Deal has ended, view more bank account bonuses by clicking here.
Update 9/21/24: Deal is back until 10/25. Hat tip to reader snailrock
Update 3/30/24: Deal is back and valid until 5/5/24. Requires a direct deposit now so not worth considering. Hat tip to reader ShawntheShawn
Update 11/4/23: Good through 11/8/23.
Update 8/7/23: Deal is back and valid until 9/13/2023.
Update 10/8/22: Deal is back and valid until 10/21/2022. Has also been increased to $350 from $250.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $250
- Availability: Offer available only to residents of Hampden/Hampshire/Franklin counties in Massachusetts and Hartford county in Connecticut
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $1,500+
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: $500 per application
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: 90 days, $15
- Household limit: One
- Expiration date:
September 30th, 202010/21/2022
Contents
The Offer
- PeoplesBank is offering a checking bonus of $300 when you open a new PeoplesBank checking account using promo code FallCK300 and complete the following requirements:
- Have a minimum of $1,500 in direct deposits within 60 days of the account open dat
Get an additional $150 with a $10,000 minimum daily balance or $300 with a $25,000 minimum daily balance (must remain for 90 days).
The Fine Print
- Customers who have received promotional payouts previously are not eligible. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Offer available in Hampden/Hampshire/Franklin counties of Massachusetts and Hartford/Tolland counties in Connecticut.
- Minimum opening deposit of $10 required. The Free Checking account must be opened online at bankatpeoples.com/checking250 with the promotion code of Get250 by 9/30/2020.
- To qualify for the offer you must perform 30 point of sale (POS) debit card transactions and have a minimum of $2,000 in aggregate of mobile deposits and/or direct deposits to the new account within 60 days from the account open date.
- Although not all debit card POS transactions appear in your account immediately or may appear as ‘pending’ due to merchant processing times, these transactions will count toward the total POS debit card transactions.
- Qualifying direct deposits are electronic deposits (such as salary, pension, Government Benefits or other monthly ACH deposits) made into your PeoplesBank Free checking account from third parties.
- If you meet the criteria you will receive $250 in your account within four (4) weeks from meeting the criteria.
- Customers who have had an open PeoplesBank checking account within 12 months of new account opening are not eligible for the offer.
- PeoplesBank associates are not eligible.
- Personal accounts only.
- Limit of one promotional account per household.
- Cannot be combined with any other offer.
- Offer available only to residents of Hampden/Hampshire/Franklin counties in Massachusetts and Hartford county in Connecticut. Offer subject to change 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
The free checking account has no monthly fees to worry about
Early Account Termination Fee
According to comments on previous bonuses there is an early account termination fee of $15 if the account is closed within 90 days.
Our Verdict
Previous bonus was $400. Might be better to wait for that offer to return, but before that bonus the best bonus was $300 with a direct deposit. We will add this to our best bank bonus page even though we’ve seen that bigger bonus in the past.
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
“Direct deposit required” field needs to be updated – it now requires 1.5k DD in 60 days
Got a targeted mailer to a county not on their approved list. It even says on the mailer that list of counties on the site (mine is not on the list). Do they not even know where their mailers are mailed to?
got an email saying they are reviewing. will update for y/n chex dp
declined, no reason stated. emailed asking why
Denied: “Unfortunately, we are unable to open your new account at this time.”
Do you know the reason for the denial?
I live in the targeted area, havent signed up for any new checking accounts in years, and was denied. Called the bank (because i was actually trying to sign up for legit reasons, not churning) and after the rep “checked with the back office” all she said was that it was denied. She did add that the system is “very sensitive”, so dunno. She suggested i go into the local branch but i value my time more than that aggravation.
Worth noting that the initial deposit page on the signup funnel is now only displaying a debit card option, not credit.
Denied on 9/19
Extended to 10/25 https://www.bankatpeoples.com/home/standalone/checking300
William Charles 
Chuck
Only able to fund with debit card, no CC option for funding
I don’t see anyone talking about what triggers a direct deposit. I guess I’ll try a few but does anyone actually know?
Has anyone successfully opened an account twice and got a 2nd bonus? I see there is one lifetime bonus mentioned, just wondering if they actually enforce it. Thanks!
Not sure if anyone decided to try to churn this but I’ll give it a try myself.
Results?
My DP may or may not be useful so it may be more of a YMMV. When I applied, my account was approved and opened a day after the promo ended so they told me I was not eligible because of that. After some back and forth with them on the phone, they decided to give me an exception after getting it approved by the higher ups but we only discussed about getting the account opened a day late due to being stuck in review. So it looks like I will be getting the sign up bonus in about a week when it should post to my account but again, due to an exception being made. They didn’t mention anything about my first time doing the promo with them years ago (6+ years) for being disqualified so it might look like they don’t enforce it strictly but again, YMMV.