Bank Bonuses 101

A checking account bonus usually requires a direct deposit of a certain amount over a certain period of time for example, $2,000 a month for 3 months and may require 5 or 10 ACHs, debit card transactions, or bill payments over the same period.  

Savings account bonuses generally require that you deposit funds and hold them for 60-90 days. Savings account bonuses are usually less generous than checking account bonuses relative to the amount of money that needs to be put into the account. There are occasionally instances where funds only need to be in the account on the 60^th or 90^th day as opposed to being held in the account for the duration of the period.

Checking account bonuses come in two varieties, those that require a direct deposit and those that do not. Most checking account bonuses require direct deposits. A direct deposit is pretty broadly defined, Doctor of Credit has a great list of what qualifies as a direct deposit.

If you get a W-2 you can generate additional income by signing up for bank bonuses that require direct deposits.

How to change your direct deposit

1. Identify your employer’s payroll provider. If it is ADP, Paychex, Gusto etc. there should be a portal where you can change the bank where your direct deposit is sent. If there is a physical person that processes payroll without an online portal you can access, you probably should not annoy them and these bonuses probably aren’t worth the pain of dealing with HR. However, if its electronic, follow the directions below.
2. Sign up for a checking account bonus
3. Set up the account by following the prompts
4. Write down your new checking accounts account and routing number as well as your login details
5. Sign back into your payroll provider. Enter your new bank’s payroll information for an amount that satisfies the bonus requirement. For example, if the bonus requires $2k in monthly deposits over 3 months, direct $2k of your deposit into the new bank. I always like to do slightly more, so in this example $2,100. Some payroll processors and banks will also let you use Plaid or another service to login to your new bank account rather than entering the account and routing number.
6. Once the funds hit your account you can transfer or Zelle the money to your primary account.
7. After you have met the bonus, start the process over again with another bank. You can shut the old account if it has a monthly fee, keep it open, or in some cases downgrade the account to a free account that does not have a fee.

A savings account bonus usually requires that you deposit and hold a certain amount of cash for a number of days, usually 60 or 90. To determine whether a savings account bonus is worth it, you need to add the interest rate you receive from the savings account to the implied annualized interest rate on the bonus amount and compare it to the prevailing interest rate you could get from the highest yielding savings accounts. You have to annualize the bonus amount by multiplying by ~6 (60/365) or ~ 4 (90/365).

Example:

As of this writing in mid-November 2025, the average high yield savings account yields about 4.3%. If you find a savings account that yields 2% and has a bonus of $500 when depositing and maintaining $20,000 for 90 days, your implied annual interest rate is roughly 2% + 10% ($500/20,000 or 2.5% which annualized is 10%) or 12%. In this case the 12% annualized interest rate is significantly higher than the 4.3% you would earn in a normal savings account.

Unlike credit card rewards, all bonuses and interest earned from bank accounts are taxable and you will receive a 1099 for the bonus amount and interest.

You cannot signup for a dozen bank accounts because of what is called your Chex score. Chex is a third party score that tells banks whether you are a potential fraud risk or someone who will have unpaid overdrafts. It is the bank version of your FICO score. Chex penalizes your score for having a large number of bank accounts. As a result, it’s hard to open a really large number of bank accounts. Eventually your Chex will be low enough that you won’t get approved. Unlike a credit score, a low Chex score has no effect on your life otherwise. It won’t impact your credit or any other major aspect of your financial life.

Many “fintechs” (financial technology companies) and some banks do not check your Chex score. Always look check the individual bank/fintech by looking for their page on Doctor of Credit which sometimes has data on whether or not they pull Chex.  DOC also has a list of all banks that do and do not pull Chex.

One way to reduce the pressure on your Chex score is to alternate applying between you and your partner. If you both have full-time jobs you can have half as many new accounts per person but generate the same overall amount of income.

When you start to have a lot of bank accounts it can be easy to forget that you have an account open. If a bank doesn’t have any monthly fees this isn’t a problem because nothing will happen. Some banks may eventually close the account due to inactivity, but it otherwise has no negative effect. If however a bank has a monthly fee and you end up over drafting your account it can negatively impact your Chex score and can negatively affect your credit score if it is sent to collections. The best practice is to simply close old accounts if you don’t use them so you don’t forget about an account with a monthly fee.