The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: wick on May 26, 2017, 08:58:59 AM
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Hi Everybody,
Since discovering the power of sign up bonuses early last year I have been systematically applying for new credit cards for miles, cash etc. A recent post here mentioned a sign up bonus for a checking account. I hadn't heard of this before and have never opened checking account (Still using the same no fee student checking account from high school).
Does anyone have a strategy for signing up for these offers? Is there a list of them somewhere that I might find? What are your stategies? Particularly, how do you handle the direct diposit? I'm a little concerned about how I might look to my boss changing my direct deposit info every few months. Maybe this concern is baseless, what are your thoughts.
Thanks!!!
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Direct deposit: change your direct deposit at work, or find a way to trigger the deposit requirement by doing a ACH transfer from another account. There's more guesswork involved in the second approach.
Unless you work for a small company, your direct deposit habits should never show up on your boss' radar. Many companies even have a self-service portal were you can do it without any human interaction.
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DoctorofCredit.com has a great list of bank account and credit card bonus offerings. They update monthly and go into all the details. I'd start there.
HTH
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Check with 2birds1stone. He's a pro at this and very helpful.
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Direct deposit: change your direct deposit at work, or find a way to trigger the deposit requirement by doing a ACH transfer from another account. There's more guesswork involved in the second approach.
Unless you work for a small company, your direct deposit habits should never show up on your boss' radar. Many companies even have a self-service portal were you can do it without any human interaction.
Hey Paul,
Unfortunately, I do work for a small company. My boss and the bookkeeper have desks directly next to one another.
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Dicey, Moseyingalong,
Thanks so much!
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I've only done one of these (WF), but as was pointed out, there are pages that report what methods work for "direct deposit." In my case, a PayPal transfer works just fine for WF, and I got the bonus a couple days after my PayPal transfer!
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Vanguard transfers sometimes work, too.
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Since I don't see this mentioned yet, be aware that unlike credit card rewards you will get a 1099 tax form for this money and it is Taxable Income.
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Another recommendation for the Doctor Of Credit site. Sign up for the weekly e-mail. He does thorough reviews of offers. Great stuff.
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Since I don't see this mentioned yet, be aware that unlike credit card rewards you will get a 1099 tax form for this money and it is Taxable Income.
Thanks for the heads up on that! Was not aware of it!
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Another recommendation for the Doctor Of Credit site. Sign up for the weekly e-mail. He does thorough reviews of offers. Great stuff.
Just signed up!
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Thanks so much everybody. You've been so helpful!