Receive $50 For Enrolling Serve Or Bluebird In Direct Deposits

Offer at a glance

• Maximum bonus amount: $50
• Availability: Nationwide
• Direct deposit required: Yes, two direct deposits of $250 or more
• Additional requirements: None
• Hard/soft pull: Soft
• Credit card funding: No, you can fund these accounts with giftcards though
• Monthly fees: None
• Early account termination fee: None
• Expiration date: Unknown, still working July, 2014.

The Offer

Direct link to offer [There is no direct link to this offer, you can confirm it’s existence by calling  855-306-7394]

• Receive a $50 bonus when you set up and receive two direct deposits of $250 or more each into your Bluebird or Serve account

The Fine Print

• Bluebird/serve account must be opened by May 31st, 2014
• Both direct deposits must be received before July 31st, 2014
• A qualifying direct deposit is  a paycheck or other periodic income electronically deposited by a payor into your Bluebird or Serve Account
• Only one offer per customer
• $50 bonus will be posted to your account within 30 days of satisfying the above requirements
• All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

Both of these accounts come with no monthly fees and neither have early account termination fees.

Our Verdict

In terms of bank bonuses, this is on the low side. I usually don’t bother with these types of offers unless they are offering $100+ as a bonus as you also have to pay taxes on them. That said Bluebird & Serve are excellent for manufactured spending (MS) purposes as you can load the accounts using Walmart & Giftcards – because of this I already have a Bluebird account and will be enrolling in this bonus.

[Read: An introduction to manufactured spending]

If you don’t engage in MS and don’t already have an account open, I wouldn’t recommend signing up for an account just to complete this promotion. Here is how I plan on completing this promotion:

• Get a trusted friend to send me $500 using Amazon Payments, they can use a rewards earning credit card and I’ll give them the money back (+$10 bonus for them)
• Withdraw $250 of the funds from Amazon Payments into my Bluebird account, then do this again a week later.This will trigger the direct deposit requirement (+$50 bonus)
• Continue to use my Bluebird account for manufactured spending purposes

There are multiple reports of the above working, but as always your mileage may vary. If you want to ensure that you actually get the $50 make sure you change your actual payroll or other qualifying direct deposit. We’ve added this bonus to “How I Make Money In 2014“, unfortunately it didn’t make the list of the best new bank account bonus offers due to the small $50 bonus on offer.

Direct link to offer [There is no direct link to this offer, you can confirm it’s existence by calling  855-306-7394] | Screenshot of offer [None available]

Hat tip to maximizingmoney for letting us know about this promotion