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Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $100
- Availability: Oklahoma & Texas only
- Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum specified
- Additional requirements:Â eStatements & 10 debit card transactions
- Hard/soft pull: SoftÂ
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: Yes, up to $200. Visa, Mastercard & Discover accepted.
- Monthly fees: Avoidable
- Early account termination fee:Â $10, 60 days
- Household limit: One every two years
- Expiration date:Â May 11th, 2017
The Offer
- First United Bank is offering a checking bonus of $100 when you use the promo code WiseChecking and complete the following requirements:
- Set up direct deposit
- Use your debit card more than 10 times
- Sign up for eStatements
- Contact bank within 60 days of completing activities
The Fine Print
- $100 minimum opening deposit required.
- $100 bonus is for setting up direct deposit, using your debit card more than 10 times and signing up for e-statements.
- Bonus will be credited to the checking account within 10 business days of bank notification that activities have been completed.
- Bonus is subject to 1099-INT reporting.
- Customer must contact the bank within 60 days of completing activities.
- Limit 1 bonus per household every 2 years. Subject to change without notice.
- First United employees and immediate family members are not eligible.
- Offer expires May 11, 2017.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
This account comes with a $3.5 fee that is waived if you do any of the following:
- Sign up for eStatements OR
- Set up direct deposit on the account OR
- Have $10,000 total combined deposit balance
I wasn’t able to find a fee schedule so I’m unsure if any early account termination fee is charged or not. Update: According to this comment it is $10 if closed within 60 days.
Our Verdict
Hard to comment on this bonus when we know nothing about the bank at all. If anybody goes for it then please share your data points in the comments below. Otherwise you can browse what we think are the best checking bonuses by clicking here.
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I used Fidelity to source the DD, made 10 smallish purchases of various amounts with the Debit card (both PIN and PINless). I contacted a service rep via online chat who immediately verified I was qualified, and I saw the bonus show up about 10 days later.
This is in regards to the $100 sign up bonus.
Just received a mailer from First United today. Use my debit card 10 times in the month of July and get $8 in my account.
4/17 Opened
Shortly thereafter enrolled in E-Statements
6/21 10th Debit Purchase
6/22 Direct Deposit arrived (KickFurther – embarrassing)
6/22 eChat confirmation that the bonus would arrive within a week
When you eChatted with the bank, did they ask about the DD source?
No, no questions. Very easy exchange.
Bonus received – posted 6/29
I chatted with an agent and they confirmed this has ended and there are no current promotions at this bank right now.
Couple of questions.
1. Is the offer still there as the link is working but the end date is mentioned as May 11?
2. For debit card transactions do you need to use it as debit or using card as credit (e.g. Amazon reloads count?
4/16 open account
4/18 debit x 10
4/21 dd
5/3 bonus posted
thanks!
What source did you use for your direct deposit?
Same question: What did you do for a qualifying DD?
Since they require a phone call within 60 days of meeting the requirements, I use the direct deposit from my employer.
Did the rep you spoke to ask for paystubs to verify the source of your direct deposit, or did they ask any specific questions about it?
Nope, the rep just checked the debit purchases, made sure the direct deposit posted, and reminded me about the e-statement.
No specific questions, no verification requests.
Tried CIP w/ $20 CA, success, although they only auth for $1, and give it back as an auth, too (as “-$1.00”) — never quite seen it before!
it appears that both Checking and Savings are limited to $500 max each, but the credit card overall is limited to 200, so, I went a step or two back and removed the free Savings to avoid clutter.
Also, it appears that they let you put spaces within CC, yet then report that the number is invalid. Quite annoying. As mentioned before, no HP. Can confirm that no pull, although the account is just Pending.
BTW, they also let you upload ID in the end, on the pending page, but note that it’s optional.
Hi cm,
What did you use for a DD? Was the DD successful for triggering the bonus?
Any ideas on what qualifies as DD?
I prefer to have more info on what counts as DD before applying.
When we have datapoints, we will add them. That being said, somebody always has to be first.
As already confirmed, no hard pull,
the above mentioned CSR confirmed as a purchase,
still deciding what to test for DD (also trying to figure out what makes most sense from the DPs on CCCU and BMO Harris).
SUPER easy to open. Less than 10 minutes of my time, so far.
Thanks for the info
I agree with you about needing DPs.
One thing unusual with this bank is they require a phone call within 60 days of meeting the requirements. So it appears that they manually verify that the requirements have been met.
According to the fee schedule, there’s a $10 fee for accounts closed within 60 days.
And according to the representative, there’s only a soft-pull.
They’ve confirmed on twitter that there is no credit check.
https://twitter.com/FirstUnitedBank/status/853989274450087940
Also, remember to keep at least cents inside the account, or it will be closed after 5 days.
My account is pending as well.
Charged $200 to Citi AA, $1 pending charge says MORTGAGE COMPANIES-FINANCIAL INSTITUTION.
No idea if hard or soft pull yet.
$200 came through as purchase today on Citi AA.
I’ll probably move my real direct deposit here since you have to call them after completing requirements. I even have a branch near my house.
Thanks, added DP. Any idea if hard/soft pull?