Bonus has expired and is no longer available. View the best current checking bonuses here.
Keep in mind there is a $400 bonus.
Update 03/31/18: Bonus extended until June 30th, 2018
Update 03/14/18: $250 bonus is back, thanks to reader MarcoPolo.
Update 01/05/18: $150 bonus has been extended, $250 bonus no longer available.
Reposting because offer is back & available again. Hat tip to readers Sam S, YAR &Â Larry
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount:Â $250
- Availability:Â CT, DE, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VT
- Direct deposit required:Â Yes, $500+
- Additional requirements:Â None
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull as long as you opt out of over draft protecton.
- ChexSystems:Â Mixed data points
- Credit card funding:Â Â Up to $1,000, Visa & MasterCard only. Limit is across all accounts, if you open checking & savings you’ll still be limited to $1,000 total.
- Monthly fees:Â $9.95 – $25, avoidable
- Early account termination fee:Â None
- Household limit:Â None
- Expiration date:
August 25th, 2017 December 31st, 2017March 31st, 2018June 30th, 2018
Contents
The Offer
Direct link to offers:Â $150 | $250 bonus
- Â Citizens Bank currently has a $150 or $250 bonus for opening a checking account:
- Open a new Citizens Bank On Deposit checking account and get paid a bonus of $150 when you make a single direct deposit of $500 or more within 60 days of account opening
- Open a new Citizens Bank Platinum Checking and get paid a bonus of $250 when you make a single direct deposit of $500 or more within 60 days of account opening
The Fine Print
- To qualify for a bonus you must open your first new personal checking account between 06/26/17 and 08/25/17 and have at least 1 single direct deposit of $500 or more post to your new checking account within 60 days of account opening.
- Primary signer on the new checking account may not be or have been a primary or secondary signer on any personal checking account within the previous six months.
- The new account must be open and in good standing to qualify for this offer.
- Offer may be withdrawn without notice and cannot be combined with any other checking offer.
- In order to be eligible to participate in this promotion, the customer must open their first new personal checking account via Citizens Bank’s online account opening system accessed by clicking on the link on this page.
- Customer should print this screen for their records.
- Customer may only be paid a bonus associated with this program one time.
- If you meet all of the above requirements and open a Citizens Bank Platinum Checking® account you will receive a $250 bonus, or a $150 bonus for a One Deposit from Citizens Bank® or any other new personal checking account.
- Bonus will post to the checking account within 90 days after direct deposit has posted and will be labeled as “Balance Builder Bonus.” Bonus will be reported to the IRS for income tax purposes.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
No Early Account Termination Fee
As far as I know there is no early account termination fee.
One Deposit Checking Account $9.95 Monthly Fee ($150 Bonus)
- $9.99 fee is waived with any deposit (according to this comment they really do many any deposit, even a transfer from another Citizens Bank account will trigger this)
Citizens Bank Platinum Checking Account $25 Monthly Fee ($250 Bonus)
- Citizens Bank Platinum Checking: $25 fee is waived with $25,000 in combined deposits
Our Verdict
The Platinum checking bonus isn’t really worth considering due to how difficult it is to keep the account fee free, they have offered a targeted bonus of $400 on that account before. I guess you could go for the platinum account and just close it as soon as the bonus posts and eat any monthly fees you run into, but I think after taxes you’d be better off with the $150 bonus. They also have a $200 bonus on the One Deposit account but you need to be targeted for that and also apply in branch (more effort and you won’t be able to fund with a credit card).
Given all that I think the $150 bonus is your best bet and I do think it makes sense to open if you live in the target area. As such this will be added to our best checking bonuses.
Big thanks to reader, Peter A who let us know. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet)Â (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
Chase IHG Premier fund for $990
There is tons of useful info under the heading “Useful posts regarding bank bonuses” above especially the “A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses”
Please click on the link and you will find all the info you need.
Hey Marco, it seems that my questions always goes unanswered. I’e already checked ‘A Beginners Guide to Bank acount bonuses’…and no where do I see it address my simple question. Im not an idiot and when you want to send money from one bank account to another, there are generally 2 options for most banks: wire transfer or money transfer. Both ways generally get coded as ACH but there is a distinction between the two in regards to how it shows up on the receiving banks statement. When I transfered money from one of my personal checking to a second checking account, it showed up as ACH Deposit P2P…which means person to person transfer, which, didnt qualify me for the bank bonus. So again, my question was simple: do I do a direct deposit thru the wire transfer way since Im not using the traditional direct deposit from my employer. THank you in advance for your help. Jon
Wire transfers traditionally have a fee, so avoid using them. Just because something codes as p2p doesn’t mean it doesn’t count as a direct deposit in all cases.
Hey William, I love your posts and read them all the time. However, I seem to keep getting confused with the whole DD from one account to another to qualify for the bank bonus. I opened a Citizens Bank account, and want to do a ACH from Chase to Citizens to qualify for the bonus. However, when you got to chases website, the only options available is transfer to external account. And I know that with other banks, when you do a transfer from one bank account to another bank account, it often gets coded as ‘Person to Person ACH deposit. This actually happened with another bank I have and therefore, I don’t think I’m getting the bank bonus. Does the transfer have to be from a business account to my personal checking account, in order to be coded as a ‘Direct Deposit’ and qualify for the bank bonus? Please help. Jonathan.
4/06 Opened One Deposit Checking
4/20 $500 Chase Checking Transfer
4/25 $510 BoA Checking Transfer
4/30 $601 Schwab Brokerage Transfer
6/20 $200 Bonus Posted
I only kept $50 in the account and was charge one $10 monthly fee on my 2nd statement 6/06.
Just an FYI to those who applied in Jan 2018. They are not paying out the bonus stating I did not apply in branch which they claim was a requirement. I applied online. I may have missed that requirement…
That’s bogus. I applied online in January, too. They wouldn’t pay my bonus either until I filed a CFPB complaint. They responded 2 days later by calling and honoring the bonus.
Thanks for the DPs. May I ask how you triggered the DD? I opened the account online in January, did ACH transfer from Paypal and from Chase Business checking account (each >$500) in February, and no bonus posted. I’d love to raise concern to customer service and/or file CFPB complaint, but also don’t want to draw human eyes to the specific methods I tried to trigger the DD requirement.
can the DD from Chase to Citizens bank to qualify for the bonus have to be from the same person, or can my wife send it to my accoutn at Citizens?
There is a new $200 bonus offer:
Get Paid $200
When you open your first new One Deposit Checking account from Citizens bank® online and make a single direct deposit of $500 or more within 60 days of opening your account*.
https://www.citizensbank.com/promotion/brand/sem/one-deposit-checking/cash-offer-200.aspx?
There is currently a better offer (I did the USPS website change of address instructions) – $225 or $400 bonus respectively for these same accounts.
Could you elaborate more on the USPS change of address? Was this from a move?
DP:
11/30/2017 Opened
1/3/2018 Pushed $500 from credit union
1/9/2018 Withdrew $500
Auto Xfer of $1/mo
4/18/2018 Bonus of $150 posted
I got greedy and it came back to bite me. I went for the $250 Platinum bonus in late December. I wasn’t automatically approved online and had to send a copy of driver’s license. Problem is, nobody was around to approve it until after New Years. At the time the Platinum bonus expired on 12/31. So my account was opened after 12/31.
Fast forward to now, I did not receive the bonus. I zeroed out the account and sent an SM to close it before 4th statement hit and fees started accruing. Apparently they never got it since my account is now $25 in the hole from the monthly service fee. I don’t really have any recourse to the bonus (can’t ask because I used Fidelity for the DD), but maybe I can get them to waive the monthly fee since I sent the SM before the statement cut.
So learn from my mistake- go for the One Deposit bonus to avoid monthly fees, and don’t wait until the last minute before expiration to sign up for this bank, because they don’t always auto-approve and apparently the account opening date is the day that an employee approves the application.
To update, I did indeed receive my bonus for this the day after posting this comment! Took over the promised 90 days, but they came through after I lost all hope.