Update 12/3/24: Bonus now $250 + ring doorbell and requires a Home Town Free Checking and direct deposit.
Update 11/11/24: Checking bonus now $200, savings bonus $100. Checking bonus only requires $500 in direct deposits now. Hat tip to reader snailrock
Update 5/14/24: Extended until June 30, 2024.
Update 3/1/24: Extended until 4/30/2024
Update 2/18/24: Deal is back and valid until 2/29/2024
Update 7/31/22: Deal s back and valid until 9/30/2022.
Update 12/10/21: Deal is back and valid until 1/31/22.
Update 8/21/21: Deal is back, but the extra $50 bonus isn’t available this time round.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: In branch only. All branches are in FL, MA, NJ, NY, VT [Branch locator]
- Direct deposit required: Optional
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- Chexsystems: Yes
- Credit card funding: Yes, unknown maximum
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: $26 if closed within three months + you forfeit bonus
- Household limit: One
- Expiration date: None listed
Contents
The Offer
- Trustco Bank is offering a bonus of up to $300 in branch. Bonus broken down as follows:
- Get a $200 bonus when you open a new Hometown Premier or Hometown Free Checking and receive $500 in direct deposits
- Get a $100 bonus when you Open a Hometown Savings account (club accounts excluded) with
$5,000$10,000 minimum balance for 60 days (checking account must be opened at the same time) Get a $50 bonus when you enroll in online banking and E Statements
The Fine Print
- Direct Deposit must be from a recurring Payroll, Social Security, and/or Pension
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
They offer a free checking account with no monthly fees to worry about. The savings account has no monthly fees to worry about as long as you have a balance of $200+
Early Account Termination Fee
If the account is closed within three months you have to pay a $26 fee, you also forfeit the bonus.
Our Verdict
We’ve seen a $100 checking, $100 savings & $100 CD bonus in the past as well. Requirements were similar but this is a better deal as the CD bonus required $20,000 in deposits making it not worth doing. We will add this new bonus to the best bank bonus page. Although keep in mind it might not be available in all states/branches.
Hat tip to reader newbie
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
Can this offer be done online or in branch only?
See my comment: #1967992 .
In-branch only. I just confirmed with a customer service rep
Trustco branch locator shows no records found for NJ.
Which branch did you go to ?
Eric 🔗
There used to be 2 branches in NJ until recently. The Ramsey one closed but the Northvale one is still open.
BTW, I didn’t receive an email so you must have added my tag in an edit. FYI, when you do it in an edit, the person will not be notified about the tag.
For the current offer, I found out that the Ring doorbell gets mailed to the branch and the rep is supposed to call us to pick it up. A rep told me that the whole process can take up to 4 months from opening.
For anyone that churns Trustco in the future, I just confirmed that Trustco’s system adds the new account to the previous login automatically.
Those who’ve done real DD, how did it appear in your history?
Employer DD – COMPANY NAME – XXXX DIR DEP MY NAME
TD – APA TREAS 310 MISC PAY MyName
XXXX is a 4 digit number
Transaction Type is ACH for both
Thanks 👍
Opened an account on 12/09. Resident Alien, was asked to sign W8-BEN. I did anyways. Will do a DD of $501 in a month and next DD of full paycheck and hopefully will get paid.
I confirmed with a rep over the phone today that the current $250 + $100 bonus needs to be done in-branch.
BTW, our disagreement over you updating the language in the last “Update” is kind of a moot point. You’ll see why here: #1967990 .
I didn’t review the terms and do the math until today. The $100 Savings bonus is not worth doing, IMO. It is only a little bit over 4% APY.
BTW, most, if not every time I’ve done a Trustco bonus, it has been a huge hassle to get them to credit me. Despite that, I will probably still try for the Checking bonus in-branch.
Anybody concerned with the word “entire” here?
Direct Deposit must be the entire amount from a recurring Payroll, Social Security, and/or Pension
Every bank requires certain minimum DD for bonus, but I don’t recall ever being asked to deposit entire payroll.
I scrolled through the comments on the older posts, and apparently, this bank has been using this terminology for awhile. The DPs state that Trustco likely reviews DDs manually but there weren’t blatant requests for proof of paychecks.
I’m personally trying recurring deposits from TD, but also setting up payroll deposits from my part time job (a little tricky meeting the monthly minimums bc my hours vary a lot there).
SCU had similar wording. I didn’t do that promo but some others had issues when they didn’t use their entire payroll DD. Then again, some that used “fake” DDs there had no issues. It’s always a crapshoot when you don’t follow the terms exactly.
The bonus is actually for up to $350 now, not $250. It is the Checking bonus alone that is for $250.
I see that you updated the title from $250 to $350 after seeing my comment but you didn’t update the below part of the post.
“Update 12/3/24: Bonus now $250 + ring doorbell and requires a Home Town Free Checking and direct deposit.”
That’s accurate, the other $100 doesn’t require a home town free checking account.
Your update doesn’t state that the Checking bonus is “now $250”. You wrote “Bonus now $250″.
People reading it quickly might not realize that there is also a $100 Savings bonus.
I would have written it like this: “Update 12/3/24: Bonus is now $350. It is $250 + ring doorbell for the Checking promo (requires a Home Town Free Checking and direct deposit) and $100 for the Savings promo (requires $10K deposit)”.
Unfortunately, your address is outside of the area we service. We won’t be able to open an account for you at this time.