Update 1/1/25: Extended to 1/31/25.
Update 12/1/24: Extended to 12/31/2024
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $300
- Availability:Must live, work or worship in select MO & KS counties:
- MO: Clay, Jackson, Platte, St. Louis
- KS: Douglas, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Miamia, Shawnee, Wyandotte
- Direct deposit required: Yes, two direct deposits that total $2,500+
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Hard pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: At least $500
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date: 11/30/2024
Contents
The Offer
- CommunityAmerica Credit Union is offering a $300 bonus when you open a new checking account and complete the following requirements within 90 days of account opening:
- enroll in CommunityAmerica online banking or the CommunityAmerica Mobile App
- complete two or more direct deposits that total at least $2,500
The Fine Print
- To receive the $300 credit for a new checking account, you must meet CommunityAmerica Credit Union membership eligibility requirements and (1) Open a new Cashback Free Checking or Chiefs Checking account, which is subject to credit approval, through 11/30/2024 (members with existing Cashback Free Checking or Chiefs Checking accounts or with Cashback Free Checking or Chiefs Checking accounts that have closed within the past six months do not qualify), and within 90 days of account opening, (2) enroll in CommunityAmerica online banking or the CommunityAmerica Mobile App, and (3) complete two or more direct deposits that total at least $2,500.
- The direct deposits need to be electronic deposits of your paycheck, pension or government benefits from your employer or the government.
- Person to person payments (such as Zelle) are not considered direct deposits.
- Within 30 days of meeting qualification requirements, your $300 credit will be posted into the primary account owner’s membership savings account.
- The account must be open and in good standing at the time of payout to qualify for the credit.
- Examples of ineligible accounts may include: delinquent accounts, accounts that have caused the credit union to experience a loss, accounts in which we suspect illegal activity, fraud, scam or financial exploitation, or accounts involved in legal or administrative proceedings.
- Limit one $300 credit per account and per member.
- Offer subject to change without notice and cannot be combined with any other offer.
- The credit may be reported as income on IRS Form 1099-MISC.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
Free checking has no monthly fees to worry about.
Early Account Termination Fee
I don’t see any early account termination fee mentioned.
Our Verdict
Better than the previous $200 bonus that was offered. Main downside for this bonus is the hard pull, but given how it’s difficult to get too many credit cards now I don’t think number of hard pulls matters as much anymore for most people. We will add this to our list of the best bank account bonuses.
Hat tip to reader Jesse
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
DP:
11/19 opened
12/2 $1250+ DD from Chase Business checking payroll
12/6 $1250+ DD from Chase Business checking payroll
12/17 $300 bonus posted
11/14 acct. opened
11/21 $1251.00 Chase Biz checking payroll
11/25 $1250.25 Chase Biz checking payroll
12/18 $300 bonus paid
Just signed up. I’m in footprint. Approved instantly online. Was not able to use Amex for funding but $498 worked with fidelity visa.
Opened online with immediate approval. I’m in the footprint. No hard pull alerts received. Unable to find with credit card online, kept failing. I opted to fund with existing bank account to finish application.
Going to attempt DD with Chase Business checking payroll as I saw DP on another DOC CACU thread that this worked.
My plan as well as I have DD’s tied up in other accounts. I made my first $1251 deposit via Chase Biz payroll today. I will be making my second next week, and will report back. Bonus to be paid within 30 days after completing 2 DD’s totaling $2500.
cc funding in branch only according to the rep I spoke with after I tried 4 or 5 differrent cc’s online and none went through. Even though it showed you can fund $500 each(checking/savings) at the time of app last week. No dice. Wasn’t worth the trip in branch to get $20 back on $1000 shiti DC. TransUnion and Experian thawed. Approved within hours after application.
Interesting, may have to try in branch for cc funding then, thanks.
i had this account last year (or the year before?). do we know how churnable it is? can’t quite tell from the post
I’ve churned them before. Think it’s every 12 months for bonus eligibility. No issues getting paid out. Also, they used to allow up to $5k in credit card funding but I think it’s lower now. I’ve noticed the amount changed from time to time.
DP- Fidelity does not count as a DD with Community America Credit Union
DP- they allow $1k in credit card funding but you may have to enter a slightly lower amount for it to accept it. I did $997 and $998 successfully several times. Once open an account, it’s easy to add additional savings and checking accounts and they allow cc funding for each one. I’ve used Citi AA and Cap 1 Venture X successfully
I just checked your comment history and you’ve been commenting on DoC for over 5 years. You have missed out on a lot of CB in those 5 years by not using credit card funding.
As long as the funding counts as a “purchase”, it will have the normal grace period that any other purchases that you make have.
The key is to always fund your account for an amount higher than your cash limit so there’s no chance that a cash advance occurs.
I had been reluctant to use a cc for funding because I didn’t want to get charged interest from the day the funding was made. Besides the tip of funding an amount higher than my cash limit, are there other ways/tricks to find out whether the funding will be treated as purchase or cash advance by the bank/CU that has the offer?
I don’t think I missed out much on the CB because:
Not all bank deals allow initial funding with a credit card.The funding amount allowed for a credit card usually isn’t much, let’s say $500. My cards give 6% back for groceries, 5% back for fuel, otherwise it’s 1.5-2%. So I only missed out about $10 cb per deal that allowed funding with a credit card.
It’s best to study previous DPs on DoC of what has worked as a “purchase” for a specific card at a specific FI. Of course, it’s best to trust multiple DPs rather than a “lone wolf” DP.
If there are no DPs available, use a card that you use often to lessen the chance of a fraud alert happening.
Some FIs have a lot more than $500 in credit card funding. For example, BP allowed $5K per application for a while but now they apparently allow none.
Weird. I tried Citi DC, CIU, Chase Freedom Flex, US Bank cash+. Citi Strata all online. No dice.
Has anyone been able to get cc funding to code as anything but cash advance? I tries US bank, chase freedom, bofa unlimited and customized cards, and citi rewards +. All rejected as cash advance.
I did with Citi AA cards. Their cc funding is kind of weird. It says $1k but it will usually decline with a “oops this transaction was declined”. I did $998 and it processed no problem.
The St. Louis area also includes parts of Illinois. When you open the link, if you click on the top left where it says Community America Credit union, it will show an offer for $400 for those in the St. Louis metro area.
* $400 Offer. Checking Offer: To receive the $400 credit for a new Checking account, you must meet CommunityAmerica Credit Union membership eligibility requirements and (1) live in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area. Living in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area is defined as living in the following counties: Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair in Illinois; and Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, St. Charles, Warren, St. Louis County and St. Louis City in Missouri.
DP started app OOS and it makes you affirm you live or work in or related to someone in those areas. I’m ineligible
After initial decline (credit was frozen and they took forever to run it) I reapplied and was approved after DL and SS card uploads. 5 states away from footprint but still approved.
How did you get past it asking you if you live, work, etc in the footprint
There’s a part in the app that asks if a family member is within the footprint and I had to provide their address. You could maybe use like a hotel address or something but idk if that would work. As always, YMMV.
I’m a bit wary of that I wouldn’t want to get fact checked and sued or prosecuted