This offer is no longer available.
You can get another $50 for using mobile cash withdrawals currently as well.
Update: According to this comment it has to be a ‘real’ direct deposit and regular ACH transfers do not count.
Reposting this since it was last posted in April of 2014.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $125
- Availability: South FL, NY, NJ Only
- Direct deposit required: Yes, three deposits of $500 or more
- Additional requirements: 5 online bill payments
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: $25, six months
- Expiration date: None listed
Update: This deal is now only available in New Jersey, New York, and South Florida. That means CA & IL are no longer eligible.
Contents [hide]
The Offer
Direct offer link (bonus is no longer clearly displayed but it is mentioned in the fine print on the linked page)
- Receive $75 when you make three 3 ACH direct deposits of $500 or more
- $50 when you make 5 online bill payments or preauthorized withdrawals
The Fine Print
- Only available to those in FL,
CA, IL, NY or NJ - Bonus requirements must be completed with 90 days of opening account
- Bonus payment will be made within 60 days of completing the requirements, account must open still
- Bonus limited to one per customer per lifetime
- All bank account bonuses require you to pay tax on them
- Minimum opening deposit of $50 ($25 in NY)
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
Basic Checking $0
This account doesn’t come with a monthly fee
Basic Interest Checking
- If an average monthly ledger balance of $250 is maintained, the monthly service fee is waived.
Popular 50+ Interest Checking
- Free if you’re over 50 years of age
Popular Investor Checking
- If an average monthly ledger balance of $1,000 is maintained, the monthly service fee is waived.
Early Account Termination Fee
Update: There is an early account termination fee of $25 if the account is closed within 6 months.
It doesn’t appear as if there is an early account termination fee, but as it’s easy to have a free account with the basic checking product it doesn’t matter much if there is one if you close the account within six months.
Our Verdict
Update: Deal isn’t as good now since any ACH transfer won’t trigger the bonus according to this comment.
I like the simplicity of this deal, you don’t need to worry about which methods work as a direct deposit – as it doesn’t require a direct deposit, only an ACH transfer.
Here’s how we’d be doing this deal:
- Open the basic checking account as it does not have a monthly fee
- Do three transfers of $500 or above from my existing checking account
- Complete five regular bill pays
- Wait to receive the bonus (will post within 60 days)
- With until the six month mark at least before closing the account in case there is an early account termination fee
- Close the account
The other downside is that not everybody is going to live within the service area. I’ve added it to our list of the best state specific bank bonuses.
Screenshot of this offer | Direct application link
Hat tip to MIAMIGUY305 from Slickdeals
I ACHed from Chase on August 11th and it is appearing as “PREAUTHORIZED CREDIT JPMorgan Chase Ext Trnsfr 170811” – for those of you who Chase ACHed and got the bonus, is this how yours appeared as well?
They are not great to deal with. I opened the account and sent back the signature cards / questionnaire soon after I received them. For some reason, my online banking required calling in with many looooong waits on hold to get set up, working with a representative who seemed borderline incompetent. I got a voice mail not long after “regarding my online banking,” but as it had finally been set up I did not call back.
A couple weeks later I had nearly completely all the bonus requirements, when suddenly I could no longer log in. I called in to find out they had closed the account because they never received the signature card / questionnaire, and they said they had called me three times regarding this. I insisted I had sent the documents, and explained I had received only ONE message, and why I hadn’t called them back, but multiple representatives remained firm on the account closure. To be frank, everyone I spoke to there was kind of surly.
I understand why they closed it, and it was my mistake not calling back, but I did not appreciate the snafoos with online banking / near incompetence of the guy who set it up, nor the borderline rudeness of the other representatives. Plus I wish I had been offered the chance to reopen the account. Oh well. Can’t win them all.
If I’m visiting NYC can I open this in person and get the bonus?
No DP: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/banks-allowdont-allow-state-checking-applications/
I’m the DP then :).
Popular Community Bank DOES allow out of state applications but this $125 offer has expired. Its $50 phone bank offer remains.
Also one branch wouldn’t process me as I’m not a citizen. Had to go to a different branch for that (though it was in walking distance). So I’d advise non-citizens to call in first.
Thanks, Max.
Promo still going.
https://www.popularcommunitybank.com/services-for-me/checking/
Worth an update? Seems like a lot of people have had problems with this bank.
If you live in NYC, I got this mailing for a new branch at 164 E 116th St: “Get $500: Open any new consumer checking account and a Relationship Savings Account with a combined balance of $15,000, maintain the $15,000 combined daily balance for the first 2 statement cycles of the account, and set up Direct Deposit within the first 60 days.”
Once bonus per lifetime, so I don’t qualify, but this offer is much better than the one I had received prior.
Exp 3/3/17
Hey Dan – that’s pretty sweet! Was it online or in-branch only? Was there a code attached?
Chase ACH worked for me.
I received the 50$ and 75$ bonuses today, about 2 weeks after i completed the promo requirements.
thanks doc
Well…apparently I got a bonus in 2009 (I did have an account with them) but I remembered it being something like a beach chair or something. After all my phone calls, this whole thing was a gigantic waste of time. Oh well…win some, lose some.
Data points:
12/17 – opened account
12/23 – $500 ACH push from Discover
12/27 – $500 ACH push from Discover
12/28 – $500 ACH push from Discover
12/29 – $100 bill pay to AmEx
12/30 – $100 bill pay to AmEx
1/3 – $100 bill pay to AmEx
1/4 – $100 bill pay to AmEx
1/5 – $100 bill pay to AmEx
1/27 – $75 bonus received
1/27 – $50 bonus received
My 5 bill payments from December 22, 2016 resulted in the $50 bonus posting on January 27. Still working on the direct deposit requirement.
After a few calls and direct messages, the $75 direct deposit bonus posted. If you get one bonus, but not the other, keep following up.
Since there is no early account termination fee, I am going to close this account at the end of the month.
Per Customer Service reply on 12/20:
“Unfortunately external transfers do not meet the requirements for the $75 incentive bonus. They should be direct deposits, such as payroll direct deposits, to count for the bonus”
Please update site. It cannot just be any 3x $500 ACH, must trigger DD requirement. Schwab bank did not trigger
Yeah I included DP of what counts here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/knowledge-base/list-methods-banks-count-direct-deposits/#Popular_Bank
11/3 Opened account
11/17 Completed third $500 ACH (Alliant/Chase)
11/8 Completed 5 bill pays
12/7 Bonuses posted ($75 and $50)
Not bad!
Strema, how much were the 5 bill pays?