[Expired] [NJ, NY & PA] Ocean First Bank $300 Checking Account Bonus

This offer has expired and is no longer valid. Click here for the best new checking bonuses.

Offer has returned with a new promo code: 300FALL17. Hat tip to reader William B.

Offer at a glance

  • Maximum bonus amount: $300
  • Availability: New Jersey, New York & Pennsylvania
  • Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum specified. Needs to post to your account twice and must be maintained for one year.
  • Additional requirements: 30 debit card transactions
  • Hard/soft pull: soft
  • Credit card funding: yes limited to $100 now
  • Monthly fees: Waive-able
  • Early account termination fee: Account must remain open for a year
  • Expiration date: Unknown

The Offer

Direct link to offer

Whatever option you choose, make sure you use the promotional code 300FALL17

Option #1

  • OceanFirst Bank are offering a sign up bonus of up to $300 on their checking account, broken down as follows:
    • Open a new Simply Great Checking account with a Visa CheckCard and get $50
    • Set up direct deposit within 75 days and get another $50 (needs to post to your account twice and needs to be maintained for one year)
    • Swipe your Visa CheckCard for signature or online transactions 30 times within the first 75 days and receive another $200 [Read: How To Meet Minimum Debit & Credit Transaction Requirements]

Option #2

  • Open a Totally Free Checking account or an A+ Student Checking account along with a free debit card and receive $50 immediately
  • Set up a direct deposit within 75-days and receive another $50
  • Swipe your debit card for signature or online transactions 30 times in the first 75 days the account is open and you will get a bonus of 20,000 Uchoose Rewards points which is worth around $160 in gift cards, such as Amazon, Target or Walmart gift cards (must register for the Uchoose Rewards program)

The Fine Print

  • Offer available for first-time checking customers as of 10/16/17 for a limited time and subject to change at any time
  • Initial $50 Cash bonus paid at time of opening and only available to new OceanFirst Simply Great checking account customers who take and use a new OceanFirst Visa® Check Card. An additional $50 cash bonus will automatically be deposited into your account after 75 days only after setting up a direct deposit that has posted twice to your account.
  • Direct deposit must be maintained for one year or the bonus will be forfeited
  • The remaining $200 will be automatically deposited into your account after 75 days and only after swiping the new CheckCard 30 times, for signature or online transactions, within the first 75 days of account opening.
  • A different offer is available to new OceanFirst A+ Student Checking, Classic or Totally Free Checking customers who open and use a new OceanFirst Visa CheckCard. $50 is deposited when you open a new A+ Student Checking Account, Classic or Totally Free Checking account and an OceanFirst Visa CheckCard; an additional $50 cash bonus will automatically be deposited into your account after 75 days only after setting up a direct deposit that has posted to your account. 20,000 UChoose Rewards® points will be automatically credited to the customer’s UChoose Rewards account after 75 days and only after swiping the new CheckCard 30 times, for signature or online transactions, within the first 75 days of account opening.

Avoiding Fees

  • Simply Great Checking account comes with a $7.95 monthly maintenance fee. Fee is waived with a daily minimum balance of $5000. Fine print says it’s waived first year.
  • Classic Checking comes with a $5.95 monthly maintenance fee. Fee is waived with a daily minimum balance of $1000.
  • Totally Free Checking and Student Checking accounts don’t come with monthly fees.

Note that there is a stated $5 monthly inactivity fee.

Geographic Availability

This offer only works online for residents of Ocean County, Monmouth County, Middlesex County and Mercer County. In the past, other NJ residents were able to apply in a branch and get the offer.

Our Verdict

Very good bonus here for those in the area. Even if you aren’t in the above-mentioned counties, it could be worth driving into the closest branch and taking part in this offer. Before driving in, it’s worth verifying that they’ll let you open an account in-branch with the bonus; it has worked in the past.

Here’s how to go about this offer:

  1. Open the Simply Great checking account and fund it with $2,500 (or whatever the max is) with a credit card; add another $2,500 in the account for a year to keep it fee-free (leave a little more so that you have funds there for the debit card requirement)
    1. Alternatively, open the Totally Free Checking account to get the 20,000 points offer instead of the $200; 20k points is worth around $160 in gift cards, so you’ll lose a little there but you won’t have to tie up the $1k for a year to keep it fee-free
  2. Set up a direct deposit; keep in mind you need two direct deposits and this must be maintained for one year so might make more sense to just ignore this part of the bonus
  3. Buy 30 $.50 Amazon gift cards (slowly), or use other options to meet the debit card requirement
  4. After a year, can close the account or you can downgrade it to a fee-free version so that you don’t need to leave any money in it to keep it fee-free

We will be adding this to our list of the best bank account bonuses found here. This offer has been around before, so you can read people’s experiences here.

Hat tip to reader Jack

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
    William Charles
  • On October 15, 2017, 20:08

View Comments (124)

  • UGH - holding onto this account for the year that's required and realizing it's a fee machine. Can't push money back to Ally because that incurs a $5 fee, and Ally doesn't recognize the bank's routing number as valid so I can't pull it from there either.

  • A heads up: I went with Option #2 above (the 20,000 UChoose points instead of the cash bonus), and I just noticed that my points finally posted. Not sure when they did - either today, yesterday or the day before. The site isn't great about showing when things happened. I finished the debit card requirements on December 18.

    • Additional data points: I used Amazon reloads to trigger the bonus and I live in New York City (Manhattan).

        • Also got the extra $250 bonus today. Did mostly Amazon reloads with some organic spend. Finished debit card transactions on Dec 4.

  • Just noting that I just checked my account, and beyond the initial $50, I've received exactly nothing. Did this happen to anyone else? I'm both doing real employer DD (never stopped in fact), and I completed what I thought were the 30 transactions... in the month of October. The 1099-INT they sent me for last year, noted only the $50, and Uchoose listed only 30 points for me, i.e., I guess one regular point plus check card transaction.

    • Tomorrow will be exactly 75 days since I opened my account. I've completed the DD and the 30 debit card transactions. Only received the $50 initial bonus so far. When did you open your account?

          • Do you need to actually do the DD as well to get the bonus? I didn't feel like doing the DD, so I just wanted to do the 30 debit card transactions (which I did on Amazon).

            I'm also in the same boat as you, Flea... opened account on 10/20, finished 30 debit transactions on 1/2, no bonus received.

          • Chris,

            I am in the same both as well. Still waiting for the $200 bonus. Didn't do direct deposit. 75 days from account opening was about a week ago. Did amazon reloads

            Not sure how long to wait before attempting contact.

          • Reporting back to say that I reached out by SM on the website (new option they seem to be offering). Got a lickety-split response from a human with boilerplate language stating that I need to contact the branch I opened my account in for assistance in obtaining the remaining bonuses. (I'm in Manhattan proper and opened online.) Not sure if I'm going to bother, or simply chalk it up to a relatively easy $50 and let it go.

          • I received my $200 several days ago. I called in after waiting 3 months. They reviewed my account and asked me some normal questions about some of my deposits and withdrawals and then said the $200 would be sent manually. They did not say why it didn't come automatically but I wonder if it had to do with me not meeting the direct deposit requirement. I received $50 for signing up and $200 for my 60+ debits (I think only 30 was required) but I didn't fulfill the terms for that other $50 and maybe that needed to be triggered to get the $200 automatically? I don't know. Good luck.

          • I also did the 30+ debit transactions via Amazon GC reload, but no direct deposit. I opened my account on 12/1/2017 and I have not received the 200 bonus yet. I will update this thread if I receive the bonus. I am going to wait a little bit longer to see if it shows up.

  • How have people closed their account. I see no SM option on the website and I hate calling. Am I just missing it?

    1 Year for me is on 11/30/17.

  • Is this offer online only or can it also be done in branch? It's not allowing me to apply online as a non US citizen.

  • FYI, I was charged the $7.95 monthly fee despite the fine print which says such a fee will not be charged for the first year. Fortunately, a quick email resolved the situation and I was refunded the fee, and assured this will not happen again. However, everyone who took advantage of this offer may wish to check their account regularly to ensure they are not also charged this fee.

  • I am in NJ but nowhere near the targeted counties. Successfully opened account online. Will see if bonus posts.

  • I think I may have found a way to get an extra $10 by opening a savings account.

    When I opened my checking account, I was looking at the savings accounts, too, in order to get an extra $100 in credit card funding. When I clicked on the SaveFirst Statement Savings account on the account opening page, it says:

    "SaveFirst Statement Savings
    The ideal way to save automatically when using your OceanFirst Visa Check Card.
    - $1 transferred from your OceanFirst checking account with each purchase made with your OceanFirst Check Card
    - Low $10 account opening balance requirement
    - $10 bonus when establishing account
    - Competitive interest rate"

    From what I can tell, there aren't any fees for this account. Someone please let me know if I'm wrong!
    Hope this helps!

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