Update 8/10/19: Deal is back but only available for students
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $100
- Availability: Texas only
- Direct deposit required: Optional (+$25), two direct deposits with a $50 minimum
- Additional requirements: Online statements (+$25), debit card transaction (+$25), pay a bill (+$25)
- Hard/soft pull: Hard pull
- Credit card funding: Up to $100
- Monthly fees: $0
- Early account termination fee: Six months, $10
- Expiration date: None listed
Contents
The Offer
- Earn up to $100 when you complete set requirements from FirstMark and use the promotional code “Get100”, requirements are as follows:
- Receive $25 when you opt to receive online statements
- Receive $25 when you use your debit card for a signature transaction
- Receive $25 when you pay a bill using online Bill Pay
- Receive $25 when you receive make two direct deposits with a $50 minimum
The Fine Print
- Bank account bonuses are treated as interest and as such you must pay tax on them
- Cannot be combined with other promotional offers
- You must complete the requirements within 30 days of account opening
- Bonus will be deposited within 60 days of completing the requirements (within 24 hours of receiving the second direct deposit)
- Limit one $100 bonus per member
- Make sure you use “CREDIT” when using your debit card to receive that promotion
Avoiding Fees
You can view the full fee schedule from First Mark by clicking here.
Membership Fee $5
FirstMark is a credit union that requires to be a member before applying. You also need to fund a savings account with $5. You can become a member if you meet any of the following requirements:
- Live, work or attend school in any of the following locations: Bexar, Atascosa, Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Dimmit, Frio, Guadalupe, Kendall, La Salle, McMullen, Medina, Wilson, and Zavala.
- Relative is a member due to meeting the requirements above
Checking
Student checking has no monthly fee to worry about
Early Account Termination Fee $10
If you close your account within six months you’ll be charged a $10 closing fee.
Our Verdict
- Opening this account is a hard credit pull with Equifax
- ACH transfers should work to trigger the direct deposit requirement
- You may be able to fund this account with a credit card up to $10,000
I don’t live within the service area so I can’t take advantage of this deal. That being said, even if I was in the service area I wouldn’t waste a hard credit pull on a $100 bonus. If you can still fund the account with $10,000 using a credit card it might be worth the hard pull to fulfill a minimum spend requirement. If I was to do this deal here is what I’d do:
- Open a free checking account using promo code Get100
- Fund it with $10,000 using a rewards earning credit card (+$22 if using the Barclay Arrival)
- Opt for online statements (+$25)
- Pay a regular bill that needs to be paid (+$25)
- Use the credit function on the debit card to make a normal purchase e.g, a coffee. (+$25)
- Push two ACH transfers of over $50 from one of my existing bank accounts to trigger the direct deposit requirements (+$25)
- Transfer money out of the account
- Wait six months to avoid early account closure fee
In the end I’d make $122, personally it’s not worth the hard pull in my mind. This account has been added to our list of current bank account bonuses. Due to the hard credit pull it wasn’t good enough to make our best of list.
View Comments (8)
Although this bonus has long expired, the max you can fund with a Visa or Mastercard is $100. This was listed directly on the funding page, I didn't actually apply for the account but just thought I would leave that dp.
Thanks, updated
Well I received the the first $25 today but don't know for what requirement. I did however completed all four requirements, I think. The one and the easiest was selecting online statements. Then I did the bill pay. I paid $1 to one of the utility companies since there was no mention on the minimum amount the bill pay had to be. I then did a paypal transfer of $50 and then I had received a chase payment card from Santander for overpayment on a car loan and I was able to transfer $50 to this account and both of them appeared as ach credits on my Firstmark account. Last I made a purchase of $5+ and selected credit at checkout. You mentioned that $25 is paid 24 hours after the second ach deposit but I don't think that's the case because the second ach was posted to my account on 5/12. All their dividends are paid monthly so I'm guessing it was for the online statements and it won't be till next month around this time I'll get the rest. Hope I'm wrong and I get the rest this week. lol
It makes sense that online payments would post first.
Got another $25 yesterday.
No hard pull to open a checking account. Verified with a friend that works there and I opened an account and only got an alert from experian that they were trying to verify my info but wouldn't appear on my credit report.
If you were alerted by Experian it was probably a hard pull I'm afraid...
My bad, I got the experian alerts mixed up. There was NO alert for opening the Firstmark account. The alert was for the BB&T account and the wells fargo accounts. So I still stand that there's no hard pull for opening this account.