Deal has now expired, you can view new deals by clicking here.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: AL, FL, GA, SC & TN only
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $1,000+
- Additional requirements: 15 debit card transactions
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: $10, waive able
- Early account termination fee: $25, 90 days
- Expiration date: September 30th, 2016
The Offer
Synovus trades under a bunch of different names in different locations. To find the closest branch to you click this link then scroll down and enter your ZIP code. ‘.
- Receive a sign up bonus of $200 when you open any checking account with Synovus and complete the following requirements:
- Complete their form or apply in branch
- Open any new checking account with at least $100
- Set up a recurring direct deposit of $1,000 or more
- Make 15 Visa Check card transactions (signature or PIN – ATM transactions do not qualify towards the 15 transactions)
The Fine Print
- This offer is available only to new personal checking account customers.
- Only one offer is available per address.
- You must open and fund a new checking account by September 30, 2016 with a minimum of $100 (not including the bonus). Within 60 days of opening and funding your account, you must complete 15 check card purchase transactions (signature or PIN transactions only – ATM transactions do not count towards the 15 transactions), with all 15 purchase transactions posting successfully to your account; establish and post to your account qualifying direct deposits totalling at least $1,000. Note that a qualifying direct deposit is an electronic deposit of your salary, pension, Social Security or other regular monthly income by your employer or another agency. Transfers from one account to another and deposits made at a branch or ATM are not considered direct deposits.
- If earned, incentive payouts will be posted on October 17, November 15 or December 21, 2016 and will be in the form of a credit to the new checking account reflected on your statement as “checking incentive.”
- You are responsible for any tax due on any amount received which is considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT.
- Offer is non-transferrable (reader saw this on a Google ad, so I doubt it’s actually targeted), may not be combined with other offers, and does not apply if you are already an owner of a personal checking account (primary or secondary) with a division of Synovus Bank. Checking accounts must be in good standing at the time of incentive payout.
Avoiding Fees
The easiest way to keep this account fee (unless you’re a student or part of the military) is to open an access or gold checking account. Both accounts come with a $10 monthly fee that is waived if you do either of the following:
- Have an average daily balance of $1,000 or more
- Have direct deposits of $500 or more each month
I wasn’t able to find any mention of a early account termination fee in their fee schedule, but one might be charged. Update: According to this comment it’s $25 if closed within 90 days.
Our Verdict
They have offered $200 in the past but the account had to be kept open for much longer. This is a pretty good bonus, downside is that it requires both a direct deposit and debit card transactions. If you decide to sign up, let us know about bank account funding. You can view a full list of the best bank account bonuses by clicking here.
Big thanks to reader, Patrick S who let us know. Please consider sharing bank bonuses with this site so we can make it even better.
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- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
I spoke to a rep on the phone today and I was told that I had two options for closing my account:
– a written request containing my name, signature, account number, and address.
– visit a branch.
A couple of data point2, by empirical method:
– Early termination is $25 if closed within 90 days from the opening date.
– Closing the account requires a branch visit.
Thanks, added DP
Hello Albrecht! You say that an early termination “is $25 if closed within 90 days from the opening date” and that you confirmed this empirically.
Do you mean only that you closed an account earlier than 90 days and were charged an ETF?
Or do you have additional grounds for believing that the ETF would not have been charged if you had waited until (say) Day 95? If so, based on what? At many banks the ETF window is 180 days.
I’d like to close my account but want to avoid any fee — any clarification you can give would be a help.
Hi CGID,
I called and was told to come to a branch to close.
My initial belief was that there was no early termination fee.
The banker told me that the period when this is imposed is 90 days and I was just over that so no problem there. That’s all 🙂
got my $200 bonus, that was easy-peasy!
Hi Doc, are bill pays counted toward 15 debit card transactions? What do Check card transactions (signature or pin) mean? Are they related to point of sales transactions? Please let me know what you think.
No bill pays aren’t counted. Check card transactions are jsut debit card transactions
Hey Doc. Your Offer At A Glance (near the top of your article) states that the DD must be recurring in order to get the bonus.
Maximum bonus amount: $200
Availability: AL, FL, GA, SC & TN only
Direct deposit required: Yes, recurring $1,000+
Additional requirements: One bill pay and 15 debit card transactions
The actual bonus terms do not say that the DD must be recurring and the in-branch banker I opened the account with confirmed that the DD does not need to be recurring. One DD of > $1000 is enough — so are multiple DDs adding up to $1000.
Let me know if you saw something or heard something which implies it must be recurring.
Not sure why I had that there, changed it
Thanks! I just noticed something else. Your offer at a glance also says:
* Additional requirements: One bill pay and 15 debit card transactions
I do not see in the actual terms where a bill pay is part of the requirements for the bonus. Just the DD and the 15 debit card transactions.
Did I miss something?
Correct again.
I opened on Monday. I can confirm as well that there was no hard pull (I have several credit monitoring services from various security breaches).
Thanks for the post DoC, and thanks to reader Patrick S for sharing!
Any credit card funding?
I didn’t ask.
I also like to know.
I called the number on the email response to my form entry:
Must apply and live within the branch’s scope – thankfully I do and will be visiting the branch to open today.
Please let us know if the pull is hard or soft!
Will do – employees were friendly and quick to setup the account.
I do not see any hard pull on my credit as of two weeks from application – will let you all know if that changes.
Thanks AE, updated post.