All offers / Bank accounts / Chase
Examined Jul 27, 2026 Paid in cash Offer ends Oct 14, 2026 Chase pays $400. Almost nothing you can move in yourself counts toward it.
The $1,000 is cumulative, which is the kindest thing in these terms. Two $500 paychecks work as well as one $1,000 deposit, and you have three months to get there. What is not kind is the definition of the deposits themselves: Chase publishes the longest list of things that do not count of any bank we examined this week, and the obvious workaround, pushing $1,000 in from another bank, is on it.
If you found a "$300" Chase bonus with a July 15, 2026 deadline somewhere, that page is stale. Chase's own live offer page says $400, and it says the offer expires 10/14/2026. The old chase.com link with "300" in the address now redirects to the $400 page.
What Chase counts as a direct deposit
Counts. An electronic deposit of your paycheck, pension or government benefits, from your employer or from the government. In practice that means payroll sent through the banking network by your employer or their payroll provider, or a benefit payment such as Social Security.
Does not count, in Chase's own words. Depositing a check in a branch or through the Chase Mobile app. Person to person payments such as Zelle. Micro deposits, meaning the tiny test amounts a service sends to verify your account. External transfers from a bank, brokerage or investment account. Tax refunds. Dividends. Retirement distributions. Direct payments. Debit card transactions. Wire transfers.
Why this list is worth reading twice. Most people who miss a bank bonus miss it here, not at the finish line. They move $1,000 over from their old checking account and assume the requirement is met.
What pays what
| Direct deposits totaling $1,000+ within 90 days of enrolling | $400 |
|---|---|
| Each friend who opens a qualifying Chase checking account through your referral | $50 |
| Referrals in one calendar year | Up to $500, so 10 friends |
| Moving $1,000 in from your own bank, brokerage or investment account | $0 |
| Zelle or any person to person payment | $0 |
| A check deposited in a branch or photographed in the Chase app | $0 |
| Tax refunds, dividends, retirement distributions, wires, debit card transactions | $0 |
| Existing Chase checking customers | $0 |
| Anyone who already took a Chase checking bonus in the last two years | $0 |
Do this, in this order
- Check you are allowed to have it before you open anything. The offer is closed to existing Chase checking customers, to anyone whose Chase account closed within the last 90 days, and to anyone whose account was closed with a negative balance in the last three years. You can also take only one new checking account opening bonus every two years, and only one bonus per account.
- Start from Chase's offer page, not the front door of chase.com. The coupon is applied by that page. There is no code displayed for you to copy and paste later, so an account opened from a general banking page can simply have no offer attached to it.
- Put both dates in your calendar. The offer itself expires on October 14, 2026, so enrollment has to happen before then. Your own 90 day clock starts at enrollment, not at your first deposit, which means the account should be ready to receive payroll from day one.
- Change your payroll at the source. Give your employer or payroll provider the new account and routing numbers, or file the direct deposit form through your workplace system. Payroll departments commonly take one full pay cycle to switch, so start immediately.
- Let the deposits add up, and check they cleared as direct deposits. $1,000 is a total across the 90 days, not a single deposit. After the first paycheck lands, look at how it is labeled in your transaction list. If it shows up as a transfer rather than a payroll deposit, fix it then, while you still have most of the window left.
- Deal with the $15 monthly fee, because it is real money against your bonus. Chase Total Checking charges $15 a month unless you meet one of its waivers in that statement period: $500 or more in qualifying electronic deposits, a balance of $1,500 or more at the beginning of each day, an average beginning day balance of $5,000 or more, or a linked qualifying Chase checking account. Payroll of $500 a month clears it. $15 a month is $180 a year.
- Keep the account open and unrestricted until the money arrives. Chase deposits the bonus within 15 days of you meeting every requirement, and the account must not be closed or restricted at the moment of payout.
- The bonus, paid once, for $1,000 of direct deposits inside 90 days$400
- The monthly service fee across a year, if you never trigger a waiver$180
The fee is $15 in any statement period where you meet none of the four published waivers, and it repeats every year the bonus does not.
The fine print that can still cost you the $400
The bonus is taxable, and Chase treats it as interest. It is reported to the IRS on Form 1099-INT, or on Form 1042-S where that applies. Budget for it the way you would budget for interest on savings.
The two year rule bites quietly. One new checking account opening bonus every two years, one bonus per account. If you or a household member collected a Chase checking bonus recently, that history follows you, and Chase checks it rather than asking you.
Terms carry no published revision date. Chase does not print a "last updated" line on the offer page, so the only honest way to treat any number here, ours included, is as what the page said on the day we read it. We read it on July 24, 2026.
If you already bank with Chase: the referral side
Chase pays you $50 for each friend who opens a qualifying Chase checking account and completes the qualifying activities using the matching coupon, capped at 10 referral deposits, so $500, per calendar year. You become eligible to refer roughly 30 days after your own account opens. Employees of JPMorgan Chase Bank and its affiliates are not eligible. Your friend still has to be a genuinely new Chase customer, and they still have to route real payroll.
Is it worth your time?
Yes, if your paycheck can move. $400 for $1,000 of deposits spread across three months is the friendliest ratio in this batch, and Chase gives you far more room than the neobanks, which want their money inside 45 days. The whole offer rests on one sentence about what a direct deposit is. Set aside twenty minutes for the account, one payroll form at work, and a note in your calendar for October 14. If your income arrives as cash, as a check you photograph, or as a transfer you make yourself, this is not your offer.
