Hi everyone, first-timer here with a few questions.
I had seen this thread pop up a time or two and was intrigued but was busy with life and kept saying "maybe someday."
Anyway, I received a promo in the mail from Citizens Bank with a $600 bonus offer:
$300 for (3) deposits of $200 into a savings account for three consecutive months (1/month).
$300 for a direct deposit of $500 into a checking account within 60 days of opening it.
I decided to give it a try and opened the accounts over the weekend.
My questions:
Is this really as simple as keeping track of information? Seems like a spreadsheet + calendar reminders is all that's required. I'm fairly well organized so this just seems too simple.
I read through the first few pages of this thread which quickly becomes people discussing specific offers. Which is fine, obviously. But I'm still a little bit hesitant and want to do some more reading to decide if I want this to become a regular thing. Is the Doctor of Credit site the best resource for familiarizing myself with the general process?
I hesitate because I would like to avoid negative consequences. I understand that hard pulls can affect credit score but that some banks will do a soft pull instead. Are there any other potential pitfalls? I had worried about opening and closing accounts all the time, but it seems like that is only a problem with some banks if you try to close within a certain window of time after opening (so the solution is just to keep your money there a little bit longer).
I am also looking for insight on the direct deposit requirement. On DoC, it looks like there are numerous ways to trigger a bank to accept something as a direct deposit that does not involve constantly tinkering with the direct deposit from your employer. I don't mind changing where my paycheck is deposited, however, I have a lot of my paycheck withheld (401k, mega backdoor roth, employee stock purchase plan). So, for this first one, I will have to change my 401k and after-tax contributions to meet the $500 requirement, which is kind of a pain. It would be nice if I could work around that.
Thanks for any wisdom you all are willing to impart!
It is pretty simple. Most people are not organized enough, so they fail to meet the requirements. Also, because switching banks is a hassle, the incentives help entice people to go through the hassle, and having done that, they will stick with the new bank. The new bank hopes people will then use more services and increase the bank's revenue. It's basically bank marketing.
You'll want to look out for and avoid fees. DoC usually has the rundown on those for any specific offer. Common ones include paper statement fees, low balance fees, and early account closure fees. Turn off paper statements, avoid low balances, and keep the account open long enough.
DoC is the best I think, but someone posted "everybankbonus.com" here the other day and that looked good on a cursory glance.
Besides soft credit pulls, the other thing to be aware of is ChexSystems. It's mainly a data sharing system among banks to avoid opening accounts for people who behave badly with bank accounts, like bouncing checks. But some banks think that customers opening lots of bank accounts in a short period of time (like us) is risky behavior. So you may find if you do too many that you'll get rejected from even opening the accounts. But each bank is different on how sensitive they are to this, and the solution here is to slow down. Also, the amount of new accounts you can open in a short period of time is pretty generous.
I guess the other thing to be aware of is the risk of forgetting about an account and leaving money behind. Most people organized enough to play this game won't have a problem, and there are usually enough reminders to notice this.
And I do what the other poster implied - I look at DoC data points and what I have available to me and then pick the method that should work the best. Despite doing this, last time I think I only succeeded on two of six bonuses. But I've had better success in the past, so that data point may be an outlier. Also, depending on how much cash you have on hand, you can sometimes try to meet the bonus using multiple methods.
