All offers / Bank accounts / Current
Examined Jul 27, 2026 Paid in cash Both sides get paid Current pays $100 a side. One payroll push will not do it.
Picture your actual paycheck: same employer, same schedule, landing without you doing anything. Set against that, this reads like the friendliest offer in the batch: only $200, and a generous 45 days to produce it. Then you reach Current's definition of an eligible payroll deposit and find the word recurring sitting in the first line.
What Current counts as a direct deposit
Counts. A recurring deposit of your wages or compensation, sent electronically by your employer, your employer's payroll provider, or a government payer. Current explicitly includes people paid as independent contractors, so contract and freelance income routed through a payer's regular payment run is in, as long as it recurs.
Does not count, in Current's own words. Non direct deposit ACH transfers, meaning ordinary bank to bank moves you initiate. Peer to peer transfers between or within banks. Transfers to debit cards from digital wallets or P2P services, naming PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, Google Pay and Facebook Pay. Mobile check deposits. Cash deposits. And one time direct deposits, such as tax refunds.
In plain words. A direct deposit here is money a payer sends you because they owe you wages, on the schedule they always use. Every entry on the exclusion list is a way of moving your own money around.
What pays what
| $200+ of eligible payroll deposits within the first 45 days | $100 |
|---|---|
| The friend whose link you used, on the same conditions | $100 |
| Referrals in one calendar year | Up to $1,000 |
| A single one time payroll push, however large | Not what the terms ask for |
| Bank transfers you make yourself, or any P2P transfer | $0 |
| PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, Google Pay, Facebook Pay | $0 |
| Mobile check deposits and cash deposits | $0 |
| Tax refunds and other one time direct deposits | $0 |
| Combining this with another Current enrollment bonus | Not allowed |
Do this, in this order
- Decide whether your pay can genuinely move here. If your income is cash, checks you photograph, or transfers you make from another account, stop now. Nothing on this page will work for you, and Ally's savings route below is the offer to read instead.
- Get the referral in place when you sign up. Current's homepage advertises no bonus at all, so this reaches you through a friend's link or code. Apply it while you are opening the account rather than hoping it can be attached afterwards.
- Aim for two ordinary paychecks, not one big one. The bar is $200 in total, which most people clear with a single pay run, but the definition wants recurrence. Letting two normal paychecks arrive satisfies both the amount and the word.
- File the payroll change immediately. The 45 day window runs from account opening, and payroll departments routinely take a full cycle to switch. Two weeks of waiting for HR is two weeks of your window gone.
- Check how the first deposit is labeled. Once your first paycheck lands, look at how it appears in the app. If it reads as a transfer rather than a payroll deposit, you still have most of the window to fix it at the payroll end.
- Expect the money within ten business days. Current says the reward should be paid into both the referred and the referrer's Current accounts within ten business days after the first qualifying eligible payroll deposit lands. If two weeks pass with nothing, contact support.
The fine print, including what Current does not say
No stacking. Current states the referral reward cannot be combined with any other enrollment bonus. If a separate signup promotion is running when you open, pick before you apply.
If you see $175 anywhere, treat it as dead. Current ran a one week $175 referral promotion whose own address dates it to late 2025. We could not confirm it is live. The standing program pays $100.
The referrer ceiling is the highest in this batch. No more than $1,000 in referral rewards per calendar year, which is ten friends at $100. Chime caps you at ten referrals too, Ally at five, Chase at $500.
There is no published clawback clause, which is not a promise there is none. The terms we read carry no requirement that the account stay open, and no end date for the program. They are dated effective September 18, 2025. Leave the account open for a while after the money lands.
- The $175 still quoted around, from a one week promotion dated to late 2025$175
- What the standing program pays each side$100
We could not confirm the $175 promotion is live, so the standing figure is the one to plan around.
Is it worth your time?
If your paycheck can move, this is the least demanding money in the batch: $200 of ordinary payroll against $100 of bonus, paid inside ten business days, with no card activation clock and no monthly fee chasing you afterwards. It sits next to Chime as the two neobank offers that pay both sides, and where Chime insists on one lump of $200, Current insists on repetition. Take whichever your pay schedule fits naturally. If your payroll cannot move at all, this offer is worth exactly zero to you.
