Reposting as bonus is available again.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $100
- Availability: WA only, find branches here or sign up by phone.
- Direct deposit required: No
- Additional requirements: 25 debit card transactions
- Hard/soft pull: Soft
- ChexSystems: Unknown (inquiry sensitive)
- Credit card funding: Yes, you have to use Paypal but you can use a credit card up to $3,000
- Monthly fees: None for the free checking account and none for savings if balance is $25+
- Early account termination fee: $10, 90 days. You’ll need to keep the account open for at least 3 months though to get the bonus
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date: None listed
The Offer
- Open a new free sound rewards checking account and receive a $100 bonus when you complete the following requirements within 90 days of account opening:
- Complete 25 debit card transactions [Read: How To Meet Minimum Debit & Credit Transaction Requirements]
The Fine Print
- Requires Sound membership and savings account with minimum $25 balance.
- Must meet qualifying criteria to open checking account.
- Offers may change at any time. $100 Bonus: Requires 25 debit card transactions within the 90 days after opening a new primary consumer checking account.
- Cannot have received a checking account bonus in the past.
- Bonus paid within two weeks following 90 days of opening account.
- One bonus per member and may be reported on form 1099-INT.
- Sound Rewards: Upon request, your Sound checking account will be enrolled to receive Sound Rewards. Must meet qualifying criteria to participate.
- A one-time sign up will enroll every valid Sound debit card connected to the membership account.
- All points accumulate under one membership account and accumulation begins 5-7 days after enrollment.
- You can monitor and redeem points beginning on the first business day of the month following enrollment.
- Debit Rewards will be automatically removed if there is no debit card activity for more than six (6) months.
- Overdraft Refund: On request, every checking account can reverse one overdraft fee per calendar year.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Your best bet for avoiding fees will be to open the free checking account, which as it’s name implies does not have a monthly fee. If you close your account within 90 days there will be an early account termination fee of $10, given that you need to keep the account open for at least three months this isn’t really an issue.
You’ll also need to keep the $25 in your savings account to keep that fee free, otherwise you will be charged a $5 monthly “low balance fee”
Referral Bonus
According to this comment there is a $50 referral bonus as well. Not 100% clear if they can be stacked or not.
Our Verdict
Not the biggest bonus in the world but if you can get the $50 referral as well then $150 is decent especially considering there is no direct deposit required and also no monthly fees to worry about. Because of that I am adding this to the best checking bonus page. The $3,000 you can fund with a credit card via Paypal is a nice cherry on top!
Hat tip to reader Jim
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- 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
Are you sure it’s expired? When I visited the following link, it still has the $100 bonus listed.
https://www.soundcu.com/checking/
Looks like this offer has already expired, I put it off too long.
Thanks, updated post.
They are Chex sensitive FYI… This was from a year ago when I applied and was denied for too many inquiries.
How many inquiries did you have?
Over 10
I applied and got a message saying an account specialist will reach out to me to finalize the application. I am not a US citizen and chose to fund with PayPal for $3000 ($25 savings and remaining to checking).
I started the application. It gives you the option to fund via PayPal, but I don’t know if it is just a straight transfer or if it will allow using a credit card through PayPal. I didn’t finalize the application because I don’t want to open it unless I can fund with a credit card. The PayPal option allows funding up to $3000, so if it does allow use of credit cards, it would be a pretty sweet way to meet minimum spend.
Just went through with the application. It does give you the option to choose your funding method with PayPal, so I was able to use an American Express card and fund $3000.
Awesome, thanks for the DP.
It looks like PayPal charged me for funding the account, $86.30 out of the $3000 charge. I haven’t called them yet, but did speak with someone at Sound CU who said that they did not charge for the funding. Is it usual for PayPal to charge for funding bank accounts with CC?
Let us know what happened with this…I was planning to open an account soon with a $3,000 PayPal credit card transfer, but not if PayPal is charging a fee…
Yea, TygerHawke is right, unfortunately. I just spoke with PayPal, and they charge 2.9% + $.30 for a credit card transaction funding a bank account.
I reviewed PayPal’s fees – if you choose to send money in a non-purchase transaction that is not funded by a bank account or PayPal balance, it is subject to a 2.9% fee with a credit or debit card, or with PayPal credit. They’re not treating this like a purchase where the seller pays the fee, apparently. Bummer.