Discover $50 Savings Account Bonus [Possible YMMV]

Offer at a glance

• Maximum bonus amount: $50
• Availability: Nationwide [Should work for anyone, but possibly targeted.]
• Direct deposit required: None
• Additional requirements: Deposit of $5,000
• Hard/soft pull: Soft
• Credit card funding: None
• Monthly fees: None
• Early account termination fee: None mentioned.
• Expiration date: May 31, 2015 or May 15, 2015

The Offer

Direct Link (Use URL DiscoverBank.com/save315  or DiscoverBank.com/save3515 and the offer code will come prepopulated.)

There are two variations of the offer being found (screenshots below), the first is the terms found in the email and the second is the terms found in the snail-mail version:

• Open a Discover Savings account by 5/15/15 with as little as $500, deposit $5,000 by 5/31/15, and receive a $50 bonus. Use offer code save3515. Bonus will be credited by 6/30/15.
• Open a Discover Savings account by 5/31/15 with as little as $500, deposit $5,000 by 6/15/15, and receive a $50 bonus. Use offer code save315. Bonus will be credited by 7/15/15.

The first offer has code 3515 and works only until 5/15/15. The second offer has code 315 and should work until 5/31/15. [See, however this comment which would indicate that this code won’t work past 5/15/15.]

The Fine Print

• Offer limited to new customers only.
• Limit one per customer.
• Bonus is considered interest income and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT.

Avoiding Fees

There are no fees to avoid. Though you need to open the account with $500, you don’t need to leave that money in the account to avoid fees. Discover does not have any minimum balance requirement and you can withdraw all the funds after opening the account and fulfilling the $5,000 deposit requirement.

Early Termination Fee

There’s no mention of a fee for closing the account at any time. Note that you need to leave the account open until 7/15/15 when the bonus posts.

Availability

The Discover saving account is available nationwide. The big question here is whether the $50 bonus will work for anyone who opens an account with code save315 or it will only work for those who received the offer invitation. 

I received this offer via snail-mail and via email, with others on Slickdeals also mentioning receiving the offer. Here’s  a look at the email version:

 

And here’s the snail-mail version:

On my offer, it says “For Discover card ending xxxx” indicating that it’s targeted. Because of this, there is definitely a risk that it will only work for those who were targeted.

There are varying reports on Slickdeals about if this will work for those who didn’t receive the offer directly. One rep said clearly that it will work so long as you apply the offer code, while another said something different. My gut is that it will work, but it’s worth calling and getting that confirmed. Take down the name of the rep and the time of the call so that you can reference the conversation.

The terms on a different Discover bonus mention that it’s only available for Discover cardmembers and it’s quite possible that this offer will have that requirement as well and won’t work for those who are not Discover cardholders. (Since this offer was sent out via mail/email to select Discover cardholders, they didn’t need to write that exclusion.)

Our Verdict

This offer isn’t anything amazing, but it does get us to take a second look at the $50 Discover checking account bonus. There’s nothing in the terms that indicate that you can’t get both bonuses. (One rep mentioned such a thing, but I’m skeptical.)

Discover bonuses are attractive to many because of how simple and straightforward they are. The checking account bonus is real easy and this savings account bonus just requires a one-time $5,000 deposit which is in reach of many. There’s no mention that you need to keep the funds in the account until the bonus posts, though it may be worth doing this as a precaution. It’s just a few weeks in any case.

An interesting question is what will happen if you apply for both the checking and saving on the same day/hour. Will it come up on your Chex report as two inquiries or one? Though there is the hassle of dealing with signing up for two accounts, you may be able to get $100 bonus total with just one inquiry showing. [Note that this only matters for someone who signs up for lots of bank accounts. For most, it won’t matter if there’s an extra inquiry on your Chex report since it’s not used by lenders or credit card issuers.]

I’m seriously considering doing the two offers to get $100 bonus, still can’t make up my mind. Of course, it’s much more attractive for me since I was targeted with the offer and don’t have to worry that it may not work automatically. It’ll also be interesting to see if Chex does consolidate the inquiries which is another motivation for me to try it out.

Another point to keep in mind is that Discover saving account does have a decent interest rate, currently .9% APY. If you don’t have an account that gives that kind of rate this could be a good opportunity to get it.

Here’s how I’d go about doing these bonuses:

• Open a savings account with offer code save315. Open a checking account using the offer landing page. Try opening the two accounts on the same day/hour to increase the chances of only getting one Chex inquiry.
• Fund the savings account with an initial deposit of $500 before 5/15/15 and be sure to fund another $4500 before 5/31/15. Fund the checking account with an initial deposit of $25.
• Wait for bonuses to post. Savings bonus should post by 7/15/15 the latest.
• Withdraw the money to a higher yield savings account, or leave it there if their rate is highest.

Let us know in the comments if you’ll be doing this one.