[Expired] [Update](Public Offer) SoFi Money: $75 For Direct Deposit

Update 11/3/20: End date now December 31, 2020.

Update 9/27/20: The link states the end date for “enrollment” is 10/31/2020 and the end date for “qualifying” is 11/30/2020.

Update 8/15/20: The $125 bonus is now dead. The $75 direct deposit bonus is still valid until 9/30/20. You can also try to confirm that the $125 bonus is alive by contacting chat.

Update 8/14/20: Today is the last day for the offer. Just keep in mind it’s not showing on the offer page any longer (see update below). I’d recommend getting SoFi to confirm it before signing up. This page still shows the 8/14 end date.

Update 8/12/20: The link now stopped showing the offer (it’s supposed to be valid through August 14th). Multiple readers have confirmed with SoFi that the deal is, in fact, still valid. So I guess you’re supposed to just open the account without any special offer page, meet the conditions, and hope for the best? Maybe try getting written confirmation from SoFi in case of issue in the future.

Offer at a glance

  • Maximum bonus amount: $200
  • Availability: Nationwide
  • Direct deposit required: Yes (for max bonus), $500+
  • Additional requirements: None
  • Hard/soft pull: Soft
  • Credit card funding: None
  • Monthly fees: None
  • Early account termination fee: ?
  • Household limit: None listed
  • Expiration date: August 14, 2020

The Offer

Direct Link to offer

  • SoFi Money is offering a $200 sign up bonus for new members, broken down as follows:
    • $125 for opening an account and depositing $100
    • Additional $75 for setting up direct deposit of $500+, or for depositing your stimulus check

The Fine Print

  • To receive the bonus offer, participants must first apply and successfully open a SoFi Money cash management account.
  • To receive the promotional balance, deposit(s) of $100 or more must be made in the new account by the new SoFi Money member; additionally, the $100 minimum balance needs to stay in the new member’s account for 90 days in order for the new member to qualify for a $125 bonus. Within 3 business days of such a deposit, qualifying participants will receive a $125 deposit into their SoFi Money account. This offer is limited to one per account.
  • This is a limited time offer that will expire on 8/14/2020 at 5pm ET. SoFi reserves the right to expire the offer at any time.
  • The deposit of $100 or more must be made into the new account prior to offer expiry.
  • Participants must comply with the SoFi Money terms of use. Any fraudulent or returned funding will result in disqualification.
  • Bonus amounts of $600 or greater in a single calendar year may be reported to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as miscellaneous income to the recipient on Form 1099-MISC in the year received by applicable law. Recipient is responsible for any applicable federal, state or local taxes associated with receiving the bonus offer, consult your tax advisor to determine applicable tax consequences. SoFi reserves the right to change or terminate the offer at any time or without notice.

Our Verdict

This is a terrific deal: it’s an easy $125 bonus, and not-too-difficult additional $75. Until now people were doing the $50 referral sign up bonus + $75 direct deposit bonus for $125; this new deal is much better. (I suppose if you are in 2-player mode, it’s just an extra $25, but for others it’s an extra $75.)

Interestingly, this time they made a new allowance of stimulus check deposit to count for direct deposit which theoretically could help a lot of people. It won’t help for those who get their stimulus via direct deposit, though. It seems likely that if you can somehow change your stimulus direct deposit to go to the SoFi account that could work as a direct deposit/stimulus option.

Also interesting, they consider the sign up bonus as 1099-MISC, instead of 1099-INT like other banks, and thus they’ll only report it if you end up with over $600 (meaning, if you don’t have any other bonuses, this $200 won’t be reported). You still need to self-report, but interesting that they do this differently from most other banks.

On a related note, there’s a deal for existing SoFi customers who never had a direct deposit to get $75.

Hat tip to reader Feb
    Chuck
  • On August 15, 2020, 19:49
Tags: sofisofi money

View Comments (627)

  • Now offering $200 (20000SB) on Swagbucks, and up to $300 on the site. The $300 depends on depositing 5K within the first 90 days, or $50 for depositing between 1-4.99K

    I expect the best deal will be an employer direct deposit of at least 400, and ongoing deposits up to 5K, allowing both the $200 from SB, and the $300 from Sofi itself.

    Note that Sofi will push to connect other accounts and make deposits right away, but the SB deal depends on the initial DD from an employer to be the FIRST deposit on the account.

  • Got an $50 bonus offer for Samsung Money by SoFi with $500 DD by 3/31. Not sure what would be counted as DD for SM by SoFi, any suggestions?

  • Same as others-

    Received 1099-INT in the mail yesterday which I wasn't expecting, and even then it was only for 175+a little interest... Which was a bummer because I viewed the "under 600 won't be reported" as a positive lol of the deal, lol.

    Sure enough yesterday evening received the email about a corrected 1099-INT online.

    Based in their email I didn't get the idea they're mailing out corrections to us? Might be worth a PSA to have people check their 1099-INT online instead of the one mailed 🤷🏾‍♂️

  • They sent out an email informing us about corrected 1099.

    "We’ve updated your 1099-INT tax form to include a SoFi Money direct deposit bonus that was previously not included. Please make sure that you use the updated form when filing your 2020 taxes. "

    The $75 that was missing is appearing on the 1099-Int now.

    Sam Y.

    • Ironically, they have not yet issued a 1099-INT for my money account nor for my wife's. Per tax regulations they indeed should be issuing one, but when I called them, they just said they'd look into it.

  • Same data point as @guest_1138002 where P1 and P2 got both bonuses ($125+$75) but each of us only got 1099-INT reporting $125 plus a few cents for interest.

    • Sofi sent me an email about a corrected 1099-INT which included everything this time just as the others have said.

  • Note that the comments about SoFi creating 1099-MISC statements may no longer be accurate. I did the $200 ($125 + $75) bonus last year for P2 and myself and just received 1099-INT statements today for the $125 bonus for each of us plus the tiny amount of interest that accrued.

    Not sure why they only reported the $125 bonuses and not the $75 ones.

  • 8/8/20 - Opened cash management account
    8/8/20 - Set up $105 ACH deposit
    10/8/20 - $105 deposited into account
    12/8/20 - $125 bonus posted (labeled 'marketing credit')
    * Held $100 min balance in account for 90 days from bonus posting.

  • "payroll" from Chase biz account (ACH services) worked for satisfying DD requirement. $75 bonus posted immediately. FYI - This service costs $25 a month. Cheaper alternative is similar service from WF biz account which costs $10 a month.

    • Does it need to show "Payroll" under Description column and did you did you deposit exactly 500 or some odd number? From what I understand, if it worked then the bonus is posted immediately, I used WF Biz service which usually works and shows as BizEdp deposit but Did Not Work for this one - it shows my business name under description and under Type column it shows as Deposit and when I click on it under details it shows Merchant - "my business name Deposit" and then ACH ID and transaction ID. Can you please tell what it shows in your details when you click on the link and also if the term "Payroll" needs to show under description? Thanks!

      • Update - Got the bonus after calling, rep asked me the employer name (which was already in the transaction description) and then said that she knew why it did not credit and the deposit should have as a DD from employer but it only says it is from an employer (didn't make any sense - asked her what specific way it should have coded and she repeated the same thing and) that she was going to ask the other department to pay the bonus.

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