[CA only] Provident Credit Union $300 Checking Bonus With Debit Spend & 2 Direct Deposits

Update 6/3/22: Deal is back at this new link (ht YarnDruid)

Update 7/10/21: Deal is back. Hat tip to reader Davis

Update 4/24/21: Deal is back and valid until May 31, 2021. Hat tip to reader PruneCity

Offer at a glance

Maximum bonus amount: $300
Availability: CA only (only these areas: City of LA, Alameda, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Francisco)
Direct deposit required: $500 twice, see below
Additional requirements: Spend $600 on the debit/credit card, see below
Hard/soft pull: Hard pull for membership (report of soft pull in branch)
ChexSystems: Unknown. ChexSystems sensitive
Credit card funding: Up to $1,000
Monthly fees: None, but there is a $10 joining fee (waived online)
Early account termination fee: None
Household limit: One
Expiration date: ~~February 29, 2020~~ February 28, 2021

Contents

1 The Offer
2 The Fine Print
3 Avoiding Fees
4 Our Verdict

The Offer

Direct link to offer

Provident Credit Union is offering a bonus of $300 when you open a new checking account with promo code 9772, and complete the requirements below.

To earn the $300 New Account Bonus, simply do these three things for two months, starting the month following your account opening:

Make purchases of $400 or more using a Provident debit and/or credit card
Have direct deposits or automatic credits of at least $500
Enroll in online banking and e-Documents with valid e-mail address

The Fine Print

Offer expires February 29, 2020.
APY (Annual Percentage Yield) as of January 1, 2020 and is subject to change. To receive ~~2.01%~~ 1.01% APY on balances up to $25,000, 0.08% APY on balances beyond the first $25,000, and ATM rebates, three requirements must be met: (i) Make purchases of $300 or more using a Provident debit and/or credit card** per month, (ii) Have a monthly direct deposit or ACH transfer (automatic debit or credit) post to the account, (iii) Maintain enrollment in e-Documents. If the 3 requirements are not met in their entirety, the APY will be 0% and no ATM rebates will be issued for that month.
IMPORTANT: All qualifying purchases and transactions referred to as “per month” or “monthly” only count towards the requirement of the month in which they POST, which will be on a business day (Monday – Friday) and may take one or more business days from the purchase/transaction date.
Automatic or electronic payments using your checking account and routing number are not considered purchases. By providing your payee with your debit or credit card number, your posted automatic payments will be counted as eligible purchases. Debit card cash-back amounts, cash advances on credit cards, and checks do not count towards qualifications. Only one Visa credit card can have its purchases count towards your qualifications each month (whichever one that is selected on the account on the last business day of the month). If you have more than one Super Reward Checking account, credit card purchases on one credit card cannot meet the requirements of more than one checking account.
$300 Checking Bonus: You must be a new Provident Credit Union member, 18 or older and reside in California. You are not eligible if you are a current owner or signer on a Provident Credit Union personal or business account or if you have been an owner or signer on a Provident Credit Union personal or business account within the last two years.
One New Account Bonus per household/business.
To be eligible, you must open one of the following checking accounts: Super Reward Checking, Provident Checking or Simply Free Checking; all other checking accounts are not eligible for the bonus.
New Account Bonus offer may expire anytime.
The minimum balance for the Membership Savings account is $5.00.
You must fund your Checking account within the first 60 days of account opening with a minimum deposit of $25. If you fail to fund your Checking account within the first 60 days you are no longer eligible for the New Account Bonus and your account(s) will be closed.
In order to qualify for your New Account Bonus your account must be active and in good standing for two consecutive months following the month that your account is opened. All qualifying purchases and transactions referred to as “per month” or “monthly” only count towards the requirement of the month in which they POST, which will be on a business day (Monday – Friday) and may take one or more business days from the purchase/transaction date.
Your account is deemed active by: (1) making purchases of $300 or more using a debit and/or credit card2 per month, AND (2) performing monthly direct deposits or automatic credits of at least $500 into your checking account, AND (3) enrolling in Provident’s online banking service and e-Documents with valid e-mail address. If your account remains inactive after 90 days from account opening you are no longer eligible for the New Account Bonus.
Your account is in good standing if you: (1) demonstrate responsible account management—such as making regular deposits to bring your account to a positive end of day balance at least once every 30 days (including the payment of all credit union fees and charges); (2) avoid excessive overdrafts suggesting the use of Courtesy Pay as a continuing line of credit; (3) there are no legal orders, levies or liens against your account.
New Account Bonus: We generally pay the New Account Bonus by crediting your Provident Credit Union Checking account. If Provident funded your savings account at account opening, you will receive the difference between your initial $5.00 Savings account bonus and the stated bonus within 120 days of account opening.
We may report the value of the New Account Bonus to the IRS and any applicable taxes are the responsibility of the member.

Avoiding Fees

Monthly Fees

Your best option is to open the Super Reward Checking account which has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and also earns the high APY rate when requirements are met.

Membership Enrollment $10

If you enroll with provident then you must pay a $10 membership enrollment fee. Although apparently it’s possible to get this waived if you apply online.

Early Account Termination Fee

None of the Provident checking accounts come with an early account termination fee.

Our Verdict

The bank’s most recent offer was for $300 when you maintain $10,000 deposit. This offer has a spend and direct deposit requirement for two months, but no money tied up. It does come with a hard pull if you are sensitive to those. Looks overall like a pretty good deal if you can meet the requirements. Some are saying you can even stack a $50 referral bonus on top of this. I’ll add this to the list of the best bank account bonuses.

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