$200 bonus for a new checking account at Metropolitan National Bank (NATIONWIDE)

Borrowed from BankGravy

$200 bonus for a new checking account at Metropolitan National Bank (NATIONWIDE)

Open a new checking account at Metropolitan National Bank, and receive a $200 bonus for the initial opening and establishing a monthly direct deposit of $500 into your account (for at least six months). *Although this may seem like a large deposit just for a bonus, there appears to be no requirement for you to leave the money in there (so if you want, you could let the deposit sit a couple of days, then pull it out). The coupon image is below for you to print out.

MNB has a "Free Personal Checking" account with no minimum balance requirement and no monthly fees. Another nice aspect of the account: "...pay no [MNB] fees to use any ATM worldwide, and any "foreign" ATM fees charged by owners of ATMs other than [MNB] are rebated."

This is separate from a previously similar promotion that they ran because you can now apply online!

The Details: The offer does not have an expiration date as of now. $200 bonus will be credited to the account after first full qualifying direct deposit posts. Bonus is considered interest and will be reported on IRS form 1099-INT. Account must remain open and full qualifying direct deposit active for 6 months from the date of account opening or the $200 bonus will be debited upon account closure. This offer is open to NATIONWIDE customers through their online application.

The Offer Coupon

The offer can be found on the MNB's website here, and info on the "Free Personal Checking" account is here. Apply for the account here.

paypal/ach in work as DD here?

How about hard pull?

dpjnyc said: How about hard pull?

per Bankdeal there is a hard pull.

Free checking with the $200 bonus requires activating full direct deposit ($500 minumum) of recurring payroll, government benefits or retirement account disbursements.

Wonder if I can set up a transfer from an investment account and call it a "retirement disbursement"?

alohasurf said: Borrowed from BankGravy

$200 bonus for a new checking account at Metropolitan National Bank (NATIONWIDE)

Open a new checking account at Metropolitan National Bank, and receive a $200 bonus for the initial opening and establishing a monthly direct deposit of $500 into your account (for at least six months). *Although this may seem like a large deposit just for a bonus, there appears to be no requirement for you to leave the money in there (so if you want, you could let the deposit sit a couple of days, then pull it out). The coupon image is below for you to print out.

MNB has a "Free Personal Checking" account with no minimum balance requirement and no monthly fees. Another nice aspect of the account: "...pay no [MNB] fees to use any ATM worldwide, and any "foreign" ATM fees charged by owners of ATMs other than [MNB] are rebated."

This is separate from a previously similar promotion that they ran because you can now apply online!

The Details: The offer does not have an expiration date as of now. $200 bonus will be credited to the account after first full qualifying direct deposit posts. Bonus is considered interest and will be reported on IRS form 1099-INT. Account must remain open and full qualifying direct deposit active for 6 months from the date of account opening or the $200 bonus will be debited upon account closure. This offer is open to NATIONWIDE customers through their online application.

The Offer Coupon

The offer can be found on the MNB's website here, and info on the "Free Personal Checking" account is here. Apply for the account here.Any chance you could write out the 'fine print' that's on the right of the coupon - its impossible to read on the scan.

I opened up an account with them last year with the same ongoing $200 promo.

Very easy to get the bonus - but they really do mean DD from employer or SS. At least when I went in they gave me a form to sign indicating these terms along with the fact that I had to open the account with min. $250 and not close it for 6 months - requiring DD each month - or the bonus would be forfeited.

Once open there was no minimum balance requirement. I have bill payed out most $$ leaving only a few dollars.

The negative is they do not have bank initiated ACH. But you can push or pull from another bank. Also their web site for me has always been a hassle to logon. That may be my computer's fault - that their web site just isn't recognizing it.

Also - they have only 3 branches - all in Manhattan. The branch I went to was really nice (near Grand Central Station).

The GOOD is that I got my $200 the day after my DD hit (which happened on day 60 of the 60 day time frame for first DD). No phone calls needed = no stress. Everything with them has been very good.

so, from what i can tell you must sign up for this promo in the branch?? the free checking is not available with the online app??

Have you set up full direct deposit from your employer or just partial direct deposit of at least $500? The terms of condition says "$200 bonus will be credited to the account after first full qualifying direct deposit posts". I don't know if they had the same terms previously. But it seems that they require FULL direct deposit now.

madshana said: I opened up an account with them last year with the same ongoing $200 promo.

Very easy to get the bonus - but they really do mean DD from employer or SS. At least when I went in they gave me a form to sign indicating these terms along with the fact that I had to open the account with min. $250 and not close it for 6 months - requiring DD each month - or the bonus would be forfeited.

Once open there was no minimum balance requirement. I have bill payed out most $$ leaving only a few dollars.

The negative is they do not have bank initiated ACH. But you can push or pull from another bank. Also their web site for me has always been a hassle to logon. That may be my computer's fault - that their web site just isn't recognizing it.

Also - they have only 3 branches - all in Manhattan. The branch I went to was really nice (near Grand Central Station).

The GOOD is that I got my $200 the day after my DD hit (which happened on day 60 of the 60 day time frame for first DD). No phone calls needed = no stress. Everything with them has been very good.

madshana said: Very easy to get the bonus - but they really do mean DD from employer or SS. At least when I went in they gave me a form to sign indicating these terms along with the fact that I had to open the account with min. $250 and not close it for 6 months - requiring DD each month - or the bonus would be forfeited.
Does this mean you were not able to determine whether or not a paypal or ACH transfer counted as a direct deposit?

Submitted my app last weekend, got a email today - Thank you for submitting an online application with Metropolitan National Bank. Unfortunately, your application has been declined because there have been one or more inquiries filed with another financial institution recently. We are currently taking a very conservative view in accepting online applications. We are updating our online application process so that applicants in this particular situation will be re-evaluated for an account. This process is scheduled to be completed by Monday, February 25, 2008. Since I've only submitted one other bank app (OneUnited Savings) in the past 3+ months, it must be an EXTREMELY conservative view.

I feel kind of bad - its the first bank account I've ever been declined for.......

Ok, I'm over it.

I just contacted the bank and asked about getting declined opening a checking account because of the number of inquiries. At the moment, that's how their application process is set up. On Monday, the process will be changed from an automatic decline of opening the account to a review of the ChexSystems report. If there's no negatives on the report, or problems confirming your identity, you won't be declined; i.e., the number of inquiries won't be a factor.

Also, I was told that they don't do a hard credit inquiry for opening a checking account; they just use ChexSystems. The person I spoke with at the main office, (212) 643-6981, also said she'd give me a call on Monday to confirm that the new application process is in place. There doesn't seem much point in my applying prior to that time.

glxpass said: I just contacted the bank and asked about getting declined opening a checking account because of the number of inquiries. At the moment, that's how their application process is set up. On Monday, the process will be changed from an automatic decline of opening the account to a review of the ChexSystems report. If there's no negatives on the report, or problems confirming your identity, you won't be declined; i.e., the number of inquiries won't be a factor.

Also, I was told that they don't do a hard credit inquiry for opening a checking account; they just use ChexSystems. The person I spoke with at the main office, (212) 643-6981, also said she'd give me a call on Monday to confirm that the new application process is in place. There doesn't seem much point in my applying prior to that time.

did she also mention the inability to open the account online? It seems that the account required for this bonus is not an available option online.

glxpass said: busterbaxter said: glxpass said: I just contacted the bank and asked about getting declined opening a checking account because of the number of inquiries. At the moment, that's how their application process is set up. On Monday, the process will be changed from an automatic decline of opening the account to a review of the ChexSystems report. If there's no negatives on the report, or problems confirming your identity, you won't be declined; i.e., the number of inquiries won't be a factor.

Also, I was told that they don't do a hard credit inquiry for opening a checking account; they just use ChexSystems. The person I spoke with at the main office, (212) 643-6981, also said she'd give me a call on Monday to confirm that the new application process is in place. There doesn't seem much point in my applying prior to that time.

did she also mention the inability to open the account online? It seems that the account required for this bonus is not an available option online.
Perhaps I'm missing something here, but isn't it the Personal Checking Account that one would open? Doesn't this link allow you to do that? It shows me various accounts I can open, including Personal Checking. When I click on the question mark to right of the check box for Personal Checking, a window displays, showing this promotion.

In any event, I'm not going through the process until I hear back from them on Monday. I suppose if I've any problems at that point, I'll contact them.

initially there were some confusions over the name of the correct account to apply. I just checked Bankdeal's blog entry again and looks like he got clarification from the bank.

thanks for calling them and updating us on the new process. I would wait until next week too. If it's really just ChexSystem I am definitely in.

I didn't receive the promised call from Metropolitan Mational Bank today, but your experience, DreamSun, seems to indicate that they've indeed modified their on-line application system; otherwise, you wouldn't have told that your application would be reviewed.

I'll give them a call tomorrow also, just to confirm this.

Glitch99 said: glxpass said: I didn't receive the promised call from Metropolitan Mational Bank today, but your experience, DreamSun, seems to indicate that they've indeed modified their on-line application system; otherwise, you wouldn't have told that your application would be reviewed.

I'll give them a call tomorrow also, just to confirm this.Not necessarily. I got the same response as DreamSun when submitting the app, then received this email a couple days later.
Thanks for the follow-up. I see what you mean. All the more reason to call and find out what's going on before I take the time and effort to apply.

I just spoke to someone on the phone and she said you have to give them your full paycheck as direct deposit. That's annoying. Now I might cancel the application.

krk206s said: Gotham said: I just spoke to someone on the phone and she said you have to give them your full paycheck as direct deposit. That's annoying. Now I might cancel the application.

How would they know what "full" is? It's not like your company is saying here is $500 out of $1000. For all they know I only make $500 every pay period. To make it appear legit just make up a number - like 516.23.

She said they could verify by asking for a paystub. That would suck to go to this trouble and then have them verify.

Gotham said: She said they could verify by asking for a paystub.If that's the case, then it probably needs to be full, or at least not arouse suspicion. They probably wouldn't ask if it were well over 500. Then use the money to pay your mortgage or something big. It sounds like they've thought this out, because other banks only ask for $100-$200, like my seven do.

This is from there website. They mention the word "FULL" three times, so be carefull.

Free checking account and $200 bonus offers subject to change without notice, limited to one account per customer. Free checking with the $200 bonus requires activating full direct deposit ($500 minumum)of recurring payroll, government benefits or retirement account disbursements. $200 bonus will be credited to the account after first full qualifying direct deposit posts. Bonus is considered interest and will be reported on IRS form 1099-INT. Account must remain open and full qualifying direct deposit active for 6 months from the date of account opening or the $200 bonus will be debited upon account closure. Metropolitan National Bank ATM and debit cardholders pay no Metropolitan National Bank fees to use any ATM worldwide, and any "foreign" ATM fees charged by owners of ATMs other than Metropolitan National Bank are rebated.

No, nothing got erazed. Even when you click delete online, the information just is not shown for you anylonger, but still kept on the internal servers.

Please someone sue this bank. They have never refund me ATM fees, were rude and potetic over the phone, never replyed to any letter.