According to this comment, this offer has not been extended and has now expired. You can view the best current offers by clicking here.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $250
- Availability: 15205 West Sunset Blvd., Pacific Palisades, CA
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: $5+ avoidable
- Early account termination fee: Unknown
- Household limit: Unknown
- Expiration date: May 31st, 2017
The Offer
- Open a new checking account at Union Bank’s Pacific Palisades branch and get a bonus of $250 when you complete the following requirements:
- Maintain an average balance of $1,000 for 90 days
- Perform 5 transactions (debit, credits or deposit)
The Fine Print
- Cannot be combined with any other offer
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Easiest account to keep fee free is the Business Basics checking account, this has a $5 fee with paperless statements and $7 with paper statements. This fee is waived if you do any of the following:
- Average daily balance of $1,000+
- Monthly checking average balance of $3,000
- Monthly average balance of linked business and personal accounts
Our Verdict
They also have a $200 personal checking bonus that’s available at the same branch, you shouldn’t actually need the flyer for either of these bonuses. The fine print says you cannot combine bonuses, but you should be able to do both the personal & business bonuses at the same time. Obviously only a good deal if you don’t live too far from a branch. We will add this to our list of the best business checking bonuses.
Big thanks to reader, Zachek 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
- 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
I was credited on August first for personal and a week later for business.
Has anyone been paid this bonus? I have not been paid. I signed up for the personal checking, business checking and the high yield money market account.
My understanding was that this bonus was to be paid at the end of July.
Would just like to add my DP here Will: I was also shut down by Union bank about a month ago after opening the checking and business checking accounts for these bonuses. The whole affair was bizarre. Got a call from the banker one day asking if I was satisfied with the accounts, I said yes and we chitchatted and that was that.
About 9 days later I was doing some Amazon reloads with the debit card and realized they had all been declined. Later that same day (coincidence), I received letter saying they were closing the accounts due to chexsystems. They also mentioned EWS but the wording was vague and it seemed like they were basing this decisions solely off Chex. I ordered my chex report online and called EWS to order that report too. I had just ordered the FCRA and accurint report from LN so I was eager to see these as well. When I called the “deposit fraud” department the guy was pretty blunt, borderline rude, which I thought was just precious. Csr’s can act like jerks when they know you’re no longer a customer.
He informed me they had closed the accounts because I had opened a CapitalOne 360 checking account and OneWest account a few days after the biz account with Union. I said I was in the process of looking for a new bank because I was a longtime customer of Chase (true) that was dissatisfied with their fees (also true.) I asked if it was unreasonable if someone wants to try out a couple local branches (and one mostly online bank) before committing all their funds and he agreed that it wasn’t but that it was enough to trip their fraud prevention. I said “okay well untrip it, this wasn’t fraud,” and he said that the decision was irreversible. He said that I could probably try opening an account again some indeterminate time in the future and I very politely said yeah right, after this experience I am going to tell everyone I know to stay away from this asinine bank. The weird thing was, he said that the branch was notified the day the account was closed and the letter sent out. I asked why the banker wouldn’t have called me and spoke to me about this and then, checking back through my call log it turns out that was the same day the banker called to see how the account was going. Really weird. From the conversation with the rude csr I suppose had I express displeasure with the account on that call, it may have been reversible at that time. I didn’t bother try calling the branch back to fight it. Eff Union Bank.
If I’m allowed, I’ll cross-post what I said on the post about the corresponding personal checking bonus (https://www.doctorofcredit.com/pacific-palisades-ca-ymmv-union-bank-200-checking-bonus-direct-deposit-optional/#comment-402125):
Just opened a personal checking account in the branch for the bonus. The banker I dealt with was extremely suspicious and standoffish. She kept asking how I found out about this and if it was through a “bank bonus website”. I was successfully able to open the personal checking, though. But she refused to allow me to open a business checking account (for the other bonus) because my sole proprietorship is not a “real business” because it doesn’t have a “business name”. I explained that independent contractors and freelancers often don’t have a DBA, that their “business name” is always technically their name, and that doesn’t mean they’re not a business, but she insisted that that didn’t qualify as a business under their rules. This whole also took an incredibly long time. Don’t bother trying to open a business account – for the bonus or for real use.
In the past, I have been pleasantly surprised by a bank where I originally signed up just to get a bonus, and I continued doing business with them. This will not be one of those times. What an awful, time-consuming experience with a thoroughly unpleasant person. Can’t wait to close the account and GTFO.
BTW: The building only has valet parking in the back, but the bank validates, so it’s free.
Applied for previous business checking and personal checking bonuses. A week later when I received debit card I received notice of account closure due to Chexsystems. After following up with their fraud department, they questioned my same week opening of M&T and another credit union.
Don’t mind getting shut down but was surprised by the CSRs snarkiness questioning my motives for opening accounts and re-directing my simple questions about their criteria for account closures.
Most ironic is that due to their locations proximal to my work/home and great in branch experience I was planning on keeping this account for my business.
One can open without business docs but YMMV
Thanks, will add to our post.
Can I open a business checking without having a business? And if the fine print says you can’t combine bonuses, how can the same person open both personal and business accounts?
When they say can’t combine bonuses, they usually mean you can’t combine two bonuses for the same account. As these require different accounts they must be allowed. I don’t know what business docs they require if any, but you’ll need some sort of business to qualify.