Deal has ended, view more bank account bonuses by clicking here.
Extended until December 31st, 2020
Offer is back and valid until December 31st, 2019. Hat tip to reader EW.
Offer is back and valid until December 31st, 2018. Hat tip to reader EW.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: Anyone who lives, works, worships, or attends school in the seven Southern California counties (Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, Ventura and Santa Barbara) is eligible to open an account at Wescom
- Direct deposit required: Optional
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Yes
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: $8, waivable
- Early account termination fee: Unknown
- Household limit: None mentioned
- Expiration date:
April 30th, 2017December 31st, 2019December 31st, 2020
Contents
The Offer
- Wescom Credit Union are offering a bonus of up to $200 when you use the promo code 2018WESCOM , broken down as follows:
- Open a Wescom Checking Account with a $100 deposit = Earn $50
- Become a Signature Member during your New Member Period* = Earn another $50
- Achieve Platinum Signature Membership during that same period = Earn an additional $100
Signature Membership
You need a certain amount of qualifying relationships to achieve signature membership and platinum signature membership.
- Signature Membership — If you have a Signature Score of five to seven Signature Relationships .
- Platinum Signature Membership — If you have a Signature Score of eight or more Signature Relationships .
Here is what qualifies a signature relationship:
Checking
- Checking Account — Relationships based on Average Daily Balance
- Active BillPayer (electronic payments only)*
- Active Check Card
Savings
- Savings Accounts — Relationships based on aggregate share balances
- A Money Market Account with Average Daily Balance of $2,500 or more
- A Certificate Account with a balance
- IRA with a minimum balance of $500
Electronic Services
- eStatements (opted out of paper statements)
- Active eBranch
- Recurring Direct Deposit of $500+ per month
Loans or Credit Cards
- Mortgage Loan
- Active Credit Card† (or open account carrying a balance)
- Auto Loan (additional loans each receive one additional relationship)
- Home Equity Loan with a balance or a Home Equity Line of Credit
- Consumer Loan or Line of Credit with a balance
Insurance and Financial Services
- Wescom Insurance Policy Holder
- Wescom Financial Services Account with a balance
Student Relationship
- Members age 18-25
Account Open Date
- Account open longer than 10 years
- Account open longer than 25 years
- Account open longer than 50 years:Automatic Platinum Signature Membership
The Fine Print
- Checking Accounts must be opened with a $100 deposit by 04/30/2017 to qualify for the Wescom $200 offer and is redeemable at Wescom branches.
- The monthly $8 Checking Account fee is waived for the first 90 days and by achieving Signature Membership. Additional ways to waive the monthly fee are available. Offer only applies to non-members and is not valid with any other offer. Bonuses will post to the member’s account the month after member meets qualification. Account opening and Visa® Check Card subject to verification by ChexSystems, a consumer reporting agency; Primary Payment Systems, an independent verification service; and Credit Union approval. Bonuses are considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT. Youth Account members, Wescom employees, their families, Wescom Volunteers, and Wescom Board of Directors are not eligible for this offer.Anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in the seven Southern California counties is eligible to open an account at Wescom. A $1 deposit to a Regular Savings Account is required. Certain conditions and restrictions apply. Ask for further details. A $1 deposit to a Regular Savings Account is required. Certain conditions and restrictions apply. Ask for further details.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Their no fee checking account has a $8 monthly fee that is waived if you have platinum or platinum signature membership.
Our Verdict
They offered the same bonus and requirements last year. They have also been recently offering a $100 referral bonus for both parties. It’s extremely difficult to get 8 or more signature relationships, even if you do checking account with direct deposit, bill pay, check card, eStatements, online banking you only have 6 points (only enough for the $100 bonus), you’d basically need some sort of loan to get the full $200 bonus.
Even though this $200 bonus is one of the larger ones out there, I put this in the “way too hard” basket and wouldn’t recommend it. You can see bonuses we do recommend by clicking here.
Hat tip to Im_a_newb on /r/churning
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- 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
View Comments (23)
Looks like they are Chex sensitive. I applied over the weekend and got an auto-denial email:
"We’re sorry to inform you that you do not qualify for the product you requested from Wescom.
Our decision is based on information obtained from ChexSystems, which contains specific information related to your past banking performance. ChexSystems did not make the decision to deny your account opening and is unable to provide you with specific reasons why the decision was made."
I'm currently at:
L6M - 12 total, 7 checking
L12M - 19 total, 12 checking
They check ChexSystems. No hard or soft inquiry to speak of.
Wescom has a CD deal: https://www.depositaccounts.com/banks/wescom-credit-union/offers/
Get an IRA CD and regular CD and that's two points. One could get to eight points with the minimum $1000 in checking, a debit card, regular CD and IRA CD, $2500 in their (0.25% APY) money market account, mobile banking, card alerts, and $500 in DD a month. Make the $100 platinum signature bonus and then pull out the $3500 in the low interest accounts and cancel the DD and you are still at five to keep the account open fee free. Also the fine print says you can only go up in signature score in a calendar year, not down.
"Their no fee checking account has a $8 monthly fee that is waived if you have platinum or platinum signature membership."
Isn't this misleading advertisement? It's a no fee checking account but has a monthly fee.
Yeah don't think it's allowed
Data Point on funding with credit card :
max $250 for savings
max $2500 for checking
actually, weirdly those are the max i can input for each account but the TOTAL must be less than $1300.. very weird.
Ended up doing $200 and $1100.
Which credit cards do they allow for funding? amex?
Might be a long shot but I can do a referral for $200 bonus. Let me know topikamew@gmail.com
any idea if this is churnable? got the bonus dec 2017 and closed out a month later
Offer has been extended through 12/31/19
Offer has been extended through 12/31/18
https://www.wescom.org/wescom200/
Was declined via their ChexSystems research. I had opened 10-15 accounts in last 12 months.
just applied at one of their mobile branches for the $200 promo, confirmed no HP and I was able to get the account open with over 25 checking accounts and inquiries so far this year. btw the bill pays its 2 per calender month for any amount apparently. now to figure out what counts as DD
follow up DP: got my 200 bonus today, local cu transfer counted as DD, and for an easy sig point you can set up a $500 3 month CD with no real penalty to close. unfortunately they're changing the whole system for 2018 and taking away the easy ones so this bonus will be alot harder to get.
also asked if there's an ETF and she said no