Update 5/22/24: new referral page is now open, thanks to people who didn’t post theirs in the comments below.
Update 5/22/24: Deal is back until 01/10/2025
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $200
- Availability: Nationwide
- Deposit required: $5,000 – $30,000
- Additional requirements: Deposit must be in account on day 90
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: No, Chexsystems sensitive
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: None
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date: 4/30/2024
Contents
The Offer
No direct link to offer, requires a referral. Find & share your referrals in this linked post. Direct link for terms here.
- Laurel Road is offering a bonus of up to $200 when you open a new savings account and deposit $1 within 20 days of account opening. The bonus you receive depends on your balance at 90 days after account opening:
- Deposit total between $5,000–$14,999.99 and get a $50 bonus
- Deposit total between $15,000–$29,999.99 and get a $100 bonus
- Deposit total more than $30,000+ and get a $200 bonus
The Fine Print
- Referred cannot be an existing or prior Laurel Road member in the last twelve (12) months.
- Starting at 12:00AM EST on January 30, 2024, through 11:59PM EST on April 30, 2024 (“Campaign Period”), a $50 bonus (the “Bonus”) will be awarded to Laurel Road members (“Referrer”) for each friend who opens a new Laurel Road High Yield Savings (HYS) account (the “Referred”) and meets the following requirements, the Referred must 1) submit the HYS account application through the Referrer’s link during the Campaign Period. 2) have a minimum HYS account balance of at least $1 by 7PM EST within the first twenty (20) calendar days of account opening, and 3) have a minimum balance of $5,000 by 11:59PM EST on the ninetieth (90th) calendar day of account opening for Referrer to earn the Bonus. T
- his offer cannot be combined with any other programs and is not eligible for the standard Refer-A-Friend split.
- All other Laurel Road Referral Program Rules apply. For full information see https://www.laurelroad.com/hys-raf2024/#disclaimer.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
This account has no monthly fees to worry about.
Early Account Termination Fee
None
Our Verdict
Bonus is interesting for two reasons:
- Account earns 5% APY and this is competitive with other high yield rates
- You only need a balance on day 90
You’ll likely need to tie up funds for a week or so but still worth doing if you have a lot of liquid funds available. Person referring also gets a $50 bonus. We will add this to our list of the best checking bonuses. Do not share your referrals in the comments below, you can share them in this linked post.
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
Given Fidelity’s fund hold ups, I ended up having to submit a wire transfer (just to be on the safe side) to have the funds in by day 90 (Nov 24) for me. There goes $20 but better to have some bonus than none at all.
Really need to highlight the requirement that one needs for this savings account to be their only account at Laurel Road.
Referred cannot be an existing or prior Laurel Road account owner or co-owner for a Laurel Road deposit or lending account in the last twelve (12) months.
Hopefully made clearer
So if I currently have an active checking account, I won’t qualify for $200 savings?
Correct.
So if I currently have an active checking account, I won’t qualify for $200 savings?
Correct.
Mike
I opened a Savings account using a link and then opened a checking account from within the offers on my dashboard. The 90th day is in a couple of weeks. Would I be eligible for the bonus if the balance in savings in 30K on day 90? Also, can this 30K be just a transfer from the LR CKG?
Yes, you are eligible for the savings bonus. and it doesn’t matter how you transfer the money.
If your 90th day after opening your HYS is not a business day, they will instead look at your HYS balance on the next business day to determine your eligibility for a bonus.
“Referred bonus amounts are based on HYS account balance at 11:59 PM ET on ninetieth (90th) calendar day after account opening. See funds availability policy for more details on deposit information. If days twenty (20) or ninety (90) mentioned above are non-business days, Laurel Road will use the account balance from the next business day.“
I think the T&Cs are vague… what do you think…do I qualify for the savings bonus?
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/laurel-road-200-high-yield-savings-bonus-balance-only-required-on-day-90/#comment-1956941
I chatted online on why I haven’t received the bonus after I met the requirements couple months ago. I were told that I had an existing checking account. Looks like I have to read the T&Cs carefully next time!
Seen on other websites people complaining about the transfer limits. Can anyone confirm what the daily/monthly amounts are? TIA
The thing that really concerned me is all of the complaints, in general. Lots of account freezes for simply banking with them.
DP:
Applied with Chex frozen and denied due to Chex. I see they did a soft pull, but, thankfully, they couldn’t pull my full Chex. Based on what I read about them, I wouldn’t have likely sent them $ based on the horror stories I’ve read on Reddit.
Received confirmation that a Chex hard-pull is required. I’ll avoid them.
Chex pulls at Laurel Road are YMMV. But, very few that get the Chex pull get approved, so you may be better off doing what you are doing.
Agreed…not worth the hassle.
Is the day of account opening day 0 or day 1? If the account was opened 7/25/2024, what would the 90th day be? (simple math defeats me sometimes)
Day 90 is 10/23/24. Date Calculator: Add to or Subtract From a Date – Results
I always do the most restrictive count, and it can depend on the situation. Like, if you open on a non business day, usually the next business day is day 1. If day 90 falls on a non-business day, stay until the next business day (not that you have any choice at that point). Do over and above and you will rarely be dissatisfied. Loss of ~$1 of in interest earnings is worth the piece of mind.
Regardless, you are good to go.
Heather
May 22 plus 90 days equals August 20. I met this requirement. I held all of the $30,000 for about another week before transferring about $29,000 back to my Vanguard MM fund.
August 20 plus 60 days equals October 19. Today is October 24 and I haven’t received my check. Does anyone know what is going on with these bonuses?
this seems a very strange bank – have tried all the different ways trying to link from fidelity but always failed. Anyone else experiencing this?
When setting up an external account on Laurel Road, the following information is displayed:
Important: Transfer time varies. It typically takes up to 4 business days to deposit or send money one you have an account set up.
However, every push that I’ve initiated has been credited to my LR account’s available balance on the next business day.
Has anyone had it take longer than 1 business day, and if so, how many business days?
All my transfers show up next business day.
(to ease your mind – i already received my bonus).
10/11 – Application submitted with Chex frozen
Gadget - Bank Bonus Geek 🔗 – You were right, looks like for some they do trigger Chex, for some they don’t. I will wait for ~60/90 days before reapplying with Chex thawed
10/16 – Sorry, we are unable to open the account you requested because of information on record with ChexSystems, Inc.
On 10/07 my Laurel Road accounts were opened and I was able to log in. Other than the inconvenience of have to enter a security code every time I log in, there have been no issues until today.
Now when I try to log in, I get this message:
“We’re conducting a security review to protect your account. We may reach out to you for additional information, if needed. Most reviews are resolved within 10 business days. For help, call 1-833-427-2265.”
I called and learned that the security team wants me to send proof of address, such a utility bill. No ETA on when they will process the proof of address I sent.
Still locked out. I was going to log in to Laurel this morning to verify the trial deposits Laurel had sent to an external bank account I wanted to add, but I couldn’t because Laurel had locked me out.
Now Laurel wants a copy of the most recent bank statement for the external account they sent trial deposits to.
Locked out for 11 hours and you haven’t filed a CFPB yet?
I have the complaint prepared for filing. lol
What is a CFPB, please?
Citi has been playing games with me and I’ve been locked out of my account there.
“The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is a US government agency that protects consumers from unfair practices by banks, lenders, and other financial institutions.”
https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
Will it help? Maybe.
Nodo
I am former Key Bank customer (closed account 4 years ago). Had to login with old credentials. Chez frozen. Got the following: We are unable to complete your application at this time, please try again shortly. If you are still unable to continue, please contact our support team at [email protected]