Bank account bonuses

Real cash for opening accounts and routing deposits. The traps live in what counts as a qualifying direct deposit, in monthly fees, and in hard end dates.

32 read & dated re-read weekly How to read this list ↓
The recurring trap here: what counts as a direct deposit, and monthly fees.
Before you tap anything: every link below goes to our own guide for that offer, and none of them is a referral link, so this page earns nothing. A guide that carries a referral link of ours says so on the guide itself.
Discover Banknothing: Discover's banking pages name no sign-up bonus or referral reward for a new checking or savings customer, and their account links now lead to Capital One NothingNothing Discover's Refer a Friend link is for credit cards only and pays a statement credit on a new card, not a bank account. Discover Bank and Capital One deposit accounts opened on or after May 18, 2025 count together for FDIC insurance Think twice ReadSep 18, 2026 Guide Navy Federal Credit Union$400 in your new Membership Savings Account for joining Navy Federal with promo code CHK26SRC, opening checking and completing qualifying direct deposit; joining by phone now countsEnds Dec 31, 2026 $400Cash Existing members, and anyone whose Membership Share Savings account closed within 270 days, get nothing, which rules out everyone who joined for the summer $200 or $250 offers. Membership is limited to the armed forces, the DoD, veterans and their families, and the $400 can take until 7/30/2027 Worth it if ReadOct 2, 2026 Guide Barclayscash, treated as interest, on a new Tiered Savings account once $25,000 has sat in it for 120 consecutive daysEnds Oct 31, 2026 $200Cash, treated as interest Anyone who has ever held a Barclays savings account or CD gets $0. A balance dip under $25,000 can cost the bonus, the 120 days start only once the full $25,000 is in, and the $200 lands about 60 days after they end, so allow about seven months Worth it if ReadSep 25, 2026 Guide CIT Banka 0.50% APY boost on Platinum Savings for 6 months, so 4.25% instead of 3.75% on $5,000 or more; it is interest, worth about $25 per $10,000Ends Dec 15, 2026 +0.50% APYInterest Anyone who took a previous APY Boost, including the earlier CITBOOST offer, is excluded, as is anyone who took a CIT cash bonus in the past 6 months or already earns above the standard rate. Below $5,000 the boosted rate is only 0.75%; one boost per customer; the promotion can end at any time without notice Worth it if ReadOct 2, 2026 Guide Laurel Road (now KeyBank)nothing; Laurel Road's accounts, app and offer pages were folded into KeyBank in March 2026, and every old bonus or referral address now redirects to a KeyBank page EndedNothing Bonus lists still name Laurel Road checking bonuses; the addresses behind them redirect to KeyBank's student loan page, the Laurel Road app was discontinued after March 13, 2026, and the Laurel Road cashback card program ended 3/13/26 Ended ReadSep 25, 2026 Guide Happen Bank (formerly LendingClub)nothing unless Happen Bank invited you: the $200 LevelUp Savings bonus went only to the original recipient of its email or online-banking message, its open-by date of September 30, 2026 has passed, and the loan-referral gift card is invitation-gated Invitation onlyCash into the savings account; Amazon gift cards for loan referrals Anyone who was not sent the message was never eligible, new or existing; for those who opened in time, the account must still be open on posting day, by December 31, 2026; the loan-referral gift card is capped at $500 a year, needs an eligibility email, and its amount is unpublished Think twice ReadOct 1, 2026 Guide Synchrony Banknothing; no sign-up bonus and no referral reward, only a 3.55% APY on High Yield Savings that can change at any time without notice NothingNothing Bonus blogs may promise a Synchrony code or link; Synchrony's own pages have none. The rate may change after the account is opened, outgoing wires cost $25.00, other banks' ATM fees are refunded only up to $5.00 a statement cycle, and the account has no checks Think twice ReadOct 3, 2026 Guide

Showing 26 to 32 of 32 in this list. Every entry above was read on the official terms on the date shown. When terms change, the row changes. “Most people get” is what the terms pay on the typical path; the advertised ceiling and its condition are printed in the same row.

How to read this list

Some of the biggest cash bonuses on the site are in this category, and nearly every one of them is gated by the same phrase: qualifying direct deposit. Each bank defines it differently, and the definition is where most bonuses die. Chase has the widest exclusion list we have read, where Zelle, mobile check deposits, wires and money you push in from your own bank all count for exactly nothing toward the $400. The bank-by-bank version of that answer sits on one page: what counts as a direct deposit.

The second leak is the monthly fee. A checking bonus is not free money if the account charges you while you wait to qualify, so read the fee waiver before you read the bonus table. Chase is the example on this page: $15 a month after the first two statement periods, in any period where none of its waivers is met. The clocks are real too, because several of these offers carry a hard end date published by the bank itself, and it is printed on the row.

No payroll to reroute? At least one offer here pays without any direct deposit at all. Ally's $100 takes a recurring transfer of any size, three months running, which is the quiet exception to this category's biggest trap. The routes that skip payroll entirely are collected on their own page.

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