[Expired]Publicly Available: Chase $500 Checking and Savings Bonus

The $500 checking and savings offers from Chase are typically targeted or available for purchase on eBay. There’s now a banner link that’s working to get this offer for anyone. We don’t know how long it will last. You don’t need to complete the offer right now, but go ahead and click the link and get the coupon now, so you’ll have it to use before November 15 when the coupon expires.

• Maximum bonus amount: $500 ($300 checking & $200 savings)
• Availability: Nationwide (must open account in branch)
• Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum. Click here to view what triggers this bonus.
• Additional requirements: None for checking; $15,000 balance for savings
• Hard/soft pull: Soft
• Credit card funding: Not available when opening in branch
• Monthly fees: $12, waivable
• Early account termination fee: Bonus taken back if closed within six months
• Expiration date: November 15, 2016

The Offer

Direct link to offer

The link will prompt you to sign into your Chase account and will then generate a unique coupon code. You need to print out the coupon and bring it into your local Chase branch to get this offer.

• Receive a bonus of $300 when you open a Chase Total checking account with $25 or more and have a direct deposit post to the account within 60 days
• Receive a bonus of $200 when you open a Chase savings account and deposit $15,000 or more in new money within 10 business days and maintain a balance of $15,000 for 90 days

The Fine Print

• Offer not available to existing Chase checking customers, or those who have had accounts closed in the last 90 days (or with a negative balance)
• You can receive only one new checking and one new savings account opening related bonus per calendar year and only one bonus per account
• Bonuses are considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT
• “Direct deposit must be paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security) from your employer or the government”
• Must open account in branch
• Bonuses will appear within 10 business days of meeting the requirements
• Interest rate on the Chase savings account is 0.01%

Avoiding Fees

Savings Account

The Chase Savings Account comes with a monthly service fee of $5. Monthly fee is waived with any of the following:

• Keep a minimum daily balance of $300 or more.
• Have at least one repeating automatic transfer from your Chase checking account of $25 or more. One time transfers do not qualify.
• Have a linked Chase Premier Plus Checking, Chase Premier Platinum Checking, or Chase Private Client Checking account.

Checking Account

The Chase Total Checking account comes with a monthly service fee of $10-$12 which is waived if complete any of the following:

• Have monthly direct deposits totaling $500 or more
• Keep a minimum daily balance of $1,500 or more in the checking account
• Keep an average daily balance of $5,000 or more in any combination of qualifying Chase checking, savings and other balances

Early Account Termination Fee

If you close either account within 6 months of account opening, you will forfeit the bonus.

Our Verdict

With these e-mail coupon bonuses, there is only a certain amount of them before they run out – if you’re thinking of doing this deal I’d recommend acting quickly to get the coupon. You’ll then have until November 15 to get to a Chase branch and open the account.

Here’s how I’d go about getting this $500 bonus:

• Bring the coupon to a local Chase branch and open a Savings and Checking account.
• Deposit $25 into the checking and $15,000 into the Savings.
• Get a direct deposit to the Chase checking account. See what has counted for direct deposit in the past here.
• Wait until the Tuesday after completing the requirements for the bonus to post. (Chase is weird and always posts the bonuses on a Tuesday). If you don’t receive the bonus, use another direct deposit to try and trigger it.
• Wait 90 days from the date of deposit and transfer over money from savings to checking to bring the balance to $1,500. Then transfer out the remainder of the $15,000 to your regular high-interest savings account, but leave $300 in the Chase savings account. With $1,500 in checking and $300 in savings the account will remain fee-free.
• Wait until 6 months after the opening date.
• Withdraw all funds & close the accounts.

You can also choose to just do the checking or just the savings if you prefer for any reason.

Chase bank bonuses are from the best bank bonus around. There is no minimum on the direct deposit requirement, it’s easy to keep the account fee free, and the bonuses are a nice chunk of change. If you’ve never completed a bank bonus before, this is a good one to start with. We’ll be adding this bonus into our list of Best Bank Bonuses.

It’s interesting to note is that the above link is capable of generating multiple unique coupon codes to the same Chase account. So if you want to save a second code for a friend, just click the link a second time to get a second unique code.

Remember to always check your Chase preapproved credit card offers when visiting a Chase branch; you might even get lucky and end up with a Sapphire Reserve preapproval.

Hat tip to reader Harry