Update 12/15/21: Deal is back, subject line is ‘Earn $25 for going green with your deposits’.
Update 5/15/21: Deal is back and valid until 07/15/2021. Subject line is ‘4 easy ways to stop funding fossil fuels.’
Update 3/19/21: Deal is back expires 5/19 $25 for $500 or more direct deposit.
Update 2/8/21: Deal is back and valid until 3/31/2021.
The Offer
No direct link to offer, sent out via e-mail. Subject line is ‘Get $25 for 5 minutes of work’
- Aspiration is offering some existing account holders a $25 bonus when they receive a direct deposit of $500 each calendar month between December and February
The Fine Print
- Offer Terms and Conditions: $25 cash offer only applies to the original recipient of this email and is non-transferable. Each calendar month between 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time 12/1/2020 and 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time 2/28/2021, customer must receive at least $500 of cumulative direct deposits from their paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security) from their employer or the government.
- Contract work such as Uber/Lyft does not qualify as direct deposit for the purpose of this promotion.
- If the minimum monthly $500 direct deposit is received by 12/31/2020, $25 provisional credit will be deposited into customer’s Spend & Save account by 1/8/2021.
- Aspiration reserves the right to withdraw the credit if customer does not go on to receive the minimum direct deposits through rest of the promotional period.
- Aspiration Spend & Save Account must be open and in good standing, in the sole determination of Aspiration, through the date of the credit.
- All applicable account terms, fees, and charges are subject to change.
- This offer may be modified or withdrawn at any time without notice.
- Customer is responsible for any federal, state, or local taxes due on the bonus and we will report as income to the tax authorities, if required by applicable law
Our Verdict
A lot of people have Aspiration accounts from the $100+ checking bonus. You can see what has counted as a direct deposit before here.
Hat tip to Hanson L & Betelgeuse
Got an email for $25 for having your (federal) tax return sent to Aspiration
07/13: Received email
08/24: $500 push from Astra (126 days before bonus)
09/30: $500 real direct deposit (89 days before bonus)
12/28: $25 direct deposit promotion credit
Don’t think the Astra push worked.
Had you received a direct deposit into your account before? The last few DD promos I’ve received via email excluded people who had received DDs before so I didn’t bother trying.
I never had a real direct deposit before. Not sure if any pushes previously counted as a fake direct deposit. It’s getting harder to open new accounts for me so I go after these small direct deposits so it doesn’t hurt me to try.
back again “Earn $25 for 5 minutes of your time”
Is aspiration worth keeping open? I tried to close it and they said once closed you cannot reopen it again (not for bonus and not anything.)
I did not find it very useful. What do people think?
Deal is back, received an email today with the subject “Earn $25 for going green with your deposits”
Dear XXX,
There’s a quick and easy way to take the next step in your commitment to saving the planet—and it’ll earn you $25!*
All you need to do is set up Direct Deposit of your paycheck (or another qualifying ACH transfer) and we’ll take care of the rest. You’ll earn $25 just for setting it up (takes five minutes), and you’ll get your money up to two days early, every time.
Customer must set up a new direct deposit from a payor which had never previously credited funds to the account and receive at least $500 of cumulative direct deposits from their paycheck, pension or government benefits (such as Social Security) from their employer or the government within the first 60 calendar days after setting up and receiving a first direct deposit. Allow up to 120 days from the date that $500 cumulative direct deposits is received for the $25 offer credit to post to your Aspiration Account.
William Charles
“Customer must set up a new direct deposit from a payor which had never previously credited funds to the account . . . .” That’s new compared to the ones I received in February and May
Also, I’m not sure it’s limited to those targeted by email. I logged into my account today and had a message about the bonus and this link: https://my.aspiration.com/faq/Spend—Save%3EEarly-ACH-Deposit-Information
Thanks for this. I wasn’t targeted and I was still able to receive the $25 direct deposit bonus on my account. I used Wise “Payroll,” Astra and Groundfloor to trigger the bonus. My first DD posted on 2/9 and the bonus posted on 5/27.
Had to file a FINRA complaint to get this. Seriously these financial institutions need to give better training to their frontline CSR and their supervisors, the amount of labor hours they spent on initially denying me the bonus probably cost more than the bonus itself. What’s the point of fighting me if I met the bonus requirements legitimately (actual DD) and then your compliance department has to smack you upside the head to award it. Makes absolutely no business sense.
Received the $25 as well on 8/17
I received the $25 direct deposit bonus for this and was targeted by email. I used Penfed, Dough Brokerage and Groundfloor to trigger it. I did not receive the bonus more than once even though I received multiple offers with different expiration dates by email. Contacting support will do me no good since I did not use a real direct deposit.
My P2 did the same, but I don’t know if she got her bonus because Aspiration locked her account and it’s been that way for 2 months now. I think it was because she was making transfers into her Monifi account. Best to not use this bank account too much, because no legitimate financial institution locks a customer’s account for this long with no information or way to unlock it.
I can confirm PenFed works for fake DD.
William Charles 
Chuck
Bonus posted a few days after the stated date (8/15) in terms and conditions. They are so slow.
Interesting that they posted after the deadline without any intervention. It gave me hope but I just checked my account and still nothing for me. I did a real DD so I’ll reach out to them.
I did real DD but no bonus yet for me. Anyone else get theirs?
According to the offer terms, allow until 8/15 for the $25 offer credit to post.
We’re past 8/15 and still nothing for me.
Same here. I just contacted the support via email about it.
Received a reply that a manual rebate has been filed, subject to approval by the operations team.
Bertrand
Update: bonus was posted. Hope you’ll get yours soon.
Bertrand
Email offer indicated $25 for setting up direct deposit but yesterday receive $50 instead. Yay!
Maybe you two will also get $50?
ieatdogfood 
Alex
I won’t know until August. I also used PenFed so I don’t know if it will even work.
Real dd hit May 26th, nothing for me yet.
Hope to see two happy dogs in mid August.
ieatdogfood 
Alex
I’m not happy today. I sold ALFI Warrant stock today at $7. It’s currently at $10. Son of a mother father.
The stock market is a bitch. You have to live with it.
How did you get involved with that stock?
I’m not sure what you mean? I saw it was moving so I put money in. Some of the quickest money I made ever this past week, but left a ton on the table.
So you must be a real trader. I thought it was something maybe tasty gave you.
“Real” trader would be a stretch. “Bad” trader is a better term.
It’s $12 now. Jeebus Christ. Opportunity lost.
Bought at $8 per share last night. Sold at $10 this morning. And now it hit $17 at brunch. I hate my life. 😩