[Expired][MI only] Level One Bank $300 Checking Bonus

This bonus has unfortunately expired, you can view other great bonuses by clicking here.

Keep in mind that this bank looks to be sensitive to ChexSystems inquiries.

Offer at a glance

  • Maximum bonus amount: $300
  • Availability: Must live in one of the following Michigan counties for online sign up: Oakland, Wayne, Macomb, Washtenaw, Livingston, and Monroe. Note according to this comment you might need to go in branch to complete your application.
  • Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum specified
  • Additional requirements: Yes, see below
  • Hard/soft pull: Soft
  • ChexSystems: Unknown
  • Credit card funding: None
  • Monthly fees: $2, waivable
  • Early account termination fee: None
  • Expiration date: None listed

The Offer

Direct link to offer

  • Open a new Level One Bank checking account and receive a $300 bonus when you do the following:
    • Use promotional code FallPromoOAO2016
    • Set up direct deposit within 60 days (receive $200)
    • Use your new debit card 15 times and make 2 online bill payments (receive another $100)

The Fine Print

  • Fall Checking Offer is available to new Level One Bank clients that apply online to open an eligible personal checking account
  • Offer is not available to existing Level One Bank clients or those whose accounts have been closed within 30 days or closed with a negative balance.
  • Offer is not valid on accounts physically opened at a banking center location.
  • Eligible personal checking accounts include: My Checking, My Interest Checking, My Value Checking and Level One @ School Checking.
  • Advertisement must be presented at time of account opening or promo code must be entered at time of online application.
  • Offer is subject to change or cancellation at any time
  • To receive $200 bonus: Set-up direct deposit within 60 days of account opening. Direct deposit must be an electronic deposit of your paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security) from your employer or the government. After receiving your first direct deposit, Level One Bank will deposit $200 into your account 61 days after account opening.
  • To receive additional $100 bonus: Use your debit card to complete at least 15 transactions and complete two bill payments through online banking, all within 60 days of account opening. ATM transactions cannot be used towards 15 debit card transactions. After criteria is met, Level One Bank will deposit an additional $100 into your account 61 days after account opening.
  • All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

There are four accounts that are eligible for this bonus, the easiest one to keep fee free is the My Checking account that has a $2 fee (waived with eStatements). Although it doesn’t earn $0.1 per debit card transaction or have any of the other benefits the other accounts have. I wasn’t able to see any early account termination fee in their fee schedule.

Our Verdict

Nice big bonus and it’s not too hard to meet the bonus requirements. This post will give you some easy ideas on how to meet the minimum debit card transaction requirement. We’re going to add this to our best bank bonus page, make sure you share any experiences and data points you have in the comments below.

Big thanks to reader, Taylor who let us know. Please consider sharing bank bonuses with this site so we can make it even better.

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
    William Charles
  • On September 5, 2016, 14:00

View Comments (27)

  • Used paypal and venmo to trigger DD bonus. showed up as "transfer" in level one account statement but still triggered it.

  • MAKE SURE CHEX SYSTEMS IS 100% CORRECT OR YOU WILL BE DENIED.

    This bank is SUPER sensitive to Chex Systems. Both my husband and I have lived within the area the bank services for the past 4 years. He has not opened 1 account in that time, while I open one with each new promotion. We own our house, have an equity line on it we've been paying down, have two cars (one fully paid off, the other on payments).. We've both been denied. Here's the reasons:

    CO - Asset Ownership History
    CC - Unique DDA Inquiry Activity
    CF - Time at Current Address
    CI - Non-Derogatory Public Record History
    01 - Inquiry/onfile current address conflict
    21 - Telephone # inconsistent with address
    19 - Current address reported by new trade only

  • Got all the way through this one, application was accepted. Got a call from Level One CSR next business day informing me I'd have to come in branch to complete account opening b/c "we need your signature in person." This was not related to anything particular about my application.

    Level One doesn't even have a branch in my county, although their promo was open to anyone who lives in my county and made no mention of needing to do anything in branch (in fact it is advertised as online only). When pushed on this, CSR could only say "you only completed an application, you did not complete an account opening" and gave me to understand I was SOL.

    I've got no way to get to one of their branches after they encouraged me to apply, so I guess this was a complete waste of time.

  • Just a heads up (this may vary): in order to complete the account set up I've been told that I'll have to visit a local branch

    • Nit, what did the email say specifically about the ChexSystems inquiries? Nice of them to specify, banks usually don't do so beyond referring ChexSystems as reason.

      Do you know how many of your 15 inquires are in the last 3-6-12 months?

      • mine is the same as Nit's below, except that it doesn't mention the 15 inquiries.

        So I'm confused why I wasn't approved.

        I'm waiting for my chex report

    • I too was denied, but I couldn't quite understand why I was denied. How did you know it was due to 15 inquries in Chex?

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