Bank Pays You $20/month with Direct Deposit? [Santander Bank Extra 20]

[Thedudeabides]

Has anyone used this?

https://www.santanderbank.com/us/pages/personal/extra20

The bank will pay $10/month for $1500 direct deposit and another $10/month for two bill pays.

[eil]

Well, that's pretty much the opposite of what most banks are doing these days.

Either this bank is doing some wild (and likely temporary) marketing gimmick or there is a catch somewhere in the fine print.

Is this a bank with physical branches or one of them newfangled internet-only banks?

[Christof]

It's one of the largest banks in Spain... Similar offers are not uncommon here. The catch is that you have to deposit a particular amount each month ($1500), maintain a certain balance ($100), are limited in number of withdrawals, do not get a lot of interest and pay high fees for all kind of exceptional situations like overdrafts. In the meantime they work with your money andnearn money.

It is a lot like credit cards and low cost carriers. It works if you don't want any of the extras and are aware of what you need to do.

[Thedudeabides]

Thanks Christof. Very helpful info. I'm thinking about using them to pay my mortgage. The money earned should pay for my annual home insurance. It sounds like I should have some buffer money in the account to avoid fees.

[Polak_maly]

I have been using them for the past couple months and getting $20 promptly. No need for any buffer money as there is no minimum as long as you transfer $1.5k into the bank, and pay 2 bills. I have it all on auto...easiest $20 monthly ever made. Granted that's before tax, but still :)

[Thedudeabides]

I have been using them for the past couple months and getting $20 promptly. No need for any buffer money as there is no minimum as long as you transfer $1.5k into the bank, and pay 2 bills. I have it all on auto...easiest $20 monthly ever made. Granted that's before tax, but still :)
[/quote

Excellent. Glad to hear!

[CanuckExpat]

I've been doing this for the past few months, so far I've been getting $20 a month with no problem.
My employer allows me to split my pay into multiple direct deposits (online so there is no paperwork); I instructed to have $750 deposited each pay-period into Santander, the rest goes into my normal bank. That takes care of one requirement for $10. I also set up a couple of auto-payments of $10 each to my regular credit cards, that takes care of the second requirement. Then each payperiod, I just transfer the rest of the money electronically into my regular bank.
It's not a bad way to get an extra $20/month if you are into that sort of thing.

[Thedudeabides]

I've been doing this for the past few months, so far I've been getting $20 a month with no problem.
My employer allows me to split my pay into multiple direct deposits (online so there is no paperwork); I instructed to have $750 deposited each pay-period into Santander, the rest goes into my normal bank. That takes care of one requirement for $10. I also set up a couple of auto-payments of $10 each to my regular credit cards, that takes care of the second requirement. Then each payperiod, I just transfer the rest of the money electronically into my regular bank.
It's not a bad way to get an extra $20/month if you are into that sort of thing.

Fantastic. This is what I am planning on doing. I'm going to pay my mortgage out of this account and the money they deposit should take care of a good chunk of my annual homeowner's insurance.

Do you know if it's possible to have multiple accounts?

[Kansaslover5]

Does anyone know if a military allotment directly to Santander would count as a direct deposit? I would think it would but I'm not sure.

[CanuckExpat]

Do you know if it's possible to have multiple accounts?

I think they limit it to one per customer, you can try to find out how actively that's enforced and report back. I imagine since you have to give your SSN that it is easy to find duplicates.
Thanks to your question, my wife and I did each open up seperate accounts, so you can have at least one account per household member. Sometimes with these bank promos, you can also open extra extra joint accounts and also qualify, but I didn't see that option here.