Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: AZ, maybe nationwide with a $20 membership fee “Join Friends of the Pima County Public Library with a $20 membership fee, when you open your account.” According to DP though they don’t actually open the account.
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Unknown
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: Up to $5,000
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: None listed
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date: None listed
Contents
The Offer
- Pima Federal Credit Union is offering a $200 bonus when you open a new checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Elect to receive electronic statements
- Receive a minimum aggregate deposit of $1,000 each month for two consecutive months
The Fine Print
- Valid on new CareFREE Plus checking accounts.
- Opening bonus does not apply to existing Pima Federal account holders.
- To earn the opening bonus, the CareFREE Plus checking account must meet the following requirements for two consecutive months within the first 90 days from account opening – current enrollment in eStatements and receive a minimum aggregate monthly deposit of $1,000.
- Internal transfer deposits and dividend deposits are excluded from the aggregate monthly deposit calculation.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
This account has no monthly fees to worry about.
Early Account Termination Fee
Unsure if there is any EATF.
Our Verdict
It’s possible that this bonus isn’t actually active anymore even though there is no end date. It doesn’t look like out of state applications are working so I probably wouldn’t apply unless you live close to an actual branch.
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
Any positive DPs for funding with Amex?
NCUA closed my complaint, not sure why. Maybe they are not the agency to complain to?
Pima’s not insured by the FDIC, so not that one. OCC only covers national bank or federal savings associations. CFPB will either send your complaint directly to Pima, or redirect to NCUA. Federal Reserve does accept complaints for any FI, but they would route CU complaints to NCUA as they don’t regulate CUs:
https://forms.federalreserveconsumerhelp.gov/secure/complaint/formComplaintIntro.html
The Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions has a complaint page, but “Process complaints that do not fall under the DIFI’s jurisdiction: Federally chartered credit unions”
CFPB couldn’t hurt. Sometimes they do contact the CU even though the NCUA should be responsible. Maybe it depends on which person sees it and how busy they are.
And maybe this is a long shot but a complaint rerouted to NCUA via Federal Reserve might get another look from a different pair of eyes.
If you’ve got screenshots and you fulfilled the published terms I don’t know how Pima can get away without paying your bonus. Except by making it such a PITA you give up.
The NCUA rep said that there’s only a 30 day period when they can re-open the case (even though I didn’t get an automatic notification that the case was closed). If you want to re-open the case and 30 days have passed, maybe you can file a complaint w/ NCUA ombudsman. https://ncua.gov/about/open-government/ombudsman
DD of $1001 on October 1st and November 1st. Received $250 bonus on November 1st — I live in Pima County.
Did you find a different offer for $250? Is it (or was it) available in Pima County?
This one was $200 with no geographical limits in the T&C, but “only for Yuma County residents” per the UW who contacted me.
Would love to know if anyone opened the Yuma County one got the bonus.
It’s much more likely that
Kathy simply made a typo in writing $250 and she meant to write $200 for completing this offer. See her earlier comment that I pulled from this post: #1899635 .
I hope you’re right because it would prove it worked OOF for at least one person.
But she didn’t say which link she used to apply.
I don’t care either way. I signed up for this promo and met the requirements so I should receive the bonus and will complain if I do not. Unlike you, no rep ever warned me that I wasn’t eligible.
Eric, Have you contacted them about not receiving the bonus?
No, but I probably will sometime this month.
Did you do this bonus? If so, were you also contacted by them like
Karl and 
Kathy were?
I opened my account 2nd week of August. no one ever called me and I am OOS. I made DD from work for 2 months of over $1000 ea. No bonus yet.
I finally contacted Pima and they replied to me with a similar response to what was mentioned in this comment: #1933469 .
They told me that “this offer was no longer active” when my account was opened. That certainly is not true as evidenced by the DP from
Kathy.
They also mentioned that it was only available to the Yuma market. I have no doubt that they intended that to be the case but it wasn’t mentioned in the terms of the offer.
I will wait a little while and then file my 1st ever complaint to the NCUA. I will give it my best try but I am not hopeful as I have a losing record for these types of complaints with the CFPB.
I have enough going on now and don’t want to quibble with them…. I’m already sucked into a long debate with TD.
No.
BTW, how would it prove that it worked OOF?
Kathy clearly wrote twice that she lives in Pima County.
There was no footprint for anything mentioned in the T&C but the footprint for the bonus was “intended to be” Yuma county.
Per the UW who contacted me when I applied, the bonus was not for Pima County residents.
She specifically said it was ONLY intended for Yuma County residents “to celebrate the new branch opening in Yuma.”
It seems that I mixed up the words “Pima” and “Yuma”. It appears based on
Kathy’s response to me that she made the same mistake that I did.
Anyway, that’s irrelevant because there was nothing in the terms about the $200 bonus being restricted to Yuma residents.
Tom MacDonald and I were never warned like you were so we have a much better case than you do.
Also, they called after I applied for my accounts, and the part of Pima county that I live in wasn’t eligible, but working or doing business in Tucson qualified.
Isn’t it odd that they called you and
Karl but didn’t call me? I wonder how many others are in the same boat at I am.
Yes, that’s strange. It’s also odd that I live within 10 miles of a branch, but I don’t live in the right part of Pima County. There’s another bank that has offers for Pima County (and CA), but I’m never eligible for that one. Go figure.
I thought I might have gotten the call been because my Chex was frozen. They had tried to pull it (I got a soft). But she never mentioned that.
She was very curious about where I’d seen the offer (I had apped before this DoC post) and why I wanted the account.
Then she said I was approved and gave the “Yuma County only” information.
She also told me when their CD rates going to drop. Unfortunately they dropped exactly when she said they would… a couple of days before I was ready.
I have a screen shot from the day I opened the accounts, and it says $200, so the $250 was a nice surprise. I linked from the DoC page, and it does talk about Yuma County. I wonder if it’s because I also opened some certificates that day (using my credit card to fund them).
So it turns out that we were both wrong.
Kathy did sign up for the $200 promo, like I thought, but she received $50 extra for some reason.
That’s good to know that they let you fund CDs with credit cards. I didn’t want to test that until I received the bonus. Have you tried to open subsequent CDs with a credit card?
Not yet. I’m waiting until I need a little help meeting some SUB spend.
Haha you need to app for something!
I was going to open a CD too but they dropped the rates almost immediately. 🙁 My shiny new Ink arrived a couple of days too late. I’m keeping Pima anyway in case my other ones dry up though.
Did you try Sun Canyon Bank? You’re in state and it won’t last long.
I am OOS. My account was approved and established in Aug, when the promotion was still active. I asked about the bonus via secure message, but they said the promotion was not active when I established my account (which is not true). I filed a NCUA complaint.
I wonder if anyone from Yuma County has gotten the bonus yet.
I wonder if there are even any DoC readers there, the population is pretty small.
Bonuses didn’t post after August and September deposits. I spoke with CS and as some comments before mentioned, CS said that the promo was restricted to Apache/Yuma.
I have a copy of the t&c when I signed up as a PDF, it doesn’t say anything about restrited to Apache/Yuma. The only mention of Yuma is “Pima Federal will provide a $100 donation to a local Yuma non-profit for every new account opened by residents in Yuma County”
Right, I took screenshots as well. If you look through the comments, some people had contacted them when the promo was ongoing and CS mentioned the Yuma restriction, even though T+C didn’t have it. So unfortunately looks like I’ll have to file a complaint as they’re unlikely to change their mind for OOF accounts.
Hi John. Do you still have a copy of the screenshot? Thanks. RT
Sure, where should I send it?
No bonus here. work dd over $1000 on 9-20 and 10-4.
John R🔗
I haven’t reached out to them yet. Did you end up filing a complaint?
Not yet; by the way, the requirement was for “aggregate deposit,” not DD.
My NCUA ticket was changed to closed with no additional info. Looks like this will be my first failed promo after almost exactly 2 years doing bank bonuses, pretty decent run all in all.
I have not received any info on my NCUA ticket yet, I submitted it on Oct 31
I opened it around 10/9
I called them and asked about the bonus as well. The rep said send her the terms and she’d pass it to her manager for review. I’m going to take a quick look at my T&C again to make sure it says nothing about residing/being in specific counties then shoot it to the rep. Will follow up and let you know what they say/decide. The only thing I see is “we’re excited to offer our digital banking solutions to members in Yuma and have created 3 special offers for you”…but to me that is no restriction of “applicant must reside in Yuma or any other county in AZ” By the statement “we’re excited to offer our digital banking solutions to members in Yuma and have created 3 special offers for you” — I could’ve been in Yuma when the branch opened and opened an account with PIMA with a residence OOS and still have the offer apply to me.
From the rep
“Good afternoon,
Thank you for contacting Pima Federal Credit Union. [Rep 1] brought your request to my attention. The site you have attached has not been active for quite some time, this promotion was directed toward members who live in Yuma, AZ, and it ended in January of 2024. The site that you have referenced is no longer in use as of that time. Unfortunately, the promotion was no longer active at the time that you opened your account, therefore it is not a promotion that we are able to honor for you. Thank you for your understanding.”
Anyone file a NCUA? I got a message that denied me based on it not being available when I enrolled. Fired back that it was public, the terms had been met, and i’ll be filling a NCUA for non-performance breach of contract.
Rates dropped as of 9/1/24:
6 months: 3.75%
12,18,24 months: 4.25%
30,36,48,60 months: 4.125%
CD rates for all terms (up to 5 years) is 4.5%
link not working, possibly dead (10pm ET 08.29.24)
Not working for me either – just checking.
But I was approved OOS a few weeks back.
That’s a good find by you. I did a print screen showing that they took the page down. That’s better for my case to eventually get my bonus.
Hey Eric, do you still have a copy of print screen? thanks!
Yes, but I am only planning on using that as a last resort.
Good to know. There huge CC funding will make me hold off on CFPB as last resort. Looking to use your referral for Blue Foundry. Thanks!
Thank you. Are you able to go in-branch or are you feeling lucky like
Karl?
I’ll have to roll the dice…hope I don’t crap out! (o:
Approved OOS. Applied via $20 donation on Friday, SP on Experian Monday with a request for a Drivers License upload. Received a call Thursday for verification and to run the credit card for $5K (coded as purchase). Sent a text to verify ID and Docusigned immediately after.
Didn’t ask about the bonus. No Chex pull at all.
Was approved OOS with donation. Everything went very smoothly: funded $3k with an Ink card, got account numbers immediately, set up external account and did a test transfer out with no issue.
Remember to sign up for estatements at Additional Services -> Statements and Notices
Thanks, added dp.
My CCR also posted as a purchase a couple of weeks ago.