[Expired][IL & IN only] North Community Bank Up To $300 Bank Bonus ($100 Checking/$200 Savings)

This offer has now expired, you can view a full list of current checking bonuses by going here.

Offer at a glance

• Maximum bonus amount: $300
• Availability: IL & IN only
• Direct deposit required: Yes, $100+
• Additional requirements: Deposit $5,000+ and maintain for 90 days (+$200)
• Hard/soft pull: Unknown
• Credit card funding: Unknown
• Monthly fees: None for checking, $3 but waive-able on savings
• Early account termination fee: Unknown
• Expiration date: June 30th, 2015

The Offer

Direct link to offer

• Open a personal checking ($100 minimum deposit) or business checking ($500 minimum deposit) and set up a recurring direct deposit of $100 or more by July 15th and receive a $100 bonus.
• Open a savings account with a minimum of $5,000 and maintain the balance for 90 days and receive a $200 bonus

The Fine Print

• Valid until June 30th, 2015
• The $5,000 must be money that is new to North Community Bank
• Available for personal or business accounts
• Limit of one offer per primary account holder
• Checking bonus will be paid out within 90 days of the first direct deposit being received
• Savings bonus will be paid 90 days after the initial funding of $5,000
• All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

North Community bank offers a free checking account that has no monthly fees. In terms of savings accounts, your best bet will be to open the Golden Statement Savings, this has the highest interest rate of 0.1% APY and the monthly service fee ($3) is waived if you have more than $1,000 in your account (you’ll need to have $5,000 to get the savings bonus).

I wasn’t able to locate the fee schedule, so I am unsure if they charge an early account termination fee or not.

If you wanted to sign up for the business checking bonus, they also have a free checking account. Just keep in mind the $200 savings bonus is only for personal accounts.

Our Verdict

$300 is a nice sizable bonus, but most of it comes from the Savings account. You need to have $5,000 invested for at least 90 days, because the interest rate is quite low (0.1% APY) and we could be getting a higher rate (1% APY) there is an opportunity cost (0.9%) on the $5,000 balance for 90 days. This works out to be about $11 in lost interest, given the bonus is $200, doing the savings bonus is definitely worth while.

The main problem with this bonus is that we don’t know if it’s a hard or soft pull. Because of that I’d be hesitant to recommend it. If anybody lives within the service area and gives this a go, let me know your experiences in the comments. This offer has been added to our bank bonus database, it has not been added to our best bonuses due to the geographical restrictions.

Direct link to offer | Screenshot of offer