[YMMV] Bank Of The West $600 Branch Checking Bonus With $25,000 Deposit [AZ, CA, CO, ID, IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, SD, UT, WA, WI, WY]

Update 9/22/20: Deal is back. Hat tip to reader Pinkerton

Offer at a glance

Maximum bonus amount: $600
Availability: AZ, CA, CO, ID, IA, KS, MN, MO, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, OR, SD, UT, WA, WI, WY
Direct deposit required: None
Additional requirements: Deposit $25,000 and maintain for 3 months
Hard/soft pull: Soft
ChexSystems: Yes (inquiry sensitive)
Credit card funding: $500 max, Visa/MC only. Recent data points show it coding as a cash advance
Monthly fees: $25, avoidable
Early account termination fee: $25, 91 days
Household limit: One per mailing address
Expiration date: April 10, 2020 October 16, 2020

Contents

1 The Offer
2 The Fine Print
3 Avoiding Fees
- 3.1 Monthly Fees
- 3.2 Early Account Termination Fee
4 Our Verdict

The Offer

No direct link, branch/mailer offer (see Verdict)

Bank of the West is offering a bonus of $500 when you open a new the Premier checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Open account with at least $.01.
- Deposit $15,000 into the checking account or in an eligible linked account by the end of the month in which the account is opened.
- Maintain $15,000 deposit for 3 full calendar months following the month of the deposit (e.g. if you deposit on February 20th, you need to maintain the deposit until June 1) in the checking account or in an eligible linked account.
Additional $100 when you open a Money Market $10k deposit maintaining balance 3 months

The Fine Print

Account must be open to receive bonus.
Not valid if someone at your address has received a Bank of the West Bonus since 7/1/18.
All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them.

Avoiding Fees

Monthly Fees

The any deposit checking account has a $25 monthly fee. This is waived with a $25,000 minimum balance combined in all your Bank of the West deposit accounts.

Early Account Termination Fee

There is an early account termination fee of $25 if your account is closed within 91 days of account opening.

Our Verdict

This offer was sent out to some via mail, it’s not clear if it’s available to anyone at a branch or limited to those who received the mailer. Let us know if you try. (One reader tried and was told it’s targeted and the checked and saw they were not targeted.)

They have a $250 online bonus available now as well which does not require the large deposit. Assuming a 0% interest rate, you have to figure you’re losing $100-$150 by tying up the $25,000 for 3 months versus putting it in a high yield savings account. You also may have to leave the funds there until end of September when bonus posts, or else pay the $25 monthly fee.

You can, however, keep the money in a linked deposit account, like a CD or savings account. Looks like there is a 1.31% high yield money market account where you can part the funds and lose only a little bit versus other high-yield accounts. Need to verify if this is an ‘eligible linked account’.

Best plan is probably to open this in April, make $25,000 deposit at the end of April, leave funds in account for May, June, and July, and wait for the bonus to post, likely in September. It seems a bit complicated, so we might not add this one to our best bank bonus page.

Hat tip to reader N.S.

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses: