Deal has expired, view the best checking bonuses here.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: Targeted offer, sent via email
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $1,000+ within 60 days
- Additional requirements: None
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Mixed data points
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: $6.95-$12.95, waivable
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None mentioned
- Expiration date: August 31, 2018
The Offer
Direct Link to offer (requires targeted promo code)
- U.S. Bank is offering a bonus of $200 when you open a new consumer checking account and receive direct deposits totaling $1,000 or more within 60 days of account opening.
Offer is being sent out via email with a unique (I believe) promo code.
The Fine Print
- Valid through August 31, 2018.
- This offer is only valid for the addressee and is not transferable. Address on new account must match address on mail or email received to be eligible for the bonus. Promo code and listed mailing address may only be used once. Bonus will not be paid if promo code is retrieved by unintended recipient or if promo code is retrieved from a deals website. You must use the Promotion Code listed on this offer when you apply.
- A minimum deposit of $25 is required to open a U.S. Bank consumer checking account.
- Earn your bonus by opening a new U.S. Bank consumer checking account (excluding Student Checking and Safe Debit Account) by the date specified on the letter or email your received. Additionally, you must complete recurring direct deposits that total $1,000 or more within 60 days of account opening.
- The checking account bonus will be deposited into your new checking account within 60 days of direct deposit verification, as long as your account is open and has a positive balance.
- Bonus will be reported as interest earned on IRS Form 1099-INT and recipient is responsible for any applicable taxes.
- Offer may not be combined with any other checking account bonus offers. Offer is not valid if you or any signer on the account have an existing U.S. Bank consumer checking account, had a U.S. Bank consumer checking account in the last six months, or received other U.S. Bank bonus offers within the past 12 months.
- Limit of one bonus per household.
Avoiding Fees
There are five checking products which qualify for this promotion:
- Easy Checking Account
- Silver Checking Account
- Gold Checking Account
- Premium Checking Account
- Platinum Checking account
Probably the easiest way to keep this fee free is to open the Gold Checking account: if you have a U.S Bank credit card, the monthly fees on this account are waived. Many of us have a U.S. Bank personal credit card like Altitude, Flexperks, or Cash+ which would work to keep the account fee-free. Having a personal loan gets the fee waived as well.
If you don’t have a U.S Bank credit card and aren’t planning on getting one, your best bet is to open the Easy checking account which has of $8.95 ($6.95 if you enroll in paperless statements). Fee is waived if you have combined direct deposits totaling $1,000 or more, OR maintain an average monthly balance of $1,500.
Our Verdict
“Bonus will not be paid if promo code is retrieved by unintended recipient or if promo code is retrieved from a deals website.” Thanks for the shoutout, U.S. Bank. 🙂
We have seen a higher bonus of $300 in select areas in the past, but $200 is the standard bonus. This targeted offer also has the advantage of working with almost any checking product. There’s a similar $200 offer available in some U.S. Bank branches which is available for anyone. U.S. Bank usually offers the $200 checking bonus twice a year, once in Feb-March and once in June-August. They are sometimes targeted and sometimes public. You do need to wait 12 months from closing before doing the deal again.
U.S. Bank bonuses are fairly popular: they’re pretty easy to do, they can be churned, and having the deposit account is useful for getting approved for the Altitude.
Hat tip to readers Nicholas and Sammy
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
Just updating on the status of my bonus which just posted on 9/7 as “Adjusted Interest”. I am unsure of which transaction triggered the DD requirement as they are all listed under as a “electronic deposit” transaction.
7/11 Opened U.S. Bank Gold Account
7/18 $1001 Paypal
8/22 $1001 PNC
8/28 $1001 Chase
9/7 $200 Bonus “Adjusted Interest” posts
7/17 opened in branch CA $25 to open
7/19 $1000.01 Ally ACH (“Electronic Deposit Ally bank)
8/10 $1001 Chase ACH (“Electronic Deposit Jpmorgan Chase)
9/6 $200 bonus applied (“Adjusted Interest”)
Not sure which of my Ally or Chase transfers counted, but one of them worked.
how fast does bonus typically post for US Bank after meeting the DD requirement. do they take the full 60 days to pay you or usually quick?
I opened the account today. I decided to open a Silver Checking account because I wanted to take advantage of their Smart Start Program that snuggliestbear mentioned where you can get an additional $50 for saving $500 over the course of a year. I scheduled $42 to be transferred from my Silver Checking Package to my Package Money Market Savings Account. Thank you snuggliestbear for the heads up. BTW, I funded the account with my Citi Double Cash Card max of $50 per account = $100 total.
You can put the money in savings all at once to get the $50. Then transfer it all over to checking. At least thats what i did way back when. (I kept all my accounts except the savings). (Us bank has zero cost mortgage refinancing at the lowest rates around. Military accohnts are free, even the platinum account ($25 month fee waived if you or your spouse was/is military)
Unless they changed it, thats what i did. IIRC, it had like a goal or something, so i went online and transferred enough to reach the goal, and my money posted. Then i closed the account. Youll have to check if theres an etf but i dont think there was when i did it. Ive been with us bank for like 15 years now. Ive moved 3 times and had my first mortgage with them each time, plus did nofee refances every few years as the rates dropped. Did each and every credit card bonus they offered as well. I love us bank! No im not affiliated with them, but theyve always been excellent with all their bonuses, but mostly i love them for their mortgages/refinances, but i know ive done at least 4 credit card bonuses with them. Their regular cards they offer, plus they are the card for kroger & affiliates cards as well, and theres a bonus for that as well.
Another data point in support of transferring funds all at once to meet the Smart Start $50 bonus. I transferred $500 from my US Bank checking account into the savings account. The balances updated immediately, and the next day it showed that I had met the requirements for the bonus. I saved a PDF of the screen saying “Congratulations, you’ve met your savings goal of $500! Keep on saving! Your $50 reward will be paid into your savings account after your program end date.”
I just closed my account like last month and received this offer, checked the terms but it didn’t specify the waiting period between accounts, any ideas? I received bonus around April 2017 so I think I’m good in terms of 12 month bonus restrictions
Under the terms of the offer, it says:
“Offer is not valid if you or any signer on the account have an existing U.S. Bank consumer checking account, had a U.S. Bank consumer checking account in the last six months, or received other U.S. Bank bonus offers within the past 12 months”.
You would not be eligible since you closed your account less than 6 months ago.
Hi thx for your reply, was this found on the offer website or in the email? Didn’t see this in my email offer or on the website
DP: Interestingly enough, I was able to fund $50 via my Citi Double Cash Card when I opened the gold checking account through this U.S. Bank offer
I received an email “A special offer for USB customers”
My recent strategy has been to open a small CD prior to closing a checking account in the hopes the bank will then see me as a current customer who does not have a checking account and send me an offer, and hopefully those offers can be better than the publicly available offers. So it does seem to somewhat work. Hopefully more to come!
Brilliant idea!
If you go for the Silver Checking account you can also do their Smart start program where they give you an additional $50 for saving $500 over the course of a year. I did that on a similar bonus last year.
Thank you for providing this information. I wouldn’t have known about the program otherwise. How much and how often did you set up the recurring transfers? $42 once a month for 12 months would result in $504, which would satisfy the requirements. Is this what you did?
Edit: Added: As long as there are automatic transfers, does this eliminate monthly fees?
Yeah I do $42/mo automatically. I don’t think this would eliminate any monthly fees, I just park $1500 in the checking account to avoid those and transfer in $42/mo to cover the smart start transfer. I think technically you could also transfer in $500 right before the deadline, but I don’t know for sure that would work.
Online
Data point: I received this targeted mailer after I was approved for business edge cc…i have those 2 smaller credit bureaus that are affiliated with US bank frozen when I applied for flexperks a few years ago, business edge was approved, I have to go in branch for this offer to complete it due those frozen bureaus after applying online.
got the same thing in the mail, too. Someone in my household with two flexperks card got the offer. I do not currently have any cards with USB, and did not get an offer.