[Expired] [TN, AL only] Redstone Federal Credit Union $100 Checking Referral Bonus (Both Parties Receive $100)

Deal has ended, view more bank account bonuses by clicking here.

Update 11/19/20: Reposting as it seems anybody can join by being a member of the financial fitness association. Will keep the state restriction in the title for now to avoid to much of a flood of new applicants.

Update 10/31/20: Deal is back and valid until December 31, 2020. Hat tip to Econ0mist.

Offer at a glance

  • Maximum bonus amount: $100 for referrer and $100 for referee
  • Availability: TN, AL only. Must also be a member of one of the 1,500 clubs listed here or have a family member that is an existing user.
  • Direct deposit required: No
  • Additional requirements: 5 debit card purchases
  • Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
  • ChexSystems: Yes, not sensitive
  • Credit card funding: Up to $2,300
  • Monthly fees: $5, avoidable
  • Early account termination fee: None
  • Household limit: None mentioned
  • Expiration date: August 31st, 2017 December 31, 2020

The Offer

Direct link to offer

  • Redstone Federal Credit Union is offering a $100 bonus for both the referrer and referee when the person being referred completes ONE of the following requirements:
    • Process 5 point of sale transactions within 60 days of account opening
  • You can refer a maximum of five people

The Fine Print

  • $100 bonus for you and a referred member will be credited to each of your accounts when the referred member opens his/her first RFCU® consumer or business checking account and meets the promotion requirements.
  • The referred member must either receive Direct Deposit of $200 or more into the new checking account or process ten point‐of‐sale transactions within 60 days of opening the account to be eligible to receive the bonus.
  • Both referring and referred member accounts must remain in good standing and no past due accounts until the bonus payout and have the minimum $5 in the share savings account. Bonus will be credited to each account within 90 days of account opening if all promotion requirements are met and will not be paid if promotion requirements are not satisfied.
  • Offer valid June 1, 2017 to August 31, 2017; subject to change without notice.
  • Only one bonus will be paid to the referred member.
  • Limit five bonus referral payouts per referring member for a maximum payout of $500. Referred member must not have had a checking account in the last 12 months to qualify but may be a joint owner on another account.
  • Must be a current RFCU member or Service Group to open a checking account.
  • Referred members must be eligible for membership and open a share savings account with a required $5 minimum balance that must be maintained at all times.
  • Must not have caused RFCU a loss (certain exclusions apply) in order to be eligible to open a checking account.
  • The minimum deposit amounts required to open a checking account are: $500 for Relationship Checking accounts and $100 for Extra Checking® accounts. There are no minimum opening deposit requirements to open an Easy Checking account or Connect Checking® account.
  • The minimum deposit required to open an Endeavor Checking account is $50 and to open an Endeavor Plus Checking account is $100. Promotion is not available for Gateway Checking®.
  • All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

I wasn’t able to find any mention of an early account termination fee in their fee schedule. Easiest account to keep fee free seems to be the easy checking account, this has a $5 monthly fee that is waived with a direct deposit or with an average daily balance of $100+.

Our Verdict

Previously they offered a bonus of $200, this new offer is slightly better if the person referring you will give you their $100 because it doesn’t require a direct deposit. Probably only worth doing if the person referring you will at least give you some of their bonus. If anybody goes for it then share your data points in the comments below. For now I won’t be adding it to our list of the best checking bonuses because it’s unfortunately a hard pull to open the account.

Big thanks to reader, Curmudgeon who let us know. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
    William Charles
  • On November 19, 2020, 17:23

View Comments (677)

  • I just opened a checking account about a month ago and received the referral email as well. I am currently in Ohio (one of the participating states). I haven't posted a referral code yet so here is mine: DEA928105

  • My account is still open. I am not sure if the $500 referral limit is per promotion or is life time limit but I have received 0 referrals since I opened my account last year. You can find my referral code if you search by my username.

  • @will the referral promotion is back. The terms are here: https://www.redfcu.org/content/dam/rfcu/pdfs/agreements/TC_RAF_Score_Big.pdf

    Note: the promotion is only available to the first 4,000 participants from the following states: Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia.

    Your referral code remains the same and the code will never change. You can find my referral code in the comments if you search for my username.

    • If you haven't had an account, this is a promotion you may be interested in. $100 bonus for both parties with easy requirements, 2.02%APY savings, $2530 cc funding, and easy membership eligibility through Financial Fitness Association (but you have to be in one of the listed states for this promotion). The link to the updated post is here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/redstone-federal-credit-union-100-checking-referral-bonus-both-parties-receive-100-al-tn-ga-ms-mo-ar-in-ky-il-oh-mi-pa-fl-nc-wv-va/
      @guest_1227259 @guest_1202592 @guest_1233224

      I think there is a very good chance that you will still be in the first 4000 if you apply now. The numbers in the referral code seem to be sequenced by the order of approved applications. For this new promotion, based on the codes in its referral threads and the codes on this older thread, the approved accounts start from around 942447 and is now at around 942678, the difference is only 231. In addition, the promotion is still ongoing, and I received email confirmation for one referral.

    • To add on to this, folks are limited to $500 in referral bonuses (so 5 referrals per referring party). It's not clear if referrals made under the previous promotion count towards this or not.

      • I think the limit of $500 referral bonus is only for this promotion. My online account shows # of Referrals: 0.

    • Pretty shady that they are burying this very significant restriction in the T&Cs and not including it in the terms on the promo page.

    • I tried clicking my link posted previously in the comments below but it goes to a page not found message. I think that is the case for all previously posted links. So you will need to use the referral code only.

    • Yes, but if you use a code from someone who no longer has an account, or is not in a qualifying state, you may not get the bonus. Hopefully, @will will just start a new thread. State restriction was not a thing before.

      Because the checking acct was not free to keep open without a certain number/type of monthly transactions, I am sure many people have closed their accounts.

      I am sure @guest_1094971 will enjoy the NEW 24-month language too...

      • I am pretty sure the states restriction only applies to the referee who is opening the account, This is how "participating members" are defined in the terms.

      • I read the terms as excluding new members from receiving the $100 bonus based on those states. Existing members that refer people do not have the state restriction. I even received an email from Redstone a few minutes ago.

        • You are probably correct.

          It's interesting that I saw about 20 minutes of difference between P1 & P2 receiving that email. Subj: Score Big with Refer-A-Friend

      • Yep many accounts may have been closed. I think the state restriction is for new members only not for the current members who are referring.

        • Agreed... but I could see them pulling something like that. Either way, it's important to know the person you got the referral from is an active member.

          • What's even more important is to use someone's referral who doesn't Spam all the referral threads, because chances are they are maxed out already

          • Per terms, "There is no limit on the number of individuals that may be referred".

            Feel free to contact me via another means (TB) and I can give you a screenshot of my newly reset "0" referral count!

          • I can confirm there is no state restriction for referring. I just received an email from Redstone for this 2021 referral promotion with my referral code.

          • Yes, I see that now. And yes, the email has the code, which is the same code as the promo last year.

          • What makes you say that? I don't remember anyone complaining about Redstone last year. They seem like a decent CU to me.

          • Because terms say you: "Must be RFCU® member in good standing as defined by RFCU Bylaws and must be referred by an existing RFCU member."

            I'm positive some people did not like having to worry about the (waivable) $2/month fee for the checking so I assure you some have closed their accounts. The fee depends on the checking account chosen, and what hoops to jump thru.

            I kept my account as well and have been enjoying the occasional credit card funding at $2530 a pop per savings account.

          • I would hope you would know I was referring to this part of your comment only. The rest of your comment I agree with.

            "Agreed… but I could see them pulling something like that. "

          • Because CSR's rely on their systems to work, and when it doesn't automatically work, they try to find any reason why the system didn't work to get out of investigating further and lay blame. I had no issue with Redstone myself; just a general statement.

  • For some reason, my Brighter Day Savings account is not showing up as an option for transferring into or out of my other Redstone accounts. Anyone else had this issue?

    • No, mine is fine. It looks like they suspended the transfer function on your Brighter Day Savings account, mostly due to suspicious activities on your accounts (this was the case for me with another bank). Call them to find out and fix it.

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