[AZ] Pima Federal Credit Union $200 Checking Bonus, Direct Deposit Not Required

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

The Offer

Direct link to 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:
    William Charles
  • On August 24, 2024, 13:00
Tags: az bank bonusescredit card fundingdirect deposit not required

View Comments (82)

    • @guest_1902212 After NCUA changed my ticket status to closed, I added a comment asking why. NCUA said that Pima replied to them saying that the $200 was deposited into my account (which it wasn't). NCUA re-opened the case after that phone convo.

      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

      • @guest_1901795 Thanks for the info. I just went ahead and did both. I added a comment in the Closed case asking why it was closed and letting them know I did not receive the $200. I also emailed ombudsman.

    • 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 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"

  • 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.

      • 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).

        • 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.

        • 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?

        • @guest_1898759,

          So it turns out that we were both wrong. @guest_1899635 did sign up for the $200 promo, like I thought, but she received $50 extra for some reason.

      • @guest_1898759,

        It's much more likely that @guest_1899635 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.

          • 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.

          • @guest_1899635,

            Isn't it odd that they called you and @guest_1898759 but didn't call me? I wonder how many others are in the same boat at I am.

          • 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.

          • 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.

          • @guest_1898759,

            BTW, how would it prove that it worked OOF? @guest_1899635 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 @guest_1899635'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. @guest_1927061 and I were never warned like you were so we have a much better case than you do.

          • 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.

          • @guest_1927061,

            No, but I probably will sometime this month.

            Did you do this bonus? If so, were you also contacted by them like @guest_1898759 and @guest_1899635 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.

          • @guest_1927061,

            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 @guest_1899635.

            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.

  • 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 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.

    • No bonus here. work dd over $1000 on 9-20 and 10-4.
      I haven't reached out to them yet. Did you end up filing a complaint? @guest_1901795

    • 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.

    • 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.

  • 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

Leave a Comment