Weekly Deals 04/06/26

1. Chase Checking + Savings Offer
$900 in cash after meeting both account requirements
Details

2. Changes to California gift card law
Minimum cash out increased to $15 from $10
Details

1. Chase Savings + Checking Offer

Sign-up bonus:

• $300 checking + $200 savings or $900 total ($400 extra) if you do both

Annual Fee:

• $12 a month, but waived if you have direct deposits of $500+, $1,500 or more daily checking account balance, or $5,000 or more in a combo of checking/savings/other balances. During the 90 days when you have the $15,000 in the savings account the fee should automatically be waived. Once the bonus hits your account, I would pull all the funds and close your account to avoid future annual fees or forgetting about the account which can result in an overdrawn account. 

Requirements:

• Checking – Must make a direct deposit within 90 days of account opening. There isn’t a minimum number of dollars, it just has to be a direct deposit.
• Savings – Deposit $15k in 30 days and maintain the deposit for 90 days

Earnings:

• The savings account generates almost no interest (.01-.02% APY)

Chase currently has a combination checking and savings account deal. $900 for a single direct deposit and maintaining $15,000 for 90 days is a great deal. $900 on a $15,000 over 90 days is 6% or roughly a 24% APY. If you are doing more advanced churning/manufactured spending having a Chase bank account apparently increases scrutiny on your account, but for 99% of the population this will be irrelevant.

2. Changes to California gift card law

Effective April 1^st, California has increased the minimum balance on a gift card that a retailer must legally cash out. This is now the highest value in the country and may present some interesting opportunities. What this means in theory is that if you have $14.99 or less on a gift card a retailer must legally give you cash for the gift card balance. If you like 43% of Americans have a bunch of small balance gift cards lying around this is a good opportunity to cash them out. Unfortunately, many retail employees still either aren’t aware of how to do the cash out or don’t want to deal with the hassle. (Plaintiff attorneys love this law as it is a great basis for class actions.) Starbucks and Home Depot are two retailers where online commentors have noted usually have staff that know how to cash out cards. Doctor of Credit has a good list of retailers where you can cash out online with a few additional retailers listed in the comments.