Update 7/19/22: Bonus is starting to post for some people. Albert is saying they have no record of a referral being used for others.
Update 5/4/22: Multiple readers are reporting that the $500 referral bonus and terms are showing for them. You can find referral links on this dedicated page (that page is closed for new comments). No referral sharing or requesting or hinting in the comments below. (Any comment that even resembles an attempt to share or request a referral will be removed.) You’ll do better getting a referral directly from a friend who can confirm the $500 offer and who can share their personal details if necessary. See this comment for info on how to see if the referral link has the $500 offer attached.
Update 5/3/22: There are also some excellent offers on the Albert debit card, such as 20% off at Whole Foods, up to $5, which can be done every couple of weeks. Also offers like 10-15% back for Best Buy, Walmart, Target, DoorDash, Dunkin, Lyft, Sephora, Etsy, Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A. Check to see what you have.
Update 4/27/22: Looks like referrals are all back down to $150 now.
Update 4/11/22: Some people are seeing $500 referral bonus. I think it should show what offer people have midway through sign up, but YMMV. Obviously everybody is going to say they have a $500 offer even if they have a $150/$250 bonus, so make sure you double check it yourself.
Update 4/11/22: Referral bonus increased to 250 for both parties. Requirements are same as below. Direct link below still shows $100, but referrals are showing $250. Hat tip to reader Legalloli69
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $250
- Availability: Nationwide
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $200+
- Additional requirements: Unknown
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: No
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: Unknown
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date: None listed
Contents
The Offer
- Neobank Albert is offering a referral bonus of $150 to both parties. The person signing up for an account needs to complete the following requirements:
- Direct Deposit $200+ every 30 days for 90 consecutive days
- Spend $100+ on goods or services with the debit card every 30 days for 90 consecutive days
The Fine Print
- Each referral is for a new Albert member
- Each friend signs up with your unique referral link
- Each friend sets up direct deposit with Albert Cash
- Each friend receives a qualifying direct deposit of $200 or more into Albert Cash within 30 days of opening their Albert account
- 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.
Early Account Termination Fee
Unsure if there is any early account termination fee.
Our Verdict
Albert has raised $170+ million, so they have money to burn. You can also get 10,000 points via MyPoints, but offers can’t be combined. Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised to see this bonus to increase in the future to be $100+. If you’re in two player mode you could get $225 from this and it would be worth doing, if you’re in single player mode I’d recommend waiting for a larger offer to appear. Please do not share your referrals in the comments, instead share them in this linked post. Also let us know if it’s a hard/soft pull and what works as a direct deposit in the comments below.
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
Post history:
- Update 1/4/22: Referral bonus increased to $150 for both parties. Requirements are now $200+ direct deposit every 30 days for 90 days and debit card requirement. Direct link below still shows $100, but referrals are showing $150. Hat tip to reader Gadget
Perhaps an obscure data point but may be useful to some: I attempted to meet the DD requirement via Wise several months back but was rejected. CS told me I could still receive the $500 bonus if I complete the $200 DD and $200 spend requirements for any 3 month period ahead. I went head and used a real employer DD and got the $500 bonus this month, though notably I had to reach out to CS to receive the bonus :
April 2022: Opened account with $500 bonus code
… Various Wise “DD”s/debit card spend
9/8/22: Contacted CS about not receiving bonus, told that I wasn’t eligible due to Wise DDs
11/13/22: First real employer DD
… $200 monthly real DD and $200 monthly debit card spend
2/9/23: Contacted CS about $500 bonus not being credited to my account
2/11/23: $500 bonus credited to account
Went through the seem process with P2 last year. They don’t seem to have a time limit for meeting the requirements.
+1 for P3, real employer DD for March, April, and May plus min spend requirement; received the $500 bonus in June after contacting CSR thru text.
They are denying the bonus saying spend requirement was $200 per month although it was $100 earlier.
Just received 1099s for $500 and $1500
Int or misc? Still nothing on my end
I received misc for referrals and int for sign up.
Yup, same here. $1500 1099 MISC and $500 1099 INT.
Is the tax implication any different?
Did you still have an active login or did you close and receive them by mail?
Got my bonus what I expected! Any reasons to keep the accounts open? What’s the easiest way to close the account?
You can take advantage of the cash back deals 10-20%. Otherwise probably no use in keeping the account open.
but it needs genius now which is 8/mo
Yep! I average $10/wk cash back so essentially $32/mo cash back on groceries and/or gift cards.
hmm more like 50% off that? Since most CB cards do 5%, and you are negating that too right? So IMHO if you are hitting $5/50/10% albert CB, then you are doing more like 16/mo – $10 genius fee.
But I do see they have some 20% CB deals.
Incorrect. When I signed up for Genius last year they were running a promo. I believe genius was around $44 for an annual membership with $10 back for signing up. essentially $34 for the year. So we’ll say $3/mo to make a nice easy number. I average $10 back per week with 20% at Kroger and 10% at Wally World. Sometimes I’ll hit the 10% Target as well so that’s a $15 back week. We’ll keep it on lower end and say $40 for the month minus the $3/mo charge. So more like $37/mo. We do 2 player mode so $74/mo back on places we routinely shop at.
With that said, I know Genius cost more now. We’ll re-evaluate when our annual fees are due to see if it’s cost effective for us.
Does anyone know if there’s an early termination fee?
Minimum Genius price is going up to $8 in early December.
To close: text “CLOSE MY ACCOUNT” then after the reply “DELETE”
So I stopped using Albert since they started requiring to link an account through Plaid and interestingly despite no longer having a Dd and not having Genius they keep suggesting I should go to Whole Foods for 20% via app notifications. I did leave $1 at Albert
Any particular reason why you’re leaving $1?
007
Not really. Didn’t want them to auto close account (although it looks like probably account will be more useless since they introduced Genius requirements).
Data point: out of three referrals one bonus posted automatically, and I had to ask Albert about the other two to get them.
A big thank you to whomever my third referral bonus user was. I checked on a whim today and saw that I got my last $500 referral bonus September 1st! With that, I’ve gotten 2k out of this. Good luck to everyone!