I recently stumbled on the concept of making money with bank bonuses. Many different banks offer you referral bonuses or sign-on bonuses when you setup a recurring deposit or deposit a certain amount of cash. This is their way of attracting new customers. These bonuses range from $50 to as high as $1000 with most of them being offered at $250 or less. It turns out some finance-savvy people spend the time to investigate bank bonuses throughout the United States, signing up for as many as 30 different banks each year to earn bank bonus income. I found one particular couple that made just over $10,000 in bank bonuses in 2020. Imagine having your spouse do the same thing so you can earn more together. Based on the rules of each bank, you can re-apply for a new account bonus every 3, 6, or 12 months. For the majority of these bonuses, you need to keep the account open for 30 to 60 days to get the bonus.
While earning “free money” is attractive, you have to be careful as some of these banks could charge minimum balance fees, high monthly fees, and have poor customer service making it difficult to setup or cancel your new accounts. It can be very difficult to manage, let alone remember your 30+ bank accounts. According to bankrate.com, these are the top bank bonus offers as of January 2021:
Best checking account bonuses
- Associated Bank: $500 bonus
- HSBC Bank: $200 or $450 bonus
- TD Bank: $150 or $300 bonus
- Chase Bank: $200 or $500 bonus
- SunTrust (Truist) Bank: $200 or $500 bonus
- Bank of America: $100 bonus
- Axos Bank: $100 bonus for new business owners
Best checking and savings account bonus
- Chase Bank: $150 or $200 bonus
- Citibank: $200, $400 or $700 bonus
Best referral bonuses
- Axos Bank: $20 for referral and referee
- Chase: $50 for each referral up to $500
- Chime: $50 for referral and referee
- TD Bank: $50 for referral and referee
Checkout BankRate’s article for more details on each bonus listed above. My wife and I recently discussed consolidating our bank accounts into the best high yield bank we can find, but now we may need to have another discussion as some of these bonuses are easy to meet.
