[YMMV] M&T Bank $200 Checking Bonus QJ – Available Online [CT, DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV]

Warning nobody is really receiving the bonus at the moment. This is definitely wait and see currently. We have more datapoints and discussions on this here.

Offer at a glance

  • Maximum bonus amount: $200
  • Availability: CT, DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV
  • Direct deposit required: Yes, $100
  • Additional requirements: None
  • Hard/soft pull: Soft
  • ChexSystems: Yes
  • Credit card funding: None
  • Monthly fees: Avoidable
  • Early account termination fee: $50 180-days
  • Expiration date: August 18th, 2017
  • Household limit: None listed

The Offer

No direct link to offer (go to mtb.com/checking and enter promo code QJ, but read our verdict first)

  • Open a new M&T personal checking account by August 18th, 2017 with the promotional code QJ and receive a sign up bonus of $200 when you do the following:
    • Set up a qualifying direct deposit of $100 or more within 90 days of account opening

The Fine Print

  • Qualifying direct deposits include but are not limited to electronic deposits such as payroll or social security and do not include electronic money transfers or credits such as account-to-account transfers or those made through internet payment services
  • Bonus will post to the account within 90 days of meeting the direct deposit requirement
  • Limited to one bonus per customer
  • Offer may vary by region and product
  • Offer is nontransferable
  • All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

The bonus is available on any personal checking account, including: EZChoice Checking, MyChoice Checking, MyChoice Plus Checking, MyChoice Premium Checking, Classic Checking, Basic Banking. Let’s look at the easiest options for keeping fee free.

[Note that M&T Bank is one of the few banks that doesn’t give you a grace period, the requirements mentioned below must be completed your first month to keep it fee-free.]

EZChoice Checking

This account has a monthly fee of $9.95, soon changing to $6.95.

  • Monthly fee is waived by making just ONE transaction such as a deposit, withdrawal, or debit purchase.

MyChoice Checking

This account has a monthly fee of $6.95 that can be waived with any of the following methods:

  • Receive direct deposits totaling $200 or more
  • Make 10 or more monthly debit card purchases
  • Keep an average daily balance of $500 (might be $1,500 depending on your area) or more

Basic Banking

This account has a non-waivable $3 monthly fee.

Early Account Termination Fee

Account must be kept open for 180 days otherwise $50 bonus will be charged.

Our Verdict

Another M&T bonus, yay! People love these as you can get them out of state (just click out of the box asking for zip code originally) and you can also sign up for multiple accounts (with different codes) and get the bonus. Bonuses also post extremely quickly after meeting the requirements.  There are two other active bonuses currently:

This will be added to our best bank account bonus page as soon as we get confirmation that non targeted people have received the bonus.

Hat tip to readers Kevin & Zalmy

Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:

 
    William Charles
  • On July 5, 2017, 21:43

View Comments (361)

  • Has anyone had any luck closing this account out of state? I wont be back on the east coast for a few more months

  • This is not really relevant to this post, but I had 5 M&T Bank checking accounts open and only received the bonus on the first 4 (QI, QC, QE, and QD) not on QJ. I just called to close all the checking accounts and the agent was able to close all 5 accounts over the phone. I opened the first account on 4/11 and the last account on 7/20. Since the last account didn't earn the bonus, there was no early termination fee. The 4 other checking accounts were all 6+ months old, so no termination fee on those accounts.

  • I did ACH from Ally 7 days back, still no bonus. it shows as P2P. Would i get the bonus or do i need to deposit from some other bank. This is on Long Island NY.

  • I didn't read all the comments but has anyone closed an M&T account online? Or do you have to go into a branch?

  • I opened this on 8/10, funded with $25 and faxed in signature card. Account shows up online but with no balance even though the $25 has been deducted from my real checking account. When I called to activate the card it said it couldn't be activated and tried to transfer me to a banker. Also, when I tried to link the account for transfers to my real bank, the trial deposits didn't go through and the bank said the account is "locked." Any ideas?

      • Thanks, but that didn't answer my question. My accounts are all still open, and I haven't re-used a code.

        • Felix, I've redeemed codes QI, QD, QJ and QC (in that order). I opened one with QI, in April. That EZChecking account took 10 days to show up online. My $50 opening deposit pulled from my existing Direct Checking account the next day, but took 2 weeks to post to the EZChecking account.

          The other three took about 6 days from when the opening deposit was taken from my Direct Checking account, until the deposits posted to the new EZ accounts. In all 4 cases, the respective bonuses posted the day after my DD was made (and for the 3 later cases, I used an ACH push from Ally.) I do live in suburban Baltimore, so I'm in their targeted area.

          If you have another account at M&T, try transferring $5-10 to the new checking account, then retry linking the checking account to your external account. I did that successfully with the QD account. I was able to get the full account number from my funding account, and Ally sent trial deposits before the opening deposit even posted. I wouldn't try activating the card until there is money in the account.

          Maybe I overlooked it, but which code did you use to open this account?

  • Working datapoint:

    Applied online with QJ code. Funded via $25 ACH. Faxed in signature card and activated debit card.

    Pushed $100.xx from online bank account and $200 bonus posted today.

    I am in 07030 NJ. There is an M&T branch in town. This is 8th account and successful bonus.

  • Live in Bowie, central MD. There are literally 10 M&T banks within 15 miles of me. DD from posted 8/4 with code QJ no bonus as of 8/6. This is my 4th account previous bonuses QD, QL QC posted within a day of DD.,

  • Applied for first MTB using QD 3 wks ago. In FL so not targeted. Took a while to get login and acct number, so actual employee DD didn't hit till yesterday. $150 bonus posted today! :) FWIW I applied and shortly after people started stating their bonus weren't posting if they weren't targeted. Not sure if I got the last of it. Probably going to apply using same code again and report back.

  • I see three different routing numbers. Does it matter which one I use? Let's assume that my address is not in the states listed....

    • I prefer to use the one they assign to the account at the time of account opening.
      But you can't go wrong with NY routing number which seems to be the default if you don't input the zip code on the landing page.

  • I moved and need to change my address for all of my accounts. Is it possible to do this online myself? I'd rather not draw attention to my pile of accounts.

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