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Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $700
- Availability: CT, DE, MA, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, PA, RI, VT, VA, D.C., MD, FL
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $500+
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull as long as you opt out of over draft protecton.
- ChexSystems: Mixed data points
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: $9.99, avoidable
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date: 9/7/24
Contents
The Offer
- Citizens Bank is offering a $700 bonus when you open a new checking & savings account. Bonus broken down as follows:
- Open your first new personal checking account and set up and make at least one single direct deposit of $500 or more within 60 days of account opening
- Open a savings account on the same day and earn a bonus of up to $600 (funds must be maintained until December 31, 2024):
- $200 bonus: make a single or multiple deposits totaling $5,000
- $400 bonus: make a single or multiple deposits totaling $10,000
- $600 bonus: make a single or multiple deposits totaling $15,000
The Fine Print
- To Earn Bonus: To earn a $100 Checking bonus, open your first new personal checking account between 8/30/24 and 9/7/24 and have at least one single direct deposit of $500 or more post into your new checking account within 60 days of account opening. To earn a Savings bonus, open your first new personal savings account on the same date as the above new checking account (direct deposit not required) and have the required minimum total deposit (with money not currently on deposit with Citizens) post into your new savings account within 10 days of account opening and remains on deposit until date stated in the table below. Deposits between $5,000.00-$9,999.99 will receive a $200 bonus, or deposits between $10,000.00-$14,999.99 will receive a $400 bonus, or deposits equaling $15,000 or more will receive a $600 bonus.
- To earn the total bonus up to $700, you must qualify for both the Checking and one of the Savings bonuses noted above. Qualifications: Primary signer on the new checking and savings accounts may not be or have been a signer on any Citizens personal checking or savings account within the previous six months.
- Your new account(s) must have a balance greater than zero and remain open and active through the payout date stated in the table below to qualify for this offer.
- Direct deposit is recurring income electronically deposited into your Citizens checking account and may include salary, pension, and other regular income. Certain forms of electronically deposited funds may not be considered eligible direct deposits, including those originating from peer-to-peer money transfer applications such as Zelle®, CashApp®, Venmo® or PayPal®. Eligibility: Customer will only be paid a one-time bonus for this program. Only one checking account and one savings account are eligible for a bonus.
- Offers may be withdrawn without notice and cannot be combined with any other checking offer.
- Offer eligibility is determined at Citizens’ sole discretion.
- Payout: Bonus will be deposited to the new checking account by the date stated in the table below and will be labeled as “Balance Builder Bonus”. If your new checking account is closed prior to payout date stated in the table below, then your new savings account will also no longer be eligible for this offer.
- 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
Monthly Fees
Need to sign up for online statements otherwise there is a $3 fee.
Citizens Bank One Deposit Checking Account $9.99 Monthly Fee
The One Deposit checking account comes with a $9.99 monthly fee. Fee is waived by making one deposit each statement period. (According to this comment they really do count any deposit – even a transfer from another Citizens Bank account will trigger this.)
Early Account Termination Fee
As far as we know there is no early account termination fee.
Our Verdict
Normally there is a $400 checking bonus, so this is an extra $300 if you max out the bonus. Basically need to tie the funds up for 3 months, if you put $15,000 into an account for 3 months that earned 5% you’d earn $187.5 so this bonus is worth doing if you can spare the $15,000 for that long. The smaller bonuses aren’t worth doing as you are better off sticking to the standard $400 checking bonus that is frequently available. We will add this to our list of the best bank account bonuses.
Hat tip to reader Alex
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (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
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
Got the $700 on 1/29 (terms said on or before 1/31)
$700 Bonus credited on 1/29/25 after meeting requirements in 2024: real DD for checking and $15K in savings.
DP
9/4 Opened in branch + $50 deposit (Chk $25 and Sav $25), rec’d debit
9/12 Deposited $15k to Sav
9/17 Real DD $500 to Chk
9/19 Pulled $500
1/3 Pulled $15k
1/29 Balbldr Bonus $700
Overall straightforward and easy bonus besides the one deposit req. for One Chk and Sav accts. Was shutdown a week after opening online about a year or two ago, no problems with opening in branch this time. After approval the banker advised me to make an opening deposit to each acct. prior to issuing debit card and to prevent shutdown. Not successful with adding any external accts. and not really needed as all transfers were external. Would have tried stacking with the “Black Friday” savings bonus but had funds tied up at the time. Cha-ching!
700 posted overnight
Anyone got the bonus yet?
Nope
Posted overnight
Anyone got this bonus? I havent yet even received the $100 bonus for the $500 deposit into checking account (On a call in October was told it will post after the new year)
Have not received the $600 for the $15k either, looks like will have to follow up and possibly face some run around
Haven’t received anything from any of the 3 bonuses. Just patiently waiting. If you do contact the bank please share updates what they say thanks! I’m on the same timeframe as you btw
Looked up the documentation on this when i opened this. It says all bonus will post on or before 1/31/25 eod.
My $700 just posted on 1/29, just like others reporting above 🙂
Anyone got the bonus?
If you opened your checking account in August for the $300 checking and $300 savings promo that was mailed you should see your $600 bonus that posted yesterday.
Can someone confirm we can transfer the November 30th $1500 balance requirement out of the savings account before receiving the $600 bonus sometime in December?
can you confirm if this happened to you?
Opened checking and savings accounts under this promo prior to expiration in branch. Took about 30 minutes.
-Did not appear to be chex sensitive as I’ve got about 13 openings in last 12 months and banker didn’t say anything.
-I closed last citizens accounts in Jan/Feb after last bonus churn, so the dates brought me more than 6 months since I had my last Citizens account which made me eligible for this bonus as a new customer.
-Appeared to be soft pull, not hard credit pull
-Used previous online banking profile which still existed
-Was a little clunky getting money transferred in given 10 day window and transfer limits. I pulled from other external accounts into Citizens. I should have done the inverse and pushed ACH from external to Citizens.
-Awaiting my real DD into checking and have to let savings $ sit for bonuses at this point.