[GA, NC, SC, VA, FL, AL] South State Bank $200 Checking Bonus – Direct Deposit Not Required

Update 7/15/23: Deal is back.

Update 4/9/23: Extended until June 30, 2023

Update 1/10/23: Extended until 3/31.

Update 10/29/22: Deal is back and valid until 12/31/22.

Offer at a glance

The Offer

Direct link to offer

  • South State Bank is offering a $200 checking bonus when you meet the following requirements within 60 days of account opening:
    • Use promo code EARN200
    • Have total qualifying direct deposits of $250 OR monthly automatic draft of $25
    • Make a minimum of 15 debit card purchases or payments

 

 

The Fine Print

  • Eligibility & Qualifications for the Promotional Rebate Offer: To receive the $100, you must meet each of the following criteria:
    • At account opening, you cannot be a current owner or joint owner of a SouthState personal checking account, or have been an owner or joint owner of a SouthState personal checking account in the past 12 months.
    • You must open the account with a minimum opening deposit of $25.00 (excluding the Promotional Rebate amount).
    • Within 60 days of opening the checking account have either: monthly cumulative direct deposits of at least $250 which includes salary, pension, Social Security, or other regular recurring monthly income. (Note, however, that internal account transfers, deposits made at banking locations, by mobile deposits and ATM deposits do not qualify as a direct deposit.) OR one or more automatic draft of at least $25 to a non-South State Bank account.
    • Have 15 or more posted and cleared debit card purchases/payments from the account.
  • Promotional Rebate Payment: If you meet all of the Eligibility and Qualifications above, we will credit the Promotional Rebate to your Account within 2 business days of the completion of the 60 calendar day qualifying period. The Promotional Rebate will be reported to the appropriate taxing authorities, as required by law or regulation.
  • All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

South State Checking

This account has no monthly fees when you enroll in eStatements

Choice Checking Account $8 Monthly Fee

This is the easiest account to keep fee free fr most people. It has a $8 monthly fee that is waived if you do any of the following:

  • 5 debit card purchases/payments per statement cycle or
  • $250 in combined direct deposits, or
  • $1,000 average daily balance

Early Account Termination Fee

$25 if closed within 90 days.

Our Verdict

Reasonably good deal as no direct deposit is required, obviously not the biggest bank account bonus but still worth doing if you’ve done the more lucrative bonuses. As always if you have any experiences with this bank or bonus then please share them in the comments below.

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:

Post history:

  • Update 1/15/20: Deal is back and valid until March 31, 2021.
  • Update 9/16/20: Deal is back and valid until November 30, 2020. Hat tip to reader Ben
  • Update 2/3/2020: Bonus is back and has been increased to $200 from $100.
  • Update 9/22/19: Bonus is back and valid until November 30th, 2019. Hat tip to DDG
    William Charles
  • On July 15, 2023, 11:30

View Comments (658)

  • Anyone have issues with Chex here? I was just declined online due to Chex. I am in the state of Florida within a few miles of a branch.

    • Like others have said.
      If you ever can go in branch vs online then your chance of success tends to be greater than 95%

      Meaning people > binary coding.
      😁

    • @guest_1941120 You should be fine opening in branch. I was declined online but had no issues in branch.

    • A few people did. You can use the 🔍Comment search... bar above and type Chex.

      Keep in mind sometimes banks say Chex, but might have used other sources too. If you have LexisNexis, Sagestream, or even one of the big 3 credit reports frozen, it may cause this.

      • I got declined because of Chex. Their report shows my score as 740, but Chex portal is showing my score as 576, not sure which one to take.

        • Doesn't really matter which one you take. Banks don't announce what they accept. All you can do is keep plugging along and taking what wins you can get, or take a "break" and retry the ones that were losses.

          I too have noticed disparity between Chex scores that banks give as well, but it's pretty uncommon to be told your score on the Adverse Action. I can only guess why there are differences.

  • 7/30 account opened with $250 US Bank Cash+ funding, coded as purchase
    8/5 $26 US Bank credit card payment, initiated from US Bank site
    8/12 bought 15 individual bananas at Walmart
    9/4 $26 US Bank credit card payment
    10/1 $200 Promotional Bonus

  • DP

    8/2 Account Opened with $250 cc funding
    8/22 - 8/23 $5.00 x 15 Amazon balance reloads
    9/18 $25 Chase cc payment
    10/2 $200 Promotional Bonus

  • OOS application seems to not work as I got stuck on the personal information page without any ability to continue.

  • What are you all doing for the transactions now that Amazon reload minimums are $5

    I have tried at 2 different humane society’s for $1 + covering the fees and they both coded as “preauth dda” for SouthState bank

    • Just a quick edit, looks like 1 of the 2 humane society’s changed after pending to “sig purchase” so I’ll be using that one from now on

  • My P2's DP:

    06/20 Opened online - Citi DoubleCash $250 CC funding - Posted as purchase.

    07/05 - 7/23 16x Debits $1.xx Verizon Fios Payments online First one posted slightly different than others.

    1x debit: "VERIZON BILL PAY VERIZON.COM FL (numbers) SIG PURCH (date)"
    15x debits: "(numbers) PMT DDA (date/time) VERIZON BILL PAY VERIZON.COM FL (numbers)

    07/18 $26 CITI CARD ONLINE PAYMENT (initiated payment from Citi online banking using ACH RTN/Acct)

    08/06 $26 CITI CARD ONLINE PAYMENT

    08/20 $200 "Promotional Bonus"

  • DP:

    6/19/24 Account opened
    6/28 $250 real DD
    6/28 - 7/9 14 misc purchases <$2 from Amazon & 2 vending machine purchases
    7/31 $250 real DD
    8/20 $200 Promotional Bonus

    Pretty easy $200. Got a couple of calls from them and some real mail about some of their other accounts. Nice people but the banking experience is subpar.

  • Opened 5/30. Did debit transactions at gas station for .20/time and paid Discover $25 from Discover app once a month. No DD ever posted. Posted 7/31

  • Either one $250 DD or one $25 bill pay would satisfy the requirement, right? Why so many people do both, and multiple times at that?

    • Because we are all scared the bank will make up some excuse not to pay...

      Dealt with 100+ banks... and nobody calls an ACH payment a draft. Is this 1950?

      And, it's not that hard to drop more than one on there...

      Plus... the offer used to say "monthly cumulative" DD... how are they going to know if it's a monthly DD if you don't hit it more than one month?

  • DP:

    5/7/24 opened account
    5/20/24 15 $1 amazon reloads
    5/31/24 real DD $225
    6/28/24 real DD $225
    7/9/24 $200 bonus

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