Update 6/11/20: $75 bonus good through 6/30, fingers crossed the $100 bonus returns again.
Update 1/3/20: Bonus has been reduced to $75
Update 12/18/19: Varo has now sent out e-mails saying this won’t be extended again and might be the last time they ever offer $100.
Update 10/13/19: Bonus has been extended until December 31st, 2019
Update 7/3/19: Bonus increased to $100 for referrer and $100 for new member. Direct deposit requirement lowered from $250 to $200. Updated details below. Do not leave your referral or leave your email or ask for a referral in the comments.
Important reminder, do not share your referrals because Varo money will ban you. “Eligibility is based on individual Members inviting only personal friends, family, and known acquaintances. Attempts to generate referral activity by posting a Member’s unique link on third party social media, blog, or other similar websites can result in termination of Member eligibility.”
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $100
- Availability: Nationwide
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $200+ within first 45 days
- Additional requirements: Use a referral, must be e-mailed to you and you must use the same e-mail address to sign up
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: No
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date:
June 30th, 2019 September 30, 2019December 31st, 2019
The Offer
No direct link to offer, requires a referral.
- Varo Money is offering a bonus of $100
$75when you open a new account and complete the following requirements:- Receive a direct deposit of $200
$250or more within the first 45 days
- Receive a direct deposit of $200
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
This account has no monthly fees to worry about
Early Account Termination Fee
There is no early account termination fee.
Our Verdict
Previously they offered a $100 bonus with the exact same requirements. Because of that I wouldn’t recommend doing this deal. I’d also recommend not doing it as they ban sharing referrals.
Hat tip to reader Matt A
Nowhere in our post does it say you can share referrals in the comments. Please do not break the rules
STOP ASKING OR SHARING REFERRALS YOU IDIOTS. VARO READS THIS THREAD
This is true. I have one guy sent me an email said that his email is not eligible for this promotion meaning he got block from varo. Be careful! Varo has eyes on DoC
Does that mean if one got the referral from the email shared by several people here last night and use it to register, will they be rejected? Or will app still be accepted but the referred person don’t get the bonus since the one referring is banned?
If one used a different email addy from what they used on Varo, will the referral they send from email NOT registered with Varo be invalid and referred person don’t get the bonus?
I just want to understand the mechanics of this and how the bank will find out legit referrals.
When you click on the referral link and if the page leads you to regular sign up page then that person is not eligible or the referral is not valid.
LOL
Earlier I had done the referral bonus and then churned to do MyPoints. I was able to churn again for Swagbucks.
12/23/20: Opened with Plaid pull of $25
12/29/20: Withdrew $24.99
02/07/21: Nothing from Swagbucks after 45 days so sent in a ticket
02/10/21: Canned response from Swagbucks asking to confirm details
02/10/21: Response retelling them info
02/16/21: Followup email
02/22/21: Followup email
02/23/21: 5000 SB ($50)
Will keep this one open as I pursue the savings account now.
“We want to let you know that starting March 23, 2021, our premium rate will increase to 3.00% Annual Percentage Yield (APY) from 2.80% APY!
We’ll be lowering the maximum balance to earn this rate from $10,000 to $5,000, so you must not exceed $5,000 in daily savings balances at close of business during the calendar month.”
Yaya, I already moved all my money out a while ago. Good riddance.
Tricky languages! Starting March 23, but still you must not exceed $5,000 in daily savings balances during the calendar month. So $10K balances from March 1 to March 22 will ruin the entire month??!!
Anyone get a 1099 for a referral that paid out in 2020? I got one in 2020 for bonuses paid out in 2019 (from Bankcorp I believe), but nothing in 2021 for 2020. P2 (referee) didn’t receive one either.
Ughh Discover push no longer triggers premium APY tier in the new Varo app. Since Varo is its own FDIC insured bank now, you have to find a new fake or real DD to trigger it.
Is it the base rate 0.81 that is getting lowered ?
or the premium rate is also getting lowered to 0.4% as well ?
Based on their history, the premium tier has stayed the same.
I am in double minds whether to do real DD as I see your below DP that Discover push doesn’t work any more.
Just to make sure I am understanding the deal correctly, the premium APY is for $10K max balance in savings as it is right?
Yes, and make sure your balance never crosses $10K at any point in time or you lose premium APY for the ENTIRE MONTH. Their new terms are not favorable for the customers.
Yeah agree. The potential earnings had a cap to begin with and now with the changes it’s even worse.
When you linked Discover to Varo did you have to go through trial deposits process ?
I wonder if that gives away the game
Is there any bank that can instantly link Varo through a plaid type of system ?
I tried chase, seems chase doesn’t recognize Varo for instant linking
Yes I had to do it with trial deposits, but I have had to do that with basically every bank. It has never caused issues before, even when getting $300+ bonuses, but now Varo doesn’t code Discover like it used to. I know SoFi will sometimes let you link banks automatically using Plaid, but I believe SoFi already has DPs showing that it doesn’t code as DD either.
There really isn’t a difference between instant vs. trial deposit linking, as banks are all over the place for fake DD. Since Varo is a brand new FDIC insured bank, we are starting from scratch looking for fake DD.
In any case, the 8 digit Varo account number is giving me a headache when I try to link it to the other bank.
Some of the banks won’t even accept it as account numbers are typically between 9-17 characters.
I don’t know. I used Amazon reloads.
I can confirm that Cashapp reloads DO satisfy the 5 debit card transaction requirement, at least before they switched everything over. Now I’m not sure, but I would wager that they would still count, it’s just the DD we have to figure out.
Varo is dead to me. Moving all my money out. Not sure if I’ll close it entirely though.
I just realized this today when I opened my app to check my rate. It now says 0.4% APY. I’ve always done a push from Discover and have gotten the premium APY for years. Any DPs on what still works for DD?
Unfortunately not, and I’m not going to waste any more time with them. Disappointing since they were great before now.
When I switched to new Varo app, there seem to be some issues with monthly APR. I deposit exactly 500$ in biweekly pay check. One or my paycheks was before I switched to the new app and my 5 spends on varo card were also before I switched to new app. Today when I opened my account details, it shows APR as 0.8%. Also the interest earned last month seem to consider only the days in the new Varo app. Have emailed customer service. Anyone else have this experieince?
Yes, same thing. I emailed them and didn’t get anything back. Just CFPB them. I’m done with this sh*tty bank.
I heard back from customer service, 4-5 days after I wrote to them. (Their phone wait time is hours). they said that I am earning the lower rate as the spending in the old debit card for last month will not be considered. So much for the “same varo” spiel. Since I switched mid last month my 5 debit card transactions were on the old debit card… Pretty sure they never informed us of this
I’ve been able to churn Varo accounts and was just able to do it again. Might do the InboxDollars one and the MyPoints one again (since it’s still listed) if I have luck with those.
5/26: Varo opened for referral bonus
6/05: Varo referral bonus
6/24: Varo account closed
6/25: Varo account created for MyPoints bonus
8/18: MyPoints bonus posted after ticket
8/20: Varo account closed
8/26: Varo account tried for Swagbucks bonus but couldn’t be created
12/23: Saw that Varo had changed some things so tried again and was able to open it to try to do the Swagbucks bonus
Thanks Davis for the DP! Do you use same email address for all those Varo accounts?
Yes, same email for everything, which are the same as my Swagbucks and MyPoints emails.
With the new Varo app, new account number and routing number, I can link Discover via trial deposit from Discover side but I can’t seem to link with T-Mobile Money on T-Mobile side. Trial deposits never show up. I dunno?
Varo is making a bunch of changes soon (next month?) since they are now their own bank.
Most notably for the premium APY:
1) “Qualifying Period for the Premium Annual Percentage Yield — to begin on the first calendar day of the month and end on the last business day of the month.” – Used to be the previous month where you only had to meet qualifications every other month. Now you have to meet qualifications every month.
2) “If your Varo Savings Account balance exceeds $10,000.00, you won’t qualify for Premium APY for that entire calendar month.” – Not a penny over or you is fuq’d.
Does the routing number change on 11/6? I have linked it to my alliant and I want to pull funds out before routing changes.
I don’t know but I would use the current numbers in the app, as I think they would change it if it wasn’t valid anymore.
Just out of curiosity, why are you moving it out? For me, nothing really has changed other than a few minutes extra time for initiating a transfer and amazon reloads.
Routing and account numbers change once you activate your new debit card and use the new Varo app. However they say they will forward all DD information for 60 days, but you should change it manually ASAP to avoid any potential issues.
Is there now any bonus for opening a new account with Varo?
Not through Varo directly. Not sure about third party sources.
Taking into account the $1K DD requirement (I assume it is for savings based on the screenshot on the website?) and the earned interest per month, how do you maintain a daily balance of $10,000 or less to keep the 2.8% APY while trying to get the most out of it?
ieatdogfood 
Betelgeuse
The DD goes into your checking, not your savings.
Since I currently can’t find a fake DD to trigger the premium rate right now, I would say avoid until more DPs show up. So far no good after becoming their own bank.
8000 points on MyPoints.
Concur. I had to go to Deals and choose the Finance category to see (search feature only shows the 5,000 point offer).
All the bank pushes I have done to Varo have triggered the bonus APY. I guess they are pretty lenient what counts for APY but not for DD.
Which bank have you used?
They aren’t as lenient as I once thought. SkyOne, Discover, and Dollar works. T-Mobile and SoFi didn’t.
Deleted. I see your reply.