$500 Santander Small Business Bonus (Checking + Merchant Services)

Offer at a glance

• Maximum bonus amount: $500 
• Availability: Nationwide
• Direct deposit required: No
• Additional requirements: Business checking plus and merchant services
• Hard/soft pull: Soft
• Credit card funding: Unknown for business, $500 for personal
• Monthly fees: Unknown
• Early account termination fee: Unknown
• Expiration date: None listed

The Offer

Direct link to offer

• Receive a sign up bonus of $500 when you open a merchant services account powered by First Data with a Business Checking Plus account from Santander. Must do the following to receive the $500:
  • Be credit–approved for that new non–POGO merchant processing account with Santander Merchant Services no more than 60 days after new Business Checking Plus account opening
  • Link your new Santander Merchant Service processing account to your new Business Checking Plus account no more than 60 days after new Business Checking Plus account opening

The Fine Print

• Must be a small business with revenues less than $3,000,000.
• Must not have or had a business checking account with Santander in last 12 months and not have or had a Santander merchant services account in the last 12 months.
• You’ll receive the $500 bonus within 90 days after meeting all of the offer requirements
• One cash bonus per business entity as identified by TIN.
• All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

I wasn’t actually able to find any information on the fees that the Business Checking Plus account comes with (I can’t actually find any information about this account at all) and they don’t list the merchant service fees publicly either.

Our Verdict

You’ll need a real business to be able to take advantage of this offer and how lucrative it is will really be largely dependent on the fees they charge and the fees you’re currently being charged. On face value, this doesn’t look to be as good as their $20 a month personal bonus, but as long as the fees aren’t too excessive then this $500 bonus is obviously a massive lump sum bonus.

If anybody has any personal experience with this offer, please share it in the comments. If we can get some more information, we’ll be adding this to our best business bonuses. For now we’ve just added it to the master list.

Direct link to offer

Hat tip to Noah from Money Meta Game for letting me know via e-mail