Citizen's Bank - $150 for Checking with DD and 3 Billpays

Public offer available at citizensbank.com/150

From their site:

How the offer works
1. Open your first new personal checking account by 2/28/13.
2. Get $50 when you setup direct deposit and have a single
deposit of $500 or more clear your new checking account by 4/30/13.
3. Get $50 when you enroll in Online Banking and pay 3 or more bills online that
post and clear your new checking account by 4/30/13.
4. Get an additional $50, for a total of $150, for completing both steps 2 and 3
by 4/30/13

The personal banker told me that they only do a Chexsystems pull but I haven't confirmed. Thinking about pulling the trigger there - account only requires 5 debit transactions a month to avoid the fees.

Anyone know if it can be funded with CC or combined with this offer: http://www.citizensbank.com/555/

VA Zip code, The Zip Code you entered is out of our business area. Use our branch locator to see if Citizens Bank offers services in your area.

Is this nation-wide?

Make sure you print out copy of offer. Twice I needed that when they failed to furnish bonus. Also, once they had an offer for an additional bonus for opening money market savings or CD and they did a hard pull. Don't remember if they did hard pull for the checking.

Interestingly, when they manually added the bonus due, ( the one I had to provide printout proof for)it never showed up on 1099.

If you have Charter One branches in your state: http://www.charterone.com/150

chantspel said:   You know I've been meaning to open an account there for their college saver program. Not sure if anyone has heard of this before but supposedly they give you 1,000 when your kid turns 18:
http://www.citizensbank.com/savings-and-cds/college-saver.aspx

Wow if my math is right, deposit 3600 over 12 years and get 1000. Not a terrible deal. Accounts to about 8% guaranteed over 12 years.

Soft pull, according to the rep (and she seemed like she knew what she was talking about).

debtinator said:   chantspel said:   You know I've been meaning to open an account there for their college saver program. Not sure if anyone has heard of this before but supposedly they give you 1,000 when your kid turns 18:
http://www.citizensbank.com/savings-and-cds/college-saver.aspx

Wow if my math is right, deposit 3600 over 12 years and get 1000. Not a terrible deal. Accounts to about 8% guaranteed over 12 years.

I haven't done the math yet myself but that sounds close. Also you need to consider the opportunity cost of that money sitting in a "low yield" savings account. Looking at their current rates - 0.10% isn't very promising.

Still if your planning on putting some money away anyway doesn't sound like a bad deal.

Does anyone who has done this in past, know if ACH push from ING (Capital One 360 now) qualify for DD?

Agent: At this time, we operate under the Citizens Bank brand in Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, and the Charter One brand in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.
Agent: Unfortunately, you cannot open an account if you are not within the business area at this time.

Is anyone else concerned about the wording? "Open your first new personal checking account by 2/28/13.". I have had checking accounts with them in the past for bonuses, the last being a few years ago. The "first new" verbage has me concerned but I am going to give it a shot anyways. They go on to say "Primary account holder may not be or have been a primary or secondary signer on any personalchecking account within the previous six months." so I am prepared to go to battle for my bonus lol.

Also, when I tried in 2011 (never opened account) - and again this time - the account cannot be set up online. The application halts and requires that I snail mail a copy of driver's license and a utility bill. After their acceptance, the account still cannot be funded online. Per a call to them, I must go to a branch to fund the account. The lady also acknowledged their archaic process and advised me that she would pass along my comments.

depreshun said:   Is anyone else concerned about the wording? "Open your first new personal checking account by 2/28/13.". I have had checking accounts with them in the past for bonuses, the last being a few years ago. The "first new" verbage has me concerned but I am going to give it a shot anyways.

I have the same question. Closed an account early last year. Hope I can get this offer. Does anyone know?

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Not a hard pull

CC limit was $1k. I opened over the phone.
Can't confirm that that charge went through yet, though (I am not sure).

looks like they might pull your credit

On the confirmation page..

"Credit reporting disclosure
I authorize the Bank to obtain a credit report or other report or account information from credit or information services agencies to help verify the information I provided in this application and facilitate the processing of my application for this account or for any other lawful purpose."

FWIW I was told they couldn't open it with a CC, but they could do a cash advance. This was in a branch when I opened.

From the comments, seems like most dont use it as their primary account. So any rules around how long to wait before closing the account ?

Any idea what is considered a bill pay? Would payments made through their bill-pay service to other individuals or indirectly to companies via PayPal count?

ultrawildcard said:   It's a hard pull . Nobody should think otherwise . It should be illegal since creditors interpret e dry hard pull as a request for more credit.
No hard pull for me or wife.

Silverthunder said:   I got hit with a hard pull on Equifax. I am going to dispute it.

You've nothing to dispute since they did have permissible purpose to look at a credit report. If you dispute it as fraudulent, they may close your account.