Mercury (Banking For Startups): Spend $10,000 On Debit Card & Get $500 Bonus

Offer at a glance

  • Maximum bonus amount: $500
  • Availability: Nationwide
  • Direct deposit required: No
  • Additional requirements: No
  • Hard/soft pull: Unknown
  • ChexSystems: Unknown
  • Credit card funding: Unknown
  • Monthly fees: None
  • Early account termination fee: Unknown
  • Household limit: None listed
  • Expiration date: None listed

The Offer

Direct link to offer

  • Mercury is a ‘banking stack for startups’ and is offering a bonus of $500 when you spend $10,000+ via the Mercury debit card.

The Fine Print

  • 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

I’m unsure if there is any early account termination fee or not

Our Verdict

I suspect approvals will be difficult to come by as this is targeted towards startups. Deal itself is good if you have a lot of natural debit card spend.

Hat tip to mothman69

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:

View Comments (89)

  • Aug 28: 10k ach from chase biz, 4000 cash app load
    Sep 4: 3000 cash app load
    Sep 12: 3000 cash app load
    Sep 13: 500 bonus
    My cash app limit is only 4k/week, I think it would be quicker with higher limit.

    • Dumb question, but can you transfer money from Cashapp to your bank account?
      Is form SS-4 from the IRS with the EIN sufficient? Did they ask for any other "business formation" documents?

      • Yea you can transfer from cash app to bank account. They didn’t ask me for ein document just the number. For the business formation document I used a certificate of assumed name from the state.

  • Disappointed, I signed up through the TWIST deal as I already mentioned but today they credited me $300 for the other fitsmallbusinessstartup promo they have going on. Already made $10K in spend with Cash App in four $2500 transactions that I completed yesterday. Instead of $500, I only received $300.

    I had looked at the link someone posted for the $300 deal and the $500 twist deal and decided to go with the higher offer. 100% I applied through the landing page for the TWIST deal, and had closed out the other page. Maybe this has to do with cookies being attached from the different landing pages and some type of glitch. Or it could just be an error on their part.

    Here's the problem, I don't know if I should contact the bank to see if I can get this fixed. I'm worried if they manually review my account they might object to the Cash App transactions and say they're not real purchases, and they might also see that I just made the transactions to get a bonus.

    What does everyone think? Is it a risk to ask the bank why the proper promo wasn't attached to my application, or is it safe for me to ask?

    @guest_1818578 @guest_1825497 @guest_1819081

    • Did you get it resolved? I signed up with the TWIST link, and completed the transactions on the 25th, but no bonus yet. It seems the previous DPs got the bonus posted pretty quickly. Now I am a little worried. I had the referral link open before I signed up with the TWIST link, I wonder if the cookies got me signed up under the referral instead.

    • Also I find it good practice to do all research in my normal browser, then open the app link in a private browser window to complete the app. I use Firefox on windows by default unless I hit a snag then may switch to Chrome, ad block on or off seems to not make a difference.

      Sometimes I take a screenshot of the last page of the app if it is showing promo code, but I should probably do this all the time or even do a screen record of the whole app process. For sure I ALLWAYS copy/paste the terms from the offer page to my big ol spreadsheet. Was thinking about sharing my spreadsheet with the class in case anyone needs help on critical data points to gather per account.

      On your specific question on if its worth the risk to ask for $200, yes I would go for it after pulling all your dollerydoos out. Be nice and professional while asking. But be insistent and confident, I'd have all the pertinent info on a note. Good luck!

      • More great advice from @guest_1825497 for any readers planning to do this promo, or any promo for that matter. In my case, I did this application on an older device without all the bells and whistles, but just clearing out my cookies before applying from the TWIST page might have prevented this from happening. I do plan on definitely asking for the $200 credit and will try to make an update on how they respond.

    • @guest_1846723 First, I would see if you can go to your Chrome or Edge webpage history and see which link you clicked? It should be there.
      I had to do this recently (maybe 3 months ago) for a bank - and showed them a video of my history and going to the link - then they gave me the promo offer.

      • @guest_1819081 Interesting, that's a very good idea. It should still be there so I will definitely give it a try.

    • I do not believe they will try to claw back the $300 or scrutinize the Cash App transactions (their offer terms don't exclude p2p transactions), but I would withdraw everything except $1 before contacting them just to be safe. Worst case, they say no and stand by the $300 promo. Best case, they apologize for the mix up and credit you $200.

      • Thank you @guest_1818578, your thinking is pretty much in line with mine. Was just hoping to hear some more opinions and don't want to possibly jeopardize this for others moving forward. Like you suggested, I went ahead and pulled out the $300 and there will be $5 left in the account once the transaction posts. At that point, I will contact them to point out the discrepancy and hope they offer to credit me the $200.

  • Tip: Mercury allows you to adjust your daily spending limit above the default $2,500. I originally assumed it was the max spend they imposed per day but it's possible to raise or lower the limit at will through the online banking platform.
    @guest_1846747

  • Was approved just now, I applied through the TWIST link above. There wasn't anywhere to put a promo code or anything and not much indication of the promo, is this normal?

    I'm planning to do the Cash App method that @guest_1818578 posted below. Were the Cash App loads to your personal account? I see they have Cash App for business also, I'm just trying to anticipate any possible complications.

    @guest_1825497 how did this work out for you?

    • I did $2k legit debit spending (guess how many months of daycare that buys.. ) and the bonus delivered within a week. So cannot directly verify cashapp works but I think it should. Also have not tried spoffing any DDs with it yet but will report back if it works.

    • @guest_1846723 Opening from the Twist link is all that's needed. I did Cash App loads to my personal Cash App account.

      • My cash app gave me a $4k per 7-day cash load limit. Do you have the same limit? I wonder if everybody gets the same limit or if it was because my account was new.

          • Thanks @guest_1846756 and @guest_1818578 ! It looks like my low limit was because I did not verify my account and also my account was very new. I'll verify it and let it season a bit, hopefully they would increase my limit.

        • @guest_1846747
          Mine says $25K per day Add Cash, and unlimited for Receive. I previously verified my account.

          @guest_1825497
          I'd say that's a lot of daycare, but I'd also bet it's pretty expensive. Cash App worked for mothman, hopefully still does!

  • Smooth application with LLC, uploaded Articles of Inc and CP-whatever, approved next day. Went with the offer here, with $300 bonus for $2k spend. Very nice interface, looks to have a good suite of features, and instant virtual card.

    Wondering if this could be used to make DDs? Anyone work that angle?

  • This offer can be churned. I applied with the same single-member LLC both times. All debit card spending was done with the virtual debit card.

    4/19/2022 - first account opened
    4/26/2022 - $2500 Point card funding
    5/2/2022 - $2500 Point card funding
    5/4/2022 - $2500 Point card funding
    5/6/2022 - $200 Cash App load
    5/6/2022 - $2300 Point card funding
    5/11/2022 - $500 bonus posted
    2/23/2023 - first account closed

    3/11/2024 - second account opened
    3/18/2024 - $2500 Cash App load
    3/19/2024 - $2599 Cash App load
    3/21/2024 - 2x $2500 Cash App loads
    3/22/2024 - $500 bonus posted

    I guess it's safe to say you can wait 12 months since previous closure to churn.

  • @6 @2 Possible to create a referral page for links?

    I found out that the $250 bonus for depositing $10k stacks with a $300 bonus for spending $2k on their debit/credit card, making it a $550 bonus total.

  • Hi team,

    I applied following link. hOwever, rep from Mercury states that promotion is not linked to my new account and I must have an account with Twist. May anyone help me here?