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Update 3/4/2020: This has been extended until April 30th, 2020.
Update 1/5/2020: Deal has now been extended until February 29th, 2020.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $300
- Availability:Â In branch only, all branches are in:Â Washington, Oregon and Idaho. [Branch locator]
- Direct deposit required:Â No
- Additional requirements:Â Deposit $500 & maintain for 90 days
- Hard/soft pull:Â Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding:Â None
- Monthly fees:Â $10, avoidable
- Early account termination fee:Â Â Account must be open at time of bonus posting
- Household limit:Â None listed, one per business though
- Expiration date:Â
September 30th, 2018 October 31st, 2018 November 30th, 2018 December 31st, 2018 January 31st, 2018February 28th, 2019 March 31st, 2019 April 30th, 2019 June 30th, 2019July 31st, 2019 August 31st, 2019October 31st, 2019December 31st, 2019February 29th, 2020
Contents
The Offer
- Columbia Bank is offering a $300 bonus when you complete the following requirements:
- Open a new Business Growth Checking or Business Relationship Checking Account using promo code e-mail to you. You get this code on the landing page linked above.
- Make at least one deposit of $500 or more within 15 calendar days of opening
- Maintain an average daily balance of $500 or more for the first 90 days
The Fine Print
- Limited time offer.
- To receive the $300 gift: 1) Open a Business Growth Checking or Business Relationship Checking Account, subject to approval, 2) Make at least one deposit of $500 or more to the account within 15 calendar days of account opening and 3) Maintain an average daily balance of $500 or more for the first 90 days after account opening. All standard account opening procedures apply.
- This offer is not available to existing Columbia Bank business checking account customers.
- Fiduciary accounts and nonprofit organizations do not qualify for the offer.
- Offer is not available to those whose business checking accounts have been closed within 90 days or closed with a negative balance.
- Limit one $300 gift per qualifying account. Limit one $300 gift per business.
- After you have completed all the above requirements, we will deposit the gift in your new account in the three months following the 90-day review period.
- The gift is considered interest and will be reported to the IRS in accordance with applicable law.
- Accounts overdrawn or closed at the time of the gift fulfillment are not eligible for this offer.
- Employees of Columbia Bank, its affiliates and subsidiaries are not eligible for this offer.
- You must present this offer code at the time of account opening to qualify for the gift.
- We reserve the right to restrict or change this offer at any time.
- Number of days used to determine gift eligibility will be calendar days. Member FDIC.
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
Business Growth Checking is the easiest eligible account to keep fee free. It has a $10 monthly fee, this is waived if you do any of the following:
- 10 debit card purchases per month
- or $2,500 minimum daily balance
Early Account Termination Fee
Account must be open at time of bonus posting. Other than that I don’t think there is any early account termination fee.
Our Verdict
They also have a $200 personal checking bonus worth doing. I imagine you can open both at the same time. This $300 business checking bonus is definitely worth doing, only requires a $500 deposit to trigger the bonus. I guess most people would deposit $2,500 to avoid the monthly fees as well. Either way still a great bonus and we will be adding this to our best business checking account bonuses.
Big thanks to reader, Jacob W who let us know. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.
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
Opened 01/15. Bonus posted 04/25. Closed account 05/04. Had to go inside branch (see
Rowan comment below) and use super-special withdrawal form. No big deal, just silly that you can’t close via alternate means in zombie apocalypse 2020.
Heads up if you haven’t already gotten to this point: Columbia Bank apparently has a strange and inefficient policy requiring that all account closures be done in-branch. I tried asking the phone agent if there was any way to make an exception due to the difficulty of getting to the bank these days but he said they just don’t have the authority…
Also, I made the mistake of the pulling out the $2500 I’d been leaving in the account to waive the monthly fee, which of course got charged right away since it was withdrawn on the last day of April. In hindsight I should have at least waited until May 1 to pull out the money and done the 10 debit card transactions or just gotten a check while closing the account. I have a feeling I won’t have much luck getting the banker to waive the $10 fee since they’ll know I’m already out the door.
$500 Opening deposit 9/11/19
$300 bonus posted 12/31/19
Business bill pay is $5.95/mo. WTH?
Also, you can’t link external accounts for in/out xfers unless you pay for bill pay or pay for ACH services. Admittedly, I signed up for the bonus, but am evaluating for actual long term use… but 3 days in, this account looks like garbage.
Lol. Why else would they offer such a large bonus?
Update:
Columbia is giving me the run-around about my missing bonus. I applied in July, so over 6 months since opening, and over 3 months since fulfilling the requirements. I spoke to the banker who opened the account and was assured of a resolution by the following day. However, it turned out the bank wasn’t even open the next day! So I’m going to contact them on Monday and hopefully get it settled. Although I suspect I’ll be forced to CFPB them since they seem to be dragging their feet.
The only reason I can think of for why I don’t have the bonus is because I did an inbound ACH credit (showed up as direct deposit), not a cash deposit. While the terms never specified that the deposit needed to be cash/check (as is the case with Chase/BoA biz checking promos), it’s possible they’ll use this as an excuse to deny. I only learned of the distinction a few months later when reading about a BoA biz checking bonus. But hopefully this isn’t the problem.
I used an ACH and got the bonus. Unfortunately you may be out of luck. If a bonus does not post and human set eyes on your account they will see its not a real direct deposit. We get these bonuses with “alternative methods” because most banks use legacy systems that can not tell the difference between a “real” DD and an ACH.
No, for the biz bonus it doesn’t matter if it’s a DD or not – only their personal checking requires DD. What I am concerned about is if they’ll claim a transfer is not the same as a deposit.
You’re right. btw I just double checked my spreadsheet and I definitely used an ACH.
Cool, I should be good then in any case.
UPDATE 2!
I ended up having to CFPB after a somewhat amusing but mostly obnoxious conversation with a banker, who came up with several ridiculous arguments for why I wasn’t eligible for the bonus, all of which contradicted the promotional terms. So I spent a few hours crafting a solid CFPB complaint and waited.
Two weeks later, I see a pending credit for 300 — the bonus. Nice! Thanks CFPB!
Clicked on the offer, now extended through January 31, 2020.
New DP: Opened a personal account a year ago, was not allowed to re-use the SSN for sole prop ‘business” for the bonus. Not a branch related issue, the branch was willing to open, but when the inquired higher they were told this.
Took almost 4 months but bonus posted. I used a lot or small swipes. Not Amzn.
When did you open the account? I opened 7/1 and no bonus yet.
Lol and yeah, I bought a lot of bananas last few months!
I opened in June. Bonus posted a week or two after the 90 day mark. Late September. I did the business and personal. Both posted on time.
Did this get pulled off the Best Bank Bonuses page? Link to the offer now showing expiration of 9/30/19, but it was pulled off the best bonuses page on 7/6, instead of the NJ bank offer that expired.
William Charles
Did I screw up by only having $130 in the account for the first 10 days? It took a while to get the direct deposit in. Or does the average daily balance requirement start when the direct deposit posts?
Sorry, disregard. Average daily balance, not minimum daily balance. Cool beans.