers)
Update 10/24/22: There’s also $100 Swagbucks bonus on the Upgrade checking account (slightly better on MyPoints). Reports in the comments indicate it’s possible to stack the referral bonus and the Swagbucks bonus, YMMV.
Update 10/14/22: Upgrade is now offering a 3% APY account with no monthly fee as well. Making it one of the better high yield savings accounts.
Update 9/30/22: Extended until Oct 31, 2022.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount:Â $100
- Availability:Â Nationwide
- Direct deposit required:Â No
- Additional requirements:Â See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: Up to $500 with a debit card
- Monthly fees:Â None
- Early account termination fee:Â None
- Household limit:Â None listed
- Expiration date:Â
July 14th 31st, 2022 August 31st, 2022September 30, 2022
Contents
The Offer
Direct link to offer (find referral links in this linked post)
- Upgrade is offering a $200 referral bonus (for both the referrer and referee) when the person being referred opens a new rewards checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Make 3 debit card purchases within 60 days of account opening
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
This account has no monthly fees
Early Account Termination Fee
According to the fee schedule there is no early account termination fee.
Our Verdict
Credit Karma has been offering a $500 bonus when you open a line of credit. It’s not 100% clear if you can do this $100 referral bonus and then that $500 bonus (some discussion of it here). If you can only do one then that $500 bonus will be a much better offer.
Hat tip to Ryan Michael Bednarski
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
William Charles “Offer Period for new customers to open an account ends on Apr 30, 2024. New customers qualify for a bonus by making direct deposits totaling $1,000 by 45 days post account opening.”
$200 Referral extended yet again to 4/30.
3/20 opened checking acc w/referral link here
3/22 $1001 fidelity CMA push
3/25 bonus posted
I was a bit concerned as the tracker disappeared for me right after the deposit hit, since I saw some other users having issues with not getting the bonus after this happening, but I got it relatively quickly.
I got an email when the fidelity push reached the upgrade account (“congratuations, you’ve unlocked top tier benefits with your direct deposits totalling $1000+ last month!”), and then another when the bonus actually posted.
@John bonus posted into your Checking? I see some comments saying bonus posted into Savings, but I opened only Checking.
Upgrade really wants you to activate its debit card. After multiple e-mails since opening the account asking why I haven’t activated, I received a promo e-mail today to receive a $10 bonus for activating the debit card and making 3 purchases within 60 days.
Per a couple of DP’s you cannot collect that bonus and the SUB though.
Thanks, likely wasn’t going to do it anyways but good to know I’m not missing out on anything.
why not to collect your SUB bonus first and then to wait to activate your card bonus 😉
It’s in the terms of the $10 offer that you cannot combine, supposedly. Just going off what others have said, and don’t know if they tried to do the purchases to test it.
Thanks Txstars10 I will not activate mine too 🙂
Applied with SB and referral. Account instantly opened, and I can see the tracker for $200 bonus. I tried to fund with the debit card, failed “transaction not authorized”. Anyone else got this error after instant approval?
I got a system error when I tried funding with debit at opening. Once my account was opened, I ACH’ed in. It didn’t cause any issues.
Were you trying to fund the account with a VGC/MCGC? I heard that those don’t work for funding the account.
@Eric No I didn’t use gift cards, I used 2 casback debit cards that I have now – for Discover Debit and Axos. I thought last week, it was some kind of issue with the new account not completely set up yet in Upgrade system. But I tried again on Monday and again “error – transaction not authorized”. Then I tried some debit cards for my regular checking accounts and some failed too, but finally Pelican State debit card worked. But with the URGENT email from Pelican to confirm that was me. It looks like it’s some security issue with other banks not really trusting Upgrade or something like that. So save your time and forget about funding with debit card I guess.
Racoonzel could please explain how to stack SB properly with the referral code? Thanks
@Joe As I wrote below – open SB link first and then paste referral link into url of the Upgrade page that was opened from SB. Don’t navigate on Upgrade site, just on the same page.
I have orange pending sign on SB for Upgrade now in “Visited”. Hope it means it worked. “Award will pend for 32 days”. It doesn’t show “12000 pts pending”, but I didn’t make DD yet.
Attention: both my checking and savings accounts were suspended w/o any clear reasons. contacted customer support and spent quite a few days going through a process by sending in multiple documents to multiple email addresses (they also claimed that they could not receive any docs i sent from the first email address they provided. ) If u r really unlucky like me, the application process can be much less enjoyable. Also it is still under review and not resolved yet.
Details matter if you want input with your situation i.e. dates (application, pending, review, opened, suspended, etc), which department, method of comms (email, chat, phone), types of doc requested minus sensitive info. and timeline of events. You never know what useful nuggets will come out from the community.
Did they suspend the account after it was opened and up and running? I haven’t funded the savings account yet, but if this is common practice, then I would avoid. I did provide DL to open the account but would not be comfortable providing anything else if they suspend the account and freeze my monies. Thanks for your input.
I wouldn’t let one person’s bad experience derail your plans.
my referrer’s account was apparently closed so even though the referral link worked (bonus showed in application), account opened, etc. they denied me the bonus
tracker showed $0 of $1k DD, and showed progress after I did a real DD, but then once the goal was met- tracker disappeared
I would connect with Upgrade via chat or phone and ask them what they can do to help. My experience with them is that they are reasonable if you explain the situation clearly and if they can push for a courtesy bonus on your behalf. Its an option, not guaranteed and worth the effort.
Sometimes the better way to find a solid referral link is to select people that have been helpful to others vs. the first link posted from the referral page. This is due the fact that many of the referees don’t communicate much, if at all, anything useful. Don’t get blind by the excitement of chasing the bonus. Instead read through a few comments to get an idea of what’s going on then decide.
Unfortunately, Upgrade told me this via chat after I noticed the tracker was missing. Left that part out, sorry! Long week
Thanks for the tip, i did choose the one with the most upvotes I believe but didn’t think that far
That might have been your mistake going by upvotes. Supposed popularity doesn’t mean that the person is reliable.
N,
You wrote “my referrer’s account was apparently closed“. Does that mean that Upgrade didn’t say this and you are only assuming this because the tracker disappeared?
If so, I wouldn’t assume that at all. There have been multiple DP that I have seen of the tracker disappearing and then the person still ended up receiving the referral bonus within days.
Unfortunately, Upgrade told me this via chat after I noticed the tracker was missing. Left that part out, sorry! Long week
Hmm.. a case of referrer (hit) and run. Did you try the option mentioned? Some reps are better than others. While some may not be as competent, experienced or trained to handle such a request. I would keep trying till you get a 3 strike and you’re out confirmation for each type of comms.
Let them know that you just want them to honor the bonus for yourself (nevermind referrer bonus). Explain that the during application the system didn’t reject your application due to the referrer hitting their referral quota (since you have no control or knowledge), nor did it stopped you from successfully opening, getting properly tracked and acknowledgement that they too can see bonus attached.
Hopefully you also saved your email comms. and some screenshots of offer as backup. Give them a reasonable case to honor the promo. Some elbow grease to fight for it.
Super fast and easy bonus payout. Have not even gotten the debit card in the mail yet.
3/13- opened via referral link from DoC. Opened with zero funding.
3/19 – push from Fidelity ~1k
3/21 – bonus deposited into Savings.
Very easy bonus and referrals… thanks for sharing! I wanted to mention that the Upgrade debit card was able to pay my Citi credit card bill via phone, but it did not earn any cashback for the transaction.
Opened acc 03/15
03/20 – Chase $1000 push hits acc
The little tracker thingy didn’t put a checkmark, does that mean the Chase push didn’t work?
Try waiting overnight for the tracker to update.
What tracker? Are you talking about the person with the account or the person who referred?
The person with the account should see a list of requirements to earn the bonus from within online banking. I think it updates with checkmarks when complete. The bonus pays out in days, as long as the DD is counted.
Never seen it. It’s a moot point now since I just logged in and noticed that I now have the received the bonus a whole 5 days after opening the account. LoL
Chase will not let me set up Upgrade as an external account to push to. Any thoughts? Maybe deposit funds into Upgrade, push to Chase, they are linked that way?