Deal has ended, view more bank account bonuses by clicking here.
Update 8/5/20: Reader Chyeah found a direct link. Keep in mind that ‘You must have a personal SunTrust checking account to be eligible.’
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $600
- Availability: AL, AR, FL, GA, MD, MS, NC, SC, TN, WV, VA, and D.C Only
- Deposit required: $10,000-$100,000
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems:Mixed DP
- Credit card funding: Up to $250 (lots of reports of it coding as a cash advance)
- Monthly fees: $17, avoidable
- Early account termination fee: 180 days, bonus forfeit
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date: September 30, 2020
Contents
The Offer
- SunTrust is offering a bonus of up to $600 when you open a new savings account. Bonus you receive is based on the amount you deposit within 30 days of account opening (must be maintained for 90 days).
- Deposit $10,000+ and receive $100 bonus
- Deposit $25,000+ and receive $300 bonus
- Deposit $100,000+ and receive $600 bonus
The Fine Print
- Offer valid for new personal SunTrust Advantage Money Market Savings accounts opened from July 31, 2020, through September 30, 2020.
- Enrollment in the promotion is required at the time of account opening. (See Account Opening & Enrollment Instructions below.)
- Only new deposits made to a single eligible Advantage Money Market Savings account within 30 days of account opening will be considered for qualification. The final reward amount will be based on the lowest balance tier ($10,000, $25,000 or $100,000) that is maintained for 90 days after opening the new money market savings account.
- Total new balances must be new money to SunTrust. The new money cannot be funds currently held in deposits by SunTrust or any of its affiliates.
- To be eligible to participate in the promotion: You must be a new SunTrust personal money market savings account client and have a personal SunTrust checking account. Clients with an existing money market savings account with SunTrust (either as the primary or a joint account holder) are not eligible. You must not have closed a personal money market savings account within 180 days of the promotion start date (on or after February 2, 2020). The primary account holder of the participating money market savings account must be 18 years old or older at the time of account opening. Truist employees and/or employee-designated accounts are not eligible for this promotion. Offer available only to U.S. residents with a U.S. address and a valid U.S. taxpayer identification number. The qualifying MMA must have a mailing address in the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia or the District of Columbia.
- Reward Processing: The reward will be credited to the new money market savings account up to 4 weeks after all qualification requirements have been verified. “Advantage MMA Offer Reward Q3 2020” will appear on the monthly statement when the reward is credited to the account holder’s Advantage Money Market account. If the money market account opened in response to a Promotional Offer is converted to another account type or product, it may no longer be eligible to receive the promotional offer. This promotion is only applicable once per account and per client. SunTrust may report the value of any reward received through any offer to the Internal Revenue Service as required by law. Any applicable taxes are the responsibility of the recipient.
- Reward Forfeiture: The new Advantage Money Market Savings account must remain open and in good standing with a minimum balance of $0.01 until the reward is processed in order to receive the reward. If you close an account that was opened in response to a Promotional Offer, you are no longer eligible for that promotional offer and will not be able to receive any rewards applicable to that offer. If the money market savings account is closed by you or SunTrust within 180 days after opening, SunTrust reserves the right to deduct the reward amount from the account at the time of closing.
- Other Terms: The minimum opening deposit (due within 14 days from account opening) for a new Advantage Money Market Savings account is $100. The offer is non-transferable and may not be combined with any other savings offers. This offer is subject to change and may be discontinued at any time. All promotional payouts will be processed no later than May 30, 2021, at which point this promotion and any related disbursements will be considered final, and no further disbursements will be made. For SunTrust Advantage Money Market Savings, the Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is currently 0.01% for Tier 1 ($9,999.99 or less); 0.04% for Tier 2 ($10,000 – $24,999); 0.04% for Tiers 3-4 ($25,000 to $99,999); and 0.08% for Tiers 5-9 ($100,000 or more). The Annual Percentage Yields are accurate as of June 26, 2020, and subject to change at any time including after the account is opened. Fees may reduce your earnings.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
This account has a $17 monthly fee. This is avoided if you do any of the following:
- Set up automatic transfer(s) totaling at least $100
- Maintaining a $10,000 minimum daily collected balance
Early Account Termination Fee
Account must stay open and in good standing until the bonus posts and must be kept open for at least 180 days
Our Verdict
It seems this account has different interest rate tiers, but they make it difficult to find out what the interest rate is. Usually that’s a sign that the rate is close to 0%. The effective interest rates of each bonus are as follows:
- $100 bonus: 4.06%
- $300 bonus 4.87%
- $600 bonus: 2.43%
$100/$300 bonus might be worth doing but $600 isn’t that much better than a lot of high yield savings accounts. We will add this to the best savings bonuses.
Hat tip to reader Jim
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
DP – Bonus-earning and account-closing data points:
– 9/1/2020 – Account (Advantage Money Market Savings) opened with $50
– 9/3/2020 – ACH deposited/transferred $25000 into the account from CIT Bank
– 12/17/2020 – $300 bonus deposited into account
– 9/9/2021 – Requested that account be closed (over-the-phone).
– 9/10/2021 – Account closed
Account closing info MM and CK:
I met all bonus requirements, moved all funds out after 180-days and called to close account over telephone. I was told i needed to come into a branch to close the account, so I made an appointment. 15-minutes later the bank called me back and stated that since the accounts have zero balance that they will transfer my call to the back office operations department to close my accounts over the telephone.
I waited on hold about 10 minutes until someone from the back office took my call and started the account closing process. They asked why I was closing the account and I told them there are several reasons. 1). Account pays no interest, 2) it requires very large $3k monthly DD transactions to keep it fee free on a monthly basis, and 3) I that can’t think of a single reason to keep it open otherwise. After that the account was declared closed by the back office CSR.
I had ACH transfer limit issues and had to deposit the $25k via multiple transactions, but the reward tracker is saying I’m only in the $10k tier. The fine print language could be read in a way that causes them to tell me to pound sand, but has anyone else gone through the same?
For anyone wondering, I reached out to support and was told that requirement is manually reviewed for the tracker and then again before the payout. It seems the initial tracker review was done on the one day I was between $10k and $25k.
Well, support was wrong. I received the bonus for the $10k tier and had to initiate an investigation and wait up to 4 weeks for them to manually pay out the missing bonus. Relatively painless process, but I’d ensure you don’t end a day in a lower bonus tier if this offer comes back and you can’t move all the funds in a single transaction.
I had the same problem. Along with going under the mandatory minimum. I did a CFPB claim and thankfully Suntrust Marketing ruled in my favor. It was a close one…
Got the $600 bonus. Even after I mistake of bringing it below 100K for 3-4 days in between. Looks like they used balance on 90th day after opening or statement ending balance. Either ways happy to see bonus post quickly!
it’s interesting they paid out the bonus before 90 days.
8/27 – Opened MMA
9/22 – Completed deposit $25,000
12/10 – $300 bonus paid out
So it’s only around 80 days. Interesting…
Shall I leave money there for another 10 days in case claw back?
For those who met the 90-day bonus qualification period prior to the bonus payment date cycle of Nov 19 but did not receive your bonus; Suntrust broke ranks with their usual third Thursday of the month payment cycle and paid again on December 1. I met my 90-days on Nov 12, but never received my bonus on 19 Nov. I finally received my $300 MM savings bonus on Dec 1.
When I called to complain on Nov 21 I was told the bonus would be paid out at the end of the month for those who qualified buy did not receive it on Nov 19th.
If you have met your bonus qualification 90-day period PRIOR to Nov 19 but still have not been paid, you may want to call Suntrust and ask where is your bonus at.
Again only if you opened your account in August and your 90-days qualification period was met PRIOR to Nov 19 should you ask about your bonus. If your 90-day qualification period falls after Nov 19, you will have to wait until the next payment cycle that occurs on Dec 17.
Did not receive the bonus because I missed the fine print saying it has to be new money not currently held 🙁
My data point info. Thanks all for the good info and DOC for this site to share it!
8/12 opened
9/1 funded $25K
11/19 $300 bonus
DP:
Early August: opened account
Late August: transferred $25K to account, to meet the “within 30 days” requirement
Late September: offers.suntrust.com showed the bonus registration and that the initial deposit met the first requirement
Early November: offers.suntrust.com shows “Reward Pending” and all requirements met. Looks like the funds only had to be there through 90 days after account opening, not 90 days after the funds were deposited.
Will update when bonus posts- holding funds until then. Keeping it fee free is super easy- just set up $100 auto transfers each month from an outside account, so can fully get the $25k back as soon as the bonus posts.
If you opened account in Aug expect your bonus to credit by end of day on 19 Nov. However it will not show up on your account transactions until the following day.
I opened my account on 11 Aug, my bonus also posts tomorrow 19 Nov. Suntrust pays bonus on third Thursday of month following the qualification period.
Thanks, and confirmed. My bonus posted on Nov. 19.
I opened on 8/24 and funded a few days later but no bonus yet.
If you opened in Aug 24 your 90-days is on Nov 22. So you will not get the bonus in Nov 19. You will have to wait until the next payment cycle that occurs on Dec 17.
“Maintain a balance of at least $xx,000 in the new Advantage Money Market Savings account for 90 days after account opening”
Do you need to keep the checking account open after you open this account or can I close it and still receive the bonus.
My checking account was closed in the middle of the process and bonus is now shown as “Reward Pending” on offers.suntrust.com. Bonus hasn’t posted yet, but no reason to think it won’t.