This bonus has expired and is no longer available. View more bank bonuses by clicking here.
Bonus is back, this time with no expiry. Thanks to reader Michael. Keep in mind it seems very common for an account to be opened and then for them to close it a few days later. Not sure if this is due to people having too many recent accounts opened or not living close enough to a branch. Based on this I’d say it’s because of too many new accounts, but might be other reasons.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount:
- Availability: Branches are in WA, CA, OR, ID, HI. Not sure if this online bonus is open to more states or not. Seems like you also need to be within a certain distance to a branch as well
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $500+ for the first five full calendar months
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: None
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: $15 if closed within 90 days
- Household limit: One per mailing address
- Expiration date: None listed
The Offer
- HomeStreet Bank is offering a bonus of $300 To receive the bonus you need to open a new checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Must open a new Choice, Select, SelectPlus or Premium Select Checking account with a $100 minimum opening deposit
- Receive $500 or more more in qualifying direct deposits to this account each month, which must post to the account by the last business day of the month for the first five full calendar months following the month in which the account is opened
- Make at least 7 debit card transactions each month for the first five full calendar months. Minimum of $5 per transactions
- Enroll in online banking, mobile bank and eStatements within 30 days of account opening
The Fine Print
- You must open a new Choice, Select, SelectPlus or Premium Select Checking account with a $100 minimum opening deposit.
- You must make $500 or more in total qualifying Direct Deposits to this account each month, each of which must post to this account by the last business day of the month. Qualifying direct deposits totaling $500 or more must be deposited into your new account in each of the first five full calendar months immediately following the month in which your new account was opened.
- A qualifying direct deposit includes an electronic deposit from your employer, or from the Social Security Administration, or from a retirement benefits administrator or from any other federal or state government agency. However, federal income tax refunds, or any state income tax refunds, are not considered qualifying direct deposits. Person-to-Person and bank transfers between your HomeStreet Bank accounts or accounts you have at other financial institutions or brokerages also do not qualify.
- You must use your HomeStreet Bank debit card to make seven or more debit card purchases each month, all of which must post to this account by the last business day of the month for each of the first five full calendar months immediately following the month in which your new account was opened. Each purchase must be $5 or more. ATM transactions are excluded.
- You must enroll in Online Banking and sign up for eStatements within 30 days of account opening.
- You must sign up for Mobile Banking within 30 days of account opening.
- This account must remain open for at least 180 days. The Bonus will be deposited into your new account within 90 days after completing all six of the requirements stated above. Your new account must remain open at least 180 days prior to receiving any Bonus. Your new account must remain open until the Bonus is processed in order to receive the Bonus.
- The Bonus is considered a deposit of interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT.
- This offer is only available to new HomeStreet Bank consumer checking account customers.
- This offer is not available to existing HomeStreet Bank consumer checking customers (either as the primary or secondary account holder) or individuals who have had a HomeStreet Bank consumer checking account in the last 12 months.
- Bank employees and members of their household are not eligible for this promotion.
- Limit of one new consumer checking account Bonus per individual and per mailing address.
- If the customer or other individuals residing at the same address received or may receive any other consumer checking bonus from HomeStreet Bank within the last 12 months prior to this account opening then no one at the address is eligible.
- Offer is subject to change without notice, can be withdrawn at any time and cannot be combined with any other offer.
- The new account is available only to individuals and is not available to businesses, non-profits, or for use as a personal retirement account.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Select checking does not come with any monthly fees, there is an early account termination fee of $15 if the account is closed within 90 days of account opening. You also need to keep the account open for 180 days to avoid having the bonus clawed back.
Our Verdict
This is the biggest bonus they have offered before, normally it’s $100 or $200 but we recently saw the same $300 offer in Eastern WA. This bonus does have a lot of requirements and direct deposit for five months does suck, but it is a $300 bonus so it’s hard to complain too much. I’ll definitely be adding this to the best checking bonuses. As always please share your experiences and data points with this bonus and bank in the comments below.
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:
- 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
View Comments (83)
1/10/18 - opened account
1/23/18 - funded account ($100),enrolled in online & mobile banking, signed up for estatements
Feb-Jun - real DD & debit card purchases to cable provider each month
9/14/18 - bonus deposited (exactly 90 days after requirements met)
Will close the account next week
Sigh.... this offer took a lot of effort to then have the promotion denied. I contacted Homestreet because I hadn't received the bonus yet and had *thought* I met all the requirements. They caught me on a technicality. You needed to have an opening deposit of $100 or more. I linked one of my other bank accounts first, which sent trial deposits of a few cents to verify my account. The trial deposits were treated as my opening deposit and so I don't qualify....
I'd steer clear of this bank and their promotions. Lots of hoops to jump through and hard to get everything exactly right.
Just an update that I decided to submit a CFPB complaint regarding this. I didn't have real hopes of having this overturned since Homestreet is *technically* correct. However, after a couple weeks, the promo amount magically showed up in my account. No email from Homestreet providing an explanation.
This happened to me too. Please file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (google CFPB). Usually the bank will end up giving the money. It's easy. Make sure to attach your transaction history, and explain everything clearly. We shouldn't let them get away with scamming so many people.
Same thing happened to me. Apparently my $0.29 trial deposit to link my bank account did not satisfy the $100 opening deposit and they ignored the $100 deposit that occurred a few days later.
See my comment above. This is happening to many people. Don't let them scam us. File a complaint with the CFPB and they'll have more pressure to honor the bonus.
Thanks for the advice! I ended up filing a complaint and the bonus showed up a few days ago
Bonus is back again, until August 15 2018, at a new link:
https://www.homestreet.com/coolbonus
Got the bonus after having it open for 180 days and completing the requirements.
What day did the bonus pay out for you? I am still waiting for mine as I approach my 180 days.
Finally completed the DD and transaction requirements for this checking bonus (December 2017-April 2018). Now the fun begins to see if HomeStreet actually gives me the bonus. I'll keep this thread updated.
Hey Matt, I recently just finish the DD and transaction requirements between January 2018-May 2018. I was curious if you had received your $300 bonus yet?
Says account has to be open 180 days before they pay bonus. So I’ve got till 5/27
Anyone got the bonus ?.
Got the $300 bonus. Real employer DD and more than 7 real debit card use for the last five months.
I just saw in my statement that I didn't do 7 transaction last month, only did 6 with Amex Serve. So MAD at myself.
Does anyone knows if they can still honor the bonus in 5 months from now if I didn't do this one more transaction this first calendar month?
My card arrived at the end of the month on 27th. I made transactions right away - posted on March 1. Messaged the bank and they told me “Sorry”. Seems like a deliberate decision to postpone the card shipment to deny the bonus.
According to the terms of the bonus, the DD and transaction requirements begin the month AFTER the month that the account is opened. So you're still eligible for the bonus as long as you fulfilled the requirements in March (and then again in April-July).
After reading all these negative online applicant denials, I visited the San Diego, CA-Grantville branch today to try to open this account. They banker refused, claiming that it’s an expired promo and the link is from a third party not an official Homestreet website. Furthermore, the banker stated that for these type of promos, they will deny the applicant if the applicant does not “do all their banking” with Homestreet.
opened yesterday, at night found account closed
opened yesterday, account was closed today. called the csr, said I am not close to their footprint, the closest bank is just 6 miles away.
CA approved, with 20+ accts this year. I'll wait to see if they close in error. But they'll have to provide 30-day notice due to CA regulations.
They possibly closed my account, I'm unable to log in. It says to contact customer service. So I'll have to do it Monday morning. Let's see what CFPB does with this. I had an account number, linked Schwab, and pushed over money before they could close the account.
Did it go well?
As much as I want a new bank account bonus this bank sounds miserable. Thank you fellow commenters for sharing your experiences.
I tend to lean this way, after reading the comments. But I am always mindful that people are more likely to leave negative reviews than positive ones.
I think the DoC community is somewhat better than others about this, so I am still leery.
Anyone able to add other DPs on positive experiences (preferably those with high bank churn on their Chex)?