Update 10/1/24: Bonus now $319.36 with promo code 319BONUS
Update 8/5/24: Bonus is now $219.36 and promo code is 219BONUS.
Update 1/8/24: Bonus now requires a direct deposit.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: Must live, work or worship in Coconino County, Gila County, La Paz County, Maricopa County, Mohave County, Navajo County, Pima County, Pinal County, Yavapai County, Yuma County
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: 10 debit card transactions
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: No
- Credit card funding: Up to $200
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: Unknown
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date: None
Contents
The Offer
- Arizona Financial Credit Union is offering a $219.36 checking bonus when you open a new checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Use promo code 219BONUS
- establish recurring direct deposit(s) with a combined total of $1,000 or more per month
- have an account balance of $500 or more on the 60th days after the account is opened.
The Fine Print
- To qualify for $200 bonus, you must open a Checking Plus account and be 18 years of age or older and a brand-new member with no existing account relationships with Arizona Financial, as determined by having a unique Social Security/Tax Identification Number not on record with the credit union.
- Former members may qualify as a new member if previous accounts were closed 12 or more months prior to new open date.
- Bonus will be paid approximately 15 days after completing 10 debit card purchase transactions.
- Debit card purchase transactions must be completed and posted to the new member’s account within 45 days of account opening.
- Transactions in a pending status do not qualify.
- All bonuses are considered income and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-MISC.
- This promotion cannot be combined with any other offers.
- Limit one new member bonus per person.
- Business, indirect borrower, fiduciary, voting accounts do not qualify.
- Only Arizona Financial members in good standing qualify for this program.
- Must meet membership eligibility requirements.
- Terms and conditions subject to change without notice. Offer may expire at any time.
- 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
I wasn’t able to find a fee schedule so unsure if there is any EATF.
Our Verdict
Seems like a really easy bonus to meet the requirements for if you’re in an eligible area. Donation method doesn’t seem to work to apply out of state.
Hat tip to Bockrr
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
8/6/24 Open an account as OOS (California) by making a donation to Local First Arizona
9/6/24 Real recurring DD
10/31/24 No bonus since I met all the requirements. I sent an SM and was told the bonus code didn’t attach to my account and that I needed to reach out to a different department on what to do next.
11/5/24 Received $219.36 as the agent was able to manually deposit the bonus to my account
10/11/24 went in branch today and got denied
banker refer me to the back office and the guy on the phone said due to chex
they soft pull from transition according to the person that was helping me.
Said adverse action notice will be mailed in.
RIP
Earlier today called in and was told online app system is back working but person didnt seem to confident. So I would call in before online applying.
Applied and approved in footprint online. Was able to make login and fund, but the application got stuck processing after that. Received approval/welcome emails, able to login, see my cc funding posted and linked an external bank account. So far so good, but need to check later if I was hit for 2 chex pulls, since my app on wed was approved then closed.
What was the CC funding limit?
I dont recall it saying a limit, so I just did $200 on an Ink that coded as a sale
This bonus gets “the oddest and most un-rounded amount of the bonus” award.
Update-
Called again and confirmed from CSR and she advised to not apply again online unless system issue (because of the new deposit products they launched two days back) is resolved for at least one day or two. If you apply, it will be a waste of chex and they confirmed that they can’t roll back the inquiry even though it was a system glitch.
Dispute time
Applied OOS by donating $15. Like others in the thread, it prompted me to call for further verification in the middle of application, did a quick call with CSR, after that got an email from bank to proceed with application. It went to the last step where you need to fund the account and then it kept showing error
“Did you forget something? A minimum $20 deposit is required to open your checking account.”
Called CSR again and they said they need to close my account unfortunately because it is a dummy account which is a system glitch on their side.
Wasted Chex!
Update-
Called again and confirmed from CSR and she advised to not apply again online unless system issue (because of the new deposit products they launched two days back) is resolved for at least one day or two. If you apply, it will be a waste of chex and they confirmed that they can’t roll back the inquiry even though it was a system glitch.
Bonus Information: To qualify for $319.36 bonus, you must: (1) open a Checking Plus Account
does the Free checking account qualified?
It should be a typo because: (1) other places on the promotion page say Free Checking; (2) there is no Checking Plus account: https://www.arizonafinancial.org/checking-overview
Does recurring direct deposit(s) in 60 days mean at least once per month in the first two months or only one in 60 days is enough?
Have you ever heard of someone getting paid less than once per month? I’d make it at least monthly.
It takes time to set up the deposit, so the first one may come after day 30, and the next after day 60.
clearly that’s the intent, but ofc lots of things are the intent. ime “recurring” language hasn’t seemed to matter much except maybe to customer service, Citizens eg. have you seen otherwise?
but
Roy since you’re doing a real DD, pretty sure “recurring” refers to the quality of the deposit, not its frequency within the promotion period. so to meet the terms I don’t think you have to worry about getting it to recur specifically within the 60 days as long as it does
I agree. I do so many of these deals, I don’t keep track of who is or isn’t enforcing “recurring”. I (almost) always try to exceed the need, just in case it does come down to a manual review.
It’s funny you use Citizens as an example, when on the latest offer specifically says SINGLE DD. 🙂 https://www.citizensbank.com/promo/checking/social-creative-offer-2024.aspx
snailrock
oh that’s true, it is different: “Direct Deposit is recurring income electronically deposited into your Citizens checking account….” yada yada. i thought i remembered someone saying they were denied the bonus from CS because it wasn’t “recurring” which is why i mentioned it, but that could’ve been someone asking about Paypal or something actually
It doesn’t need to be “once per month”. As long as you have 2+ QDDs, you are good to go.
When the offer is state specific is that to say you just need an address if applying online?
Generally it means you need to:
1) live, work, attend school, worship or
2) some other things that they say you need to do related to the state or
3) have some relative (usually close) that qualifies for 1 and 2 that you can verify
Bonus is $319.36 now.