Deal has ended, view more bank account bonuses by clicking here.
Update 8/25/24: Deal is back through 8/31/24, now for $290 instead of $250. Hat tip to reader TonyBank
Update 3/1/23: Extended until October 31, 2023.
Update 2/25/23: Deal available again
Update 10/17/21: Bonus is back and extended until 12/31/21.
Update 4/12/20: Checking bonus has been increased to $250, but money market bonus is not available. Also states Any person with more than 5 ChexSystems inquiries will not qualify for this promotion. Hat tip to reader Samuel
Update 10/21/19: Deal is back and valid until December 31st, 2019. Hat tip to reader EW
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount:Â $200
- Availability:Â
Seems to be in branch only, most branches are in MN but there is one in IA as well [Branch locations]Can be opened online now - Direct deposit required:Â Yes, no minimum specified
- Additional requirements:Â See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems:Â Unknown (sensitive, terms say that anybody with more than 5 ChexSystems inquiries will not qualify)
- Credit card funding:Â Unknown
- Monthly fees:Â None
- Early account termination fee:Â Unknown
- Household limit:Â None listed
- Expiration date:Â
Qualifications must be met by June 30th, 2019 June 30th, 2020August 31st, 2020September 30th, 2020December 31, 2020
Contents
The Offer
- Home Federal Savings Bank is offering a bonus of up to $250. Bonus is broken down as follows:
- $200 when you open a new account with a direct deposit of $500+
- $25 when you add a debit card to your account
- $25 when you enroll in eStatements and online banking
The Fine Print
- New account owners must not have been a Home Federal checking account client in the last 12 months.
- Checking account minimum opening balance is $25.
- $100 reward will be credited to the account within 60 days of meeting the direct deposit qualification.
- Qualifications must be met by 06/30/19 (direct deposit must clear by 08/31/2019).
- CardValet requires the Debit Card be activated.
- Clients with existing active online banking will qualify for the $50 reward
- Reward will be reported as interest on IRS Form 1099-INT.
- A $75 early closing fee will be charged by the bank if the account closes within the first 6 months.
- This offer is subject to change and may be withdrawn without notice.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
Advantage Checking – None
The advantage checking account has no monthly fees to worry about.
Money Market Account – $25
This account has a $25 monthly fee, this is waived with a $10,000 minimum balance.
Early Account Termination Fee
There is an early account termination fee of $75 if the account is closed within 6 months
Our Verdict
Previous best deal was $200, requirements are exactly the same but everything has been doubled. We still need to know if this is a soft or hard pull, if it’s a soft pull then I definitely think it’s worth doing. The money market bonus is a bit difficult because you need to keep the $10,000 deposited to avoid the monthly fee/early account termination fee.
Big thanks to reader, TJ who let us know. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.
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
Admins, could you remove this from “Best Bank Bonuses,” since it’s expired? Thanks a lot!
What county is everyone selecting? I live in the state of Iowa, but my county is not listed.
In the fine print “Any person with more than 5 ChexSystems inquiries will not qualify for this promotion”
honestly, it’s nice that they just give a limit explicitly instead of making us guess
These guys are chex sensitive just an fyi.
Denied due to Chex. Stated as “Account Abuse”.
Currently at 8/24.
Deal is back through 8-31-24, $290 for doing the same 3 requirements. Still has the 5 Chex inquiry limit so I’m not going to bother trying it myself.
Here is how this one went for me:
March 6th: Opened Account
March 24th: Direct Deposit of paycheck of $900
May 24th: Qualification period passed, no bonus deposited
May 31st: Reached out to Customer Service via internal banking website support
June 2nd: Still hadnt received a reply from their customer service department at all. They still hadnt posted the bonus (now over a week late) and were ignorning my customer service requests. Submitted a CFPB complaint.
June 20th: CFPB referred the complaint to Office of the Comptroller
June 29th: Bonus shows up in my account with still no contact from the Bank themselves.
Took a bit of extra work and had to submit a complaint to get them to honor their own terms, so wouldnt recommend this bank (even for normal banking purposes).
What was your Chex when you applied? Was it over 5?
any recent dps for OOS in 2023?
FYI, even though you are able to open account online, during the application process it states you need to live or work in the listed counties, so OOS applications wont work.
new deadline is October 31, 2023
Man, I’m surprised these guys don’t balance the books with an abacus still. Had to call a specific person back to get the account owner verbally verified for setup – not amused that they then played the out-of-office game by returning a call on 4:29 on a Thursday and then being out of the office that Friday. Took until Wednesday of the following week after corresponding with another banker that there was still interest in opening an account. Lo and behold that Wednesday is before the day before Thanksgiving and at 4:15 pm the account was set up. Not fully though, as they needed to verify funding bank account with 2 small deposits that who knows when they’ll send and can be almost certain nothing will be done with the account on a Black Friday.
This good ol’ banker attitude in 2021 is pathetic. What a joke.