Have you ever wondered why banks always seem to be offering incentives for new customers? The answer is surprisingly simple. These banks, as institutions of wealth, need your money, but they need your business more. If you think about it from their perspective, it makes sense. If you have a savings account at a bank, then you’re more likely to use that bank for car loans, credit cards, or other such services.
Online banks, in particular, offer some of the best savings and incentives available on the market today. This is because they lack the upkeep costs associated with a physical location. Which means they can pass those savings your way.
In short, there has never been a better time to take advantage of these offers, many of which you can find just by educating yourself a bit about what’s available.
The Online Advantage
Online banks aren’t just convenient and easy, they also happen to be one of the best sources for procuring free money; right from the comfort of your own sofa! The money they save on rent has been funneled into more available cash incentives for those clever enough to seek them out. First, start by searching for specific online banks, meaning those with less or zero brick and mortar presence.
Discover Cashback Checking
You can get up to $360 a year if you open up a Discover Cashback Checking account. It’s honestly that easy. All you have to do is use your debit card for daily purchases and you can earn 1% cash back on up to $3,000 of purchases every month. That works out to a cool $360 a year with no strings or gimmicks attached. Not too shabby.
Citibank Checking/Savings Account Package
Citibank is also offering some healthy offers as well. In fact, their checking/savings account package has one of the highest sign-on bonuses on the list. You can get $500 just for signing up and meeting the financial requirements. These requirements are fairly straightforward.
If you deposit $15,000 within the first 30 days and leave it there for 60 days, you can get $400. If you complete a direct deposit on one of the accounts in two consecutive months, they will also credit your account with an additional $100. $500 has never felt so easy to earn.
Chase Total Checking
Chase is one of the easiest banks to take advantage of sign-up bonuses with. They have a couple easy to collect sign-on bonuses as well. If you sign up for Chase’s Total checking account offer, you can get $200 just for depositing $25 and setting up a direct deposit on the account within 60 days. Those were probably things you were going to do anyway, so why not earn $200 from them.
Chase’s additional offer comes if you sign up for their Savings account. You don’t need a huge financial commitment either. All you need to do is deposit $20,000 (which you can transfer from another account incidentally) in the first 20 business days and voila, $150 extra on the tip.
HSBC Premier Checking
The highest sign-on offer on this list comes from HSBC, which claims to incentivize their Premier Checking account with an offer of a free $750. It’s not easy though. Not off the bat, anyway. If you deposit $100,000 into any checking, savings, or other investment accounts within the first 30 days, you can earn $750 free. Now you just need to find that $100K.
All it takes to get your own measure of financial flexibility and a bit of extra cash is a little time and research. There are plenty of bonuses out there for you to take advantage of, even if you’re not exactly Internet-savvy.
