Update 3/13/25: Now live in MA as well. Hat tip to reader Peek
Promo doesn’t go live until tomorrow
Update 9/29/24: Extended through December 31, 2024. Maximum bonus is now $1,000 but the $1,000 bonus now requires a $100,000 average balance instead of $30,000. The $400 bonus was $200.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $500
- Availability: AL, CA, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MO, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, VA, WI and WV
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: $12-$50
- Early account termination fee: $25, six months
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date:
September 30th, 2020 March 31, 2021September 30, 2021
Contents
The Offer
- PNC is offering a bonus of up to $400/$1,000 when you open a business checking account. Bonuses are as follows:
- Earn $400 with a business checking account when you complete the following requirements:
- Maintain the minimum average cycle balance of $2,000 for each of the first 3 statement cycles
- Make at least 20 total qualifying PNC Bank Visa® Debit Card transactions and/or PNC Bank Mobile Check Deposits[3] within the first three statement cycles
- Earn $1,000 when you open a Treasury Enterprise Plan or Analysis Business Checking and maintain a minimum average cycle balance of $100,000 for each of the first three statement cycles
- Earn $400 with a business checking account when you complete the following requirements:
The Fine Print
$200 bonus:
- You may earn a $200 reward if you open a new PNC Business Checking or PNC Business Checking Plus account.
- To qualify for the reward, the new checking account must be opened between July 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020, and the following conditions must be met: (a) average cycle balance of $5,000 must be maintained in your new checking account for each of the first three statement cycles; and (b) at least 20 total qualifying PNC Visa® Business Debit Card transactions must be made within the first three statement cycles. Your new checking account must be open in order for you to receive the reward, which will be credited to the eligible account within 90 days after all conditions have been met and will be identified as “Credits NEW BUS BONUS” on your monthly statement.
- Only business checking accounts with statements that cycle monthly are eligible for this offer. Business checking accounts that receive statements daily, weekly or quarterly are ineligible.
- Already established, converted or repurposed PNC checking or savings accounts are not eligible.
- Average cycle balance is defined as the average total within your business checking account at the end of your statement cycle. A qualifying debit card transaction is defined as any debit card purchase made at point of sale using your signature or PIN; or a purchase made electronically or online using your debit card number, including recurring payments. Any combination of qualifying PNC Visa® Business Debit Card transactions is acceptable but must equal 20 within the first three statement cycles.
- New account will not be eligible for offer if any signer has signing authority on an existing PNC Bank business checking account or has closed an account within the past 90 days, or has been paid a promotional premium in the past 12 months. If multiple accounts are opened with the same signers, only one account will be eligible for the premium. For this offer, signing authority will be defined by the customer name(s) and Social Security number(s) registered on the account.
- Offer may be extended, modified or discontinued at any time. The value of the reward may be reported on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1099, and may be considered taxable income to you.
$500 bonus:
- You may earn a $500 reward if you open a new PNC Treasury Enterprise Plan or Analysis Business Checking account.
- To qualify for the reward, the new checking account must be opened between July 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020, and the following condition must be met: average cycle balance of $30,000 must be maintained in your new checking account for each of the first three statement cycles.
- Your new checking account must be open in order for you to receive the reward, which will be credited to the eligible account within 90 days after all conditions have been met and will be identified as “Credits NEW BUS BONUS” on your monthly statement.
- Only business checking accounts with statements that cycle monthly are eligible for this offer. Business checking accounts that receive statements daily, weekly or quarterly are ineligible. Already established, converted or repurposed PNC checking or savings accounts are not eligible. Average cycle balance is defined as the average total within your business checking account at the end of your statement cycle.
- New account will not be eligible for offer if any signer has signing authority on an existing PNC Bank business checking account or has closed an account within the past 90 days, or has been paid a promotional premium in the past 12 months. If multiple accounts are opened with the same signers, only one account will be eligible for the premium. For this offer, signing authority will be defined by the customer name(s) and Social Security number(s) registered on the account.
- Offer may be extended, modified or discontinued at any time. The value of the reward may be reported on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 1099, and may be considered taxable income to you.
Avoiding Fees
Business Checking ($400 Bonus)
This account has a monthly fee of $12 and is waived if you do ONE of the following:
- Make $1,000 in business credit card purchases with a linked PNC credit card
- Maintain an average minimum monthly collected balance of $500
Treasury Enterprise Plan ($1,000 Bonus)
This account has a monthly fee of $50. This is waived when you maintain $30,000 Average Combined Monthly Collected Balance in the master and all additional beneficiary business checking accounts
Early Account Termination Fee
There is a $25 early account termination fee if the account is closed within the first six months. None
Our Verdict
The standard bonus is $200, the best bonus we’ve seen was $400 and that only required a deposit of $10,000 to trigger. I’m not sure if we will see that offer again, but it’s significantly better than the $500 bonus. I’ll still add these bonuses to the best bank bonus page but it might be better to wait for a possible return of that $400 offer.
Hat tip to reader Rob
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
Post history:
- Extended through September 30, 2024
- Extended through 30 June ‘24
- Update 1/2/24: Extended until March 31, 2024
- Update 10/3/23: Extended until 12/31/23
- Update 6/29/23: Extended until September 30, 2023
- Update 4/17/23: Extended through 6/30/2023.
- Update 1/12/23: Extended through March 31, 2023.
- Update 10/19/22: Extended through December 31, 2022.
- Update 10/8/22: Extended through 12/31/2022.
- Update 7/4/22: Extended through September 30, 2022.
- Update 4/2/22: Extended through 6/30/22
- Update 1/4/22: Extended through 3/31/22
- Update 10/4/21: Extended through 12/31/21
- Update 4/12/21: Extended until June 30, 2021.
- Update 1/2/2021: Extended until March 31, 2021.
- Update 10/11/20: extended until December 31, 2020.
Sole Proprietor in TX, I applied online and didn’t get instant approval. Today I went to a branch and was asked for green card and DBA certificate. Then successfully opened the biz account
Sole Proprietor, approved instantly with no documentation. Not in one of the states listed under “Availability.” However, there are PNC branch locations nearby (Tennessee).
Warning! This is a scam.
The application link allows you to fill out the form but never provides a promotion code. After completing the requirements— depositing $20K or more into the account for at least 75 days—you won’t receive the promised $1K. If you contact the bank, they’ll tell you they can’t find any promotion linked to your account, and they refuse to honor the bonus.
You mean $30k for 3 statement cycles, right…?
Regarding this verbiage:
“New account will not be eligible for offer if any signer has signing authority on an existing PNC Bank business checking account or has closed an account within the past 90 days, or has been paid a promotional premium in the past 12 months. If multiple accounts are opened with the same signers, only one account will be eligible for the premium. For this offer, signing authority will be defined by the customer name(s) and Social Security number(s) registered on the account.”
Is this promotional premium specifically referring to business checking account or would this include consumer checking accounts as well?
Can anyone please share the email address you should send the business documents that PNC requires? My PC shut down suddenly and now my browser won’t restore the last page with the email address. TIA.
[email protected]
Another round of payouts went out today.
DP:
12/20 opened and funded 2.25k same day by pushing to existing personal checking and transferring into biz
Jan/Feb met debit spend with a mix of in-store purchases and Paypal billpay/balance/savings funding
3/7 withdrew down to $500
3/19 $400 bonus pending
I am scheduled for an hour virtual appointment with a banker to open the account. I previously had a business account in the past that I closed after receiving a bonus.
I was asked to schedule a 1.5 hr meeting, don’t know why it was such a hassle to open an an account so I just declined.
Were you trying to open Treasury Enterprise accounts?
JasonJ
Ann
Yes I think it might not worth my time and effort, factor in you have to park the $30k there 3 month w/o interest. I’d go with Chase biz account in stead.
The standard checking account for $400 bonus. I previously had business checking accounts that I churned.
Is my understanding correct that for the Treasury Enterprise Plan, this is the optimal approach?:
1. Keep $30k in the account for basically three months
2. Pull the $30k
3. Incur at most $150 in monthly fees for 90 more days while you wait for bonus (I calculated this is better than 90 days of the money continuing to not gain interest in a 4.5% interest rate account)
4. Pull the $1000 bonus minus the $150 and close the account to not continue accruing fees
Factor in the interest you lost I am not sure if it’s worth to open this account.
I am debating between opening Business Checking for $400 bonus and opening Treasury Enterprise Plan for $1000 bonus. And I was wondering if meeting the requirements for a $1000 bonus would be as simple as you describe above.
I just opted for the $400 dollar bonus. Much less cash tied up and less lost interest if they decided to not pay. The $1000 bonus is actually more like $650 by my calculations with lost interest and potential fees.
Yeah, I got that too if you pull it right after 3 months. But then you gotta subtract another potential $150 from that for fees if they delay the bonus deposit. So closer to $500 then.
I got this email after forwarding business documents.
The review of your business documentation is complete.
Within the next 24-48 business hours, you will receive an email from PNC requesting to schedule a Microsoft Teams meeting to finalize your account opening.
At that time, the business banker will review the financial needs of your business and recommend the appropriate solutions.
I was turned down for a personal checking account in 2019, presumably because of Chex. I have a personal credit card with them that was converted from the BBVA NBA card and not really used since then. Is any of this relevant to my applying for this bonus?