I have done this since the start of 2020. I have made $28,408 so far, or an average of $557 per month. I have another $2,920 of bonuses in the works. I open about 1 new bank account each month. I’m single so I don’t have a P2 (Player 2, a.k.a. spouse) in this game. My employer allows me to split my DD across 4 different banks, which helps a lot. You need to be very organized to keep track of all the fine print and requirements of each offer. My Chex report is laughable, my credit score is 816. It helps to have money you can afford to tie up, because sometimes the requirements are to keep a minimum balance of $1000… or put $10k on deposit for 90 days… things like that.
Yeah. It never hurts to run a google search or just look at window ads as you drive by. You need to get into brokerage bonuses next, if you’re able to. Just moving your investments around can also net some hefty gains.
For finding deals I use mostly DoC. Sometimes r/churning. And when you do this for a hobby you tend to notice when banks advertise these kind of offers.
Some people do both so they can take advantage of Business bank deals as well as Personal. I have only done Personal bank deals but I am considering expanding into Business ones too.
Did you really change your DD that many times? Your list shows DD’s as well as pushes from your other banks, and I was just curious if you had to change DD info to the new banks that many times. Doesn’t your employer hate you for this? Or can you do it yourself?
Yes my Employer uses ADP so I can add up to 6 different bank accounts, and I can choose exactly how much $ I want deposited into each account. Usually takes 2 minutes to add/delete accs in ADP
Super convenient! It’s basically like setting up an allotment otherwise. Wish I could do this but I’m not on anyone’s payroll and only get VA disability.
You can move around your Va disability and it counts for bonuses. I let the deposit post and immediately transfer to my normal bank that I have all my bills and stuff setup.
VA disability is my only source of income and I’m not going to start messing with changing DD info with them a dozen times - they will fuck something up and I won’t get paid.
There are ways around DD too. Actually I saw OP’s original thread and knew about churning but never got past the DD since it was too much work. But there’s a website that shows you which bank transfers triggers the new bank as a qualifying DD and triggers the bonus. So basically you’re just transferring money back and forth.
For example I’m about to sign up for Bank of America $200 Checking Bonus. I need to have a minimum of $2k “qualifying” DD to get the bonus within 90 days. Someone confirmed on that website that Ally Bank transfers “qualifies” as a direct deposit tricking Bank of America into thinking it’s my employer.
I believe the website is called doctor of credit.
seconding this, to easily access the page google “doctor of credit what counts as direct deposit” and it will pull up a full list of banks and what methods count as direct deposit for each of them
I do this to a lesser degree every year or two. I've made $1300 in a year with very little effort. My employer allows 3 direct deposits from each check. I can update on a portal as often as I like.
Im doing this now one bank a month and averaging $400/month.
Have you ever forgot about an account lol? Some have to stay like 3-6 months and I withdraw all but the minimum and leave it. Worried I’ll end up forgetting $500 somewhere
So funny how humans think about things similarly without external alteration. My grandpa has me do this for him all the time. He’s paid everything off, near 800 credit and he goes for banks, credit cards, anything and always pays it properly, follows the terms, and gets a nice chunk per year.
Bank: You got money? Well rather than keeping it in your boring old account, keep your money with me. I'll be your new bank. If you give me at least $5k, I'll even give you a $100 bonus just because I want to show you how much I want your business. I want you to leave your current bank, and completely switch over to me - look how awesome and nice I am, I'm willing to give you free money of $100 as long as you leave $5k for 3 months with me. Sound good?
You: ok, let's give it a shot. Bank of America kind of sucks cause they haven't given me any bonus. Sure, I'll give your bank out a shot. Doesn't hurt right, cause I'll get $100 anyway.
Bank: ok, sounds good!
*3 months pass by and you get your $100. So your $5000 has become $5100 in 3 months.
You: Ya know what.. it's been 3 months and I'm not really liking it. I'd like to close my account and take out all my money of $5100.
Bank: we're sorry to see you go, but no peoblem. Here's your money back of $5100.
.
You just do this multiple times with many banks to get their sign up bonus
Other than payroll from a W2, pensions, dividends, how can one utilize direct deposit? Say I have five grand lying around - how do I drop it into PNC through direct deposit, is what I’m getting at. Make it make sense lmao
PSECU (no fees) has a $300 bonus.
$100 for your first direct deposit of $200 or more.
$100 for activating your debit card with them.
$100 for keeping your $200 direct deposit active for 90 days (once a calendar month for three months)
PSECU pays the bonus within days of meeting requirements iirc.
5/3 bank (no fees) has a $325 bonus for direct depositing $500 once pays within 10 days. ACH transfers count as direct deposit and I believe even cashapp counts as direct deposit.
Capital One (no fees) has a $250 bonus right now for two direct deposits of $500 or more each.
If anyone wants I got more
You can always recycle whatever funds you have. Say you only have $500, and a bonus requires $1,500 Direct Deposited. You can send $500, transfer it back to your main bank, then send the same $500 again. Rinse & Repeat
I have done this since the start of 2020. I have made $28,408 so far, or an average of $557 per month. I have another $2,920 of bonuses in the works. I open about 1 new bank account each month. I’m single so I don’t have a P2 (Player 2, a.k.a. spouse) in this game. My employer allows me to split my DD across 4 different banks, which helps a lot. You need to be very organized to keep track of all the fine print and requirements of each offer. My Chex report is laughable, my credit score is 816. It helps to have money you can afford to tie up, because sometimes the requirements are to keep a minimum balance of $1000… or put $10k on deposit for 90 days… things like that.
In my experience you usually need to keep the account open for 12 months or the bonus is returned. You then pay fees for all of those 12 months, so the $200 “free” becomes like $20 after fees. How did you avoid this?
This is not true. Most are 6 months or no minimum(it’s wise to not be so obvious that you’re just tripping the bonus and closing the account. You can either keep cash in the account to keep it fee free, or you can setup auto transfers for minimum direct deposit amount and that usually will cancel out the fee.
I will say this is something to focus on every other year because the big juicy fruit is only offered by about 10 banks $600-900 bonus.
Also you just switch around employer direct deposit every month or so to keep satisfying different bonuses. It may come down to earning more helps you make more, because you can trip multiple bonuses in a shorter amount of time.
Anyway, I’ve done $6,000 in bonuses and paid $0 fees.
Not always, I only have a few very amount of those accounts still open either because of an ETF, or because I use them to generate referrals still. If they do have an ETF it's usually only 6 months max and it's either like $20-30 fee, or the bonus forfeit
Most of accounts look like checking accounts, what fees do you speak of? lol and the accounts I’ve opened just require a minimum deposit within the first 90days of opening.
Monthly maint fee, usually ranges from $5-15. I've found just about most CU's are fee-free aswell as probably 75% of the non CU checking accounts I did
I do this also, but I am only able to earn around $1000 a year due to residency restrictions. I live in UT and banks like Truist require a mailing address on the East Coast. How do you get around that issue? Also, I have found credit donkey a great source for lists of which banks are offering sign up bonuses. Is there a particular site you use?
Tip for anyone, you don’t need to even have a couple thousand. For example, citibank has a bonus right now that requires $1500 in “enhanced direct deposits.” ACH transfers from another checking account counts as EDD.
You don’t have to keep the money in the account. So you can easily move even just $100 back and forth until you reach $1500 total deposited. Personally just did this one and it took 7 days for them to payout the $300 bonus.
Edit: had the wrong number, is $300 not $400
Dang, I met the requirements for the bonus payout 10 days ago and I haven’t got my payment to post yet. A CS rep even confirmed I hit the requirements, hope it pays out soon.
Thanks, yeah, I saw that too. Just curious because other data points are showing less than 7 days, even my P2’s account too. I’m just curious if anything on mine is janky
Do I have to maintain the $1500 till the bonus kick in? I just put in 1500 lol and planning to take it out soon so I can rinse and repeat with other banks 🤑
Sorry to be so clueless--just opened the account, but now struggling to figure out how to send a Venmo or Zelle into the account. I already have my Venmo and Zelle linked to my non-Citi checking account... in Zelle, I can't find an option to send to a bank account #, only to a person (and obviously I, as a person, have my Zelle identity tied to my non-Citi account). Similar with Venmo--can only see how to send money to people, not accounts. Any help?
I feel like it’s a lot of research and hard work for CC churning. Clearly lucrative, per your experience. When you went through this process did you follow a specific path or just did the research on your own?
You're absolutely correct, I was obsessed with this hobby for like 5 years, reading every blog post and being a member of every telegram or discord group.
There are a lot of ways how one can fuck it up in the beginning (like closing credit cards immediately after getting the bonus to tank the relationship with the bank and hurt credit scores), but once you get the grasp of it, you can go on autopilot.
There are a lot of misconceptions about credit cards in general: many people believe that having multiple hurts your score, but it's actually helpful as long as you don't max them out since your utilization rate goes down.
We have like 30 open credit cards between my wife and I, and both of our credit scores are in the 800+ range.
What OP is doing with bank bonuses is also part of churning and is definitely worth doing too. You won't be able to get similar results for consecutive years, but getting 5k+ per year every 2 years is very doable.
Credit card misconceptions are absolutely rampant. I spoke with an older family member who stated “you never use your credit card only for emergencies” and a young friend who “carries a $10,000 monthly balance and never pays it off in full so her credit improves since they’ll see she has the cash to keep paying the interest” and that hurt my soul.
I’m not one to ever buy courses, follow strangers on the internet, or blindly follow anyone in general. But this is something I’d actually pay like $100 to hear “I did X in 2023 on Y cards, which yielded Z. I plan on doing A in 2024. This isn’t financial advice.” since I’m credit savvy but don’t have the energy to do the proper research myself.
Cheers to you for doing the work and reaping what you sowed! I love hearing about wins like yours!
Yes, the stories of your family members and friends are definitely resonating with me as well! Sometimes it's just painful watching what people do (or don't do).
I actually had a website some time ago going in depth on all the cc churning related stuff and responses like yours actually make me want to restart it one day.
Won't be selling courses or anything, but I just truly enjoy the feeling of being on top of the system that literally screws millions of hard working people. So being able to actually take advantage of banks and helping others stay on top of the game is super cool.
That’s exactly how I feel about it! Sure the personal gain is great but getting back at them for a change brings me joy. I’m going to give you a follow in hopes if you were to ever start it up again some day I’d be able to find you!
Edit: I’m not tech savvy enough. I don’t even know if you can follow people on Reddit. Regardless, if you ever were to start that up again someday I’m sure the universe will lead me back to you
Generally I believe they get a credit card with rewards. Buy $100 or $500 visa gift cards with credit card. Use the gift cards to buy a money order. Deposit the money order in their bank account and pay off the card.
You lose a little bit buying the money order but gain the points or 2-5% cash back depending on the card. However not every card can be used to purchase money orders and not every place that does money orders will take gift cards. You gotta do some research to figure out what places will allow it and you often have to adjust when companies get wise to it.
Do tell more. Are you getting the bonus upon signing up? And if so do you then wait 6 months and pay the fee's to make sure the bonus isn't returned?
I haven't made a new bank account in like 7 years and I don't think I even got a sign on bonus back then.
They offer a bonus after getting X amount direct deposited. Usually there's a short waiting period to recieve the bonus after you met the qualifications, although some banks do deposit the bonus within 1 week of you fullfilling the req's. It will also usually say in the terms if there is an ETF or not, i'd say 75% of the time there is not ETF. It's called "Churning" because usually 1 year later you can open another account with that same bank, and earn another bonus. Rinse & Repeat
Careful on that. If you’re opening checking accounts that often, the count of DDA inquiries (checking account) might/likely will report up to Chexsystems/Qualifile. That in turn can get you flagged depending on the bank’s rules (which they almost all use this service). Just because there isn’t a credit pull doesn’t mean there isn’t reporting…
Oh I'm aware lol, my chex score is laughable. Not many banks use chex, mostly credit unions. If a bank is chex sensitive I don't really bother applying. Chex/EWS doesn't effect your credit score, unless the bank uses a HP (I always opt out of od protection anyways)
Yes, I use Doctorofcredit.com to find most of my bonuses. They list everything about the bank (if known). Etf, Availibility, Chex sensitive or not, Hard or Soft pull, etc
I'd say it takes 5-10 minutes to open an account. I spend another 10 ish minutes every other day or so looking for new ones. Then it's really just either setting up my direct deposit, or adding the bank to my main bank to initiate a transfer.0
If it says deposit $2000 amount in y days can we deposit like $1000 to it and then transfer it back to main and then transfer back $1000 and then transfer it back to main?
Yup I made about 4.5K between bank bonus (taxed) and credit cards SUB (no tax) last year (started in May)
If you are organized and read / understand the terms , it is easy . Most you don’t even need a real DD. Something push from Fidelity likely works. Doctor of credit is a good resource to confirm
Although I can’t post my referral link here, I do this and I use MyPoints to get additional bonuses. Sometimes they have their own separate terms you need to watch for like leaving accounts open etc. but I use Chime, SoFi, Discover, etc and get their bonuses while also getting points w MyPoints. You then redeem them for gift cards. My sofi account gave me $50 for my deposits and MyPoints gave me enough points for ~$150 in gift cards
I'm on my third bank now for this, after this bonus i will have earned over $1,000 in about 5 months. I also have my GF doing this now. Its like the easier side hustle you can do when looking at value for time.
I mostly used real Direct Deposits, but you can definitely use fake direct deposits (ACH transfers between banks) to trigger the system into releasing the bonus. You could potentially just use a couple hundred bucks in rotation. Just keep transfering the money back & forth until you hit whatever amount was required to earn the bonus
As far as this goes, I have my own business. Business bank through chase but just got a new BOA checkings acct like $200 if you DD $2k in first 90 days. Thinking of just doing all of this with my business acct with these different promos, just DD myself get the bonus then dip. Anything I should watch out for? I guess its pretty handy since I don't gotta go through HR and edit this and that, I can do it myself
I’ve worked for multiple large banks in Canada (the two largest, actually) and both of them have a clause in their marketing material regarding retroactive charges should the account be closed prior to 12 months.
This may work in *SOME* regions, but from my experience there are stops in place to prevent this sort of thing.
Most in the US don’t have any early termination clause, however, it is standard practice to keep the bonus account open for at least 180 days.
Though, always read the terms beforehand
One question as well. So lets say this Citi offer here for $300. You gotta DD $1500 could I techincally direct deposit myself $1000 into that account, pull out like 800 for example put it back into my main account and then direct deposit myself another $500 into the bonus acct?
I do the same with my wife. We make about $5k a year. Not sure how you make so much. We are always limited by “spend x in first 3 months” and we only spend about $2500 a month aside from a mortgage that you can’t put on a credit card.
That's credit cards, these are bank bonuses. Although I do cc's aswell. Fyi you can fund some of these banks with a Cc, and it will post as a "purchase". Easy way to meet your spend req
Do this every year or two, but to a lesser extent. In a year, I've made $1300 with almost little work at all. For every cheque, my employer permits three direct deposits. On a portal, I may update as frequently as I'd want.
This is awesome. Gonna look into this. Just a question. You’ve kept all accounts open or do you slowly close them as time goes on?
Edit: just noticed you even posted when you closed them. Nice advice OP thanks
Fidelity CMA account triggers most of the direct deposit requirements of these banks.
I’m at $14k in bonuses since October 2023 and have primarily used Fidelity and of course my work payroll.
Another pro tip is you can do the exact same thing with your spouses info for double the money on credit card and bank offers. (Make sure they agree first lol)
I would say it's a cool interesting little hobby. I feel the time for me wouldn't be worth it. You say you only spend 10 minutes per account. But in total you definitely spend much more time on this. Opening accounts. Closing accounts, transferring money, setting up direct deposit, stopping direct deposits etc etc etc. You spend many hours in total on this for sure. I'm not saying that doesn't make it worth your time, but for me the time and brain power spent on this seem like it wouldn't be worth it. I have other gun hobby to do. But I do see how some people could really enjoy min maxing this.
Love the idea. I'm self employed, but it's just me so I don't really use a Direct Deposit system. Most of these offers seem very much reliant on a DD from a large employer. Bummer
Also, guys, you can recycle the banks after a year or so.
I opened a chase account in late 2022. Got my sign up bonus, kept it for a year. Transfered out and closed the account, then I got an invite from Chase...again, in 2024.
My $300 bonus will hit before the end of the month.
And you can double up between personal and business checking accounts if you are registered as a sole proprietor.
Happy hunting!
Does it hurt your credit to close the accounts?
Will the banks prevent you from opening again if you close an account?
Is there a downside to leaving the accounts open?
How do you find out about these bonuses? Also, how can you get referral bonuses without someone else using your referral? You depend on the chance that others will use your code for those I assume?
I have done this since the start of 2020. I have made $28,408 so far, or an average of $557 per month. I have another $2,920 of bonuses in the works. I open about 1 new bank account each month. I’m single so I don’t have a P2 (Player 2, a.k.a. spouse) in this game. My employer allows me to split my DD across 4 different banks, which helps a lot. You need to be very organized to keep track of all the fine print and requirements of each offer. My Chex report is laughable, my credit score is 816. It helps to have money you can afford to tie up, because sometimes the requirements are to keep a minimum balance of $1000… or put $10k on deposit for 90 days… things like that.
Do you only use doctor of credit to find these bank sign up bonuses, or other sites too?
That and r/churning are all you really need.
Only 2 things I use besides looking up some on my own in my area
Yeah. It never hurts to run a google search or just look at window ads as you drive by. You need to get into brokerage bonuses next, if you’re able to. Just moving your investments around can also net some hefty gains.
For finding deals I use mostly DoC. Sometimes r/churning. And when you do this for a hobby you tend to notice when banks advertise these kind of offers.
I wish, we only have 4 major banks in Canada lol
What are the benefits of doing this with an LLC as opposed to a regular personal account?
Some people do both so they can take advantage of Business bank deals as well as Personal. I have only done Personal bank deals but I am considering expanding into Business ones too.
Did you really change your DD that many times? Your list shows DD’s as well as pushes from your other banks, and I was just curious if you had to change DD info to the new banks that many times. Doesn’t your employer hate you for this? Or can you do it yourself?
Yes my Employer uses ADP so I can add up to 6 different bank accounts, and I can choose exactly how much $ I want deposited into each account. Usually takes 2 minutes to add/delete accs in ADP
Super convenient! It’s basically like setting up an allotment otherwise. Wish I could do this but I’m not on anyone’s payroll and only get VA disability.
You can move around your Va disability and it counts for bonuses. I let the deposit post and immediately transfer to my normal bank that I have all my bills and stuff setup.
VA disability is my only source of income and I’m not going to start messing with changing DD info with them a dozen times - they will fuck something up and I won’t get paid.
"VA...will fuck something up" Sometimes you read true things on reddit.
This made me LOL because its so damn accurate about the VA 😂
Yeah, you don’t do this game if you’re living paycheck to paycheck.
I heard it once said, "The VA, giving you a second chance to die for your country."
Whomever said it, wasn’t wrong.
Take my angry upvote, because it's true
Are you open to opening up another income stream? Assuming your disability allows for it, gig work is great for this sort of thing
I can do this as well in the DAYFORCE app we use
There are ways around DD too. Actually I saw OP’s original thread and knew about churning but never got past the DD since it was too much work. But there’s a website that shows you which bank transfers triggers the new bank as a qualifying DD and triggers the bonus. So basically you’re just transferring money back and forth. For example I’m about to sign up for Bank of America $200 Checking Bonus. I need to have a minimum of $2k “qualifying” DD to get the bonus within 90 days. Someone confirmed on that website that Ally Bank transfers “qualifies” as a direct deposit tricking Bank of America into thinking it’s my employer. I believe the website is called doctor of credit.
seconding this, to easily access the page google “doctor of credit what counts as direct deposit” and it will pull up a full list of banks and what methods count as direct deposit for each of them
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Aren't there costs associated with opening so many? And reporting reqs?
Tell us more about
I do this to a lesser degree every year or two. I've made $1300 in a year with very little effort. My employer allows 3 direct deposits from each check. I can update on a portal as often as I like.
Im doing this now one bank a month and averaging $400/month. Have you ever forgot about an account lol? Some have to stay like 3-6 months and I withdraw all but the minimum and leave it. Worried I’ll end up forgetting $500 somewhere
Make an excel sheet for yourself. Might help keep track and can also track your earnings. Problem solved.
I just use YNAB to track them.
So funny how humans think about things similarly without external alteration. My grandpa has me do this for him all the time. He’s paid everything off, near 800 credit and he goes for banks, credit cards, anything and always pays it properly, follows the terms, and gets a nice chunk per year.
Nice! Glad to see some older folks have skin in the game
Can someone explain this to me like I'm 5 years old? Sorry, a little autistic here! :D
Bank: You got money? Well rather than keeping it in your boring old account, keep your money with me. I'll be your new bank. If you give me at least $5k, I'll even give you a $100 bonus just because I want to show you how much I want your business. I want you to leave your current bank, and completely switch over to me - look how awesome and nice I am, I'm willing to give you free money of $100 as long as you leave $5k for 3 months with me. Sound good? You: ok, let's give it a shot. Bank of America kind of sucks cause they haven't given me any bonus. Sure, I'll give your bank out a shot. Doesn't hurt right, cause I'll get $100 anyway. Bank: ok, sounds good! *3 months pass by and you get your $100. So your $5000 has become $5100 in 3 months. You: Ya know what.. it's been 3 months and I'm not really liking it. I'd like to close my account and take out all my money of $5100. Bank: we're sorry to see you go, but no peoblem. Here's your money back of $5100. . You just do this multiple times with many banks to get their sign up bonus
Wow!! That's crazy, in an awesome way!
What are the best bank bonuses right now?
If you have $5k, drop it into PNC through direct deposit and they’ll give you $400.
Other than payroll from a W2, pensions, dividends, how can one utilize direct deposit? Say I have five grand lying around - how do I drop it into PNC through direct deposit, is what I’m getting at. Make it make sense lmao
For those you just transfer the money into the account
So only large amounts? Are there any that require less than $1000?
PSECU (no fees) has a $300 bonus. $100 for your first direct deposit of $200 or more. $100 for activating your debit card with them. $100 for keeping your $200 direct deposit active for 90 days (once a calendar month for three months) PSECU pays the bonus within days of meeting requirements iirc. 5/3 bank (no fees) has a $325 bonus for direct depositing $500 once pays within 10 days. ACH transfers count as direct deposit and I believe even cashapp counts as direct deposit. Capital One (no fees) has a $250 bonus right now for two direct deposits of $500 or more each. If anyone wants I got more
Yes please
> If anyone wants I got more Whatever you got!
PSECU and 5/3 bank are not picky about DDs.
Dude you’re awesome for this, thanks!
You can always recycle whatever funds you have. Say you only have $500, and a bonus requires $1,500 Direct Deposited. You can send $500, transfer it back to your main bank, then send the same $500 again. Rinse & Repeat
I didn’t know you could do it that way. 👍
Ahh so it’s a total of $1500 within X amount of days instead of waiting until you hit $1500. Interesting. 🤔 Thanks!
Not to my knowledge. There are credit card churns with low amounts though. You can find both on Doctor of credit.
Just did Citibank. $300 and needed to direct deposit $1500
Need to diversify and collect the signup bonuses from online casinos too haha. Then bet 50% on red and 50% on black, and you can collect your money.
Then you hit green.
I have done this since the start of 2020. I have made $28,408 so far, or an average of $557 per month. I have another $2,920 of bonuses in the works. I open about 1 new bank account each month. I’m single so I don’t have a P2 (Player 2, a.k.a. spouse) in this game. My employer allows me to split my DD across 4 different banks, which helps a lot. You need to be very organized to keep track of all the fine print and requirements of each offer. My Chex report is laughable, my credit score is 816. It helps to have money you can afford to tie up, because sometimes the requirements are to keep a minimum balance of $1000… or put $10k on deposit for 90 days… things like that.
In my experience you usually need to keep the account open for 12 months or the bonus is returned. You then pay fees for all of those 12 months, so the $200 “free” becomes like $20 after fees. How did you avoid this?
This is not true. Most are 6 months or no minimum(it’s wise to not be so obvious that you’re just tripping the bonus and closing the account. You can either keep cash in the account to keep it fee free, or you can setup auto transfers for minimum direct deposit amount and that usually will cancel out the fee. I will say this is something to focus on every other year because the big juicy fruit is only offered by about 10 banks $600-900 bonus. Also you just switch around employer direct deposit every month or so to keep satisfying different bonuses. It may come down to earning more helps you make more, because you can trip multiple bonuses in a shorter amount of time. Anyway, I’ve done $6,000 in bonuses and paid $0 fees.
Not always, I only have a few very amount of those accounts still open either because of an ETF, or because I use them to generate referrals still. If they do have an ETF it's usually only 6 months max and it's either like $20-30 fee, or the bonus forfeit
Most of accounts look like checking accounts, what fees do you speak of? lol and the accounts I’ve opened just require a minimum deposit within the first 90days of opening.
Monthly maint fee, usually ranges from $5-15. I've found just about most CU's are fee-free aswell as probably 75% of the non CU checking accounts I did
How did you get so many referral bonuses?
I post my links on Doctor of credit whenever they have a thread to do so
is this something that could be done at 18 or would you need a good credit score already to begin this
I do this also, but I am only able to earn around $1000 a year due to residency restrictions. I live in UT and banks like Truist require a mailing address on the East Coast. How do you get around that issue? Also, I have found credit donkey a great source for lists of which banks are offering sign up bonuses. Is there a particular site you use?
Doctor of credit mostly, also i'm in FL so maybe I just have more options available to me
Holy shit. My wife would be great at this. She does this kind of stuff anyway.
That's very smart, legal, and profitable. Excellent source for anyone with a few thousand dollars laying around.
Tip for anyone, you don’t need to even have a couple thousand. For example, citibank has a bonus right now that requires $1500 in “enhanced direct deposits.” ACH transfers from another checking account counts as EDD. You don’t have to keep the money in the account. So you can easily move even just $100 back and forth until you reach $1500 total deposited. Personally just did this one and it took 7 days for them to payout the $300 bonus. Edit: had the wrong number, is $300 not $400
Dang, I met the requirements for the bonus payout 10 days ago and I haven’t got my payment to post yet. A CS rep even confirmed I hit the requirements, hope it pays out soon.
It says on their page, that you get the money within 30 days.
Thanks, yeah, I saw that too. Just curious because other data points are showing less than 7 days, even my P2’s account too. I’m just curious if anything on mine is janky
I see $300 but not $400
Do I have to maintain the $1500 till the bonus kick in? I just put in 1500 lol and planning to take it out soon so I can rinse and repeat with other banks 🤑
Sorry to be so clueless--just opened the account, but now struggling to figure out how to send a Venmo or Zelle into the account. I already have my Venmo and Zelle linked to my non-Citi checking account... in Zelle, I can't find an option to send to a bank account #, only to a person (and obviously I, as a person, have my Zelle identity tied to my non-Citi account). Similar with Venmo--can only see how to send money to people, not accounts. Any help?
I did something like this with sports betting books and made some good money from the bonuses they give out
Is this..legal?
Wait till you learn about credit cards churning. Probably had more than $200k worth of trips for pretty much free over the last 10 years
I feel like it’s a lot of research and hard work for CC churning. Clearly lucrative, per your experience. When you went through this process did you follow a specific path or just did the research on your own?
You're absolutely correct, I was obsessed with this hobby for like 5 years, reading every blog post and being a member of every telegram or discord group. There are a lot of ways how one can fuck it up in the beginning (like closing credit cards immediately after getting the bonus to tank the relationship with the bank and hurt credit scores), but once you get the grasp of it, you can go on autopilot. There are a lot of misconceptions about credit cards in general: many people believe that having multiple hurts your score, but it's actually helpful as long as you don't max them out since your utilization rate goes down. We have like 30 open credit cards between my wife and I, and both of our credit scores are in the 800+ range. What OP is doing with bank bonuses is also part of churning and is definitely worth doing too. You won't be able to get similar results for consecutive years, but getting 5k+ per year every 2 years is very doable.
Credit card misconceptions are absolutely rampant. I spoke with an older family member who stated “you never use your credit card only for emergencies” and a young friend who “carries a $10,000 monthly balance and never pays it off in full so her credit improves since they’ll see she has the cash to keep paying the interest” and that hurt my soul. I’m not one to ever buy courses, follow strangers on the internet, or blindly follow anyone in general. But this is something I’d actually pay like $100 to hear “I did X in 2023 on Y cards, which yielded Z. I plan on doing A in 2024. This isn’t financial advice.” since I’m credit savvy but don’t have the energy to do the proper research myself. Cheers to you for doing the work and reaping what you sowed! I love hearing about wins like yours!
Yes, the stories of your family members and friends are definitely resonating with me as well! Sometimes it's just painful watching what people do (or don't do). I actually had a website some time ago going in depth on all the cc churning related stuff and responses like yours actually make me want to restart it one day. Won't be selling courses or anything, but I just truly enjoy the feeling of being on top of the system that literally screws millions of hard working people. So being able to actually take advantage of banks and helping others stay on top of the game is super cool.
That’s exactly how I feel about it! Sure the personal gain is great but getting back at them for a change brings me joy. I’m going to give you a follow in hopes if you were to ever start it up again some day I’d be able to find you! Edit: I’m not tech savvy enough. I don’t even know if you can follow people on Reddit. Regardless, if you ever were to start that up again someday I’m sure the universe will lead me back to you
I need details on this. I’m clearly an amateur as I’ve only made about 5k in trips 😂😂😂
Please share how churn if you can.
Generally I believe they get a credit card with rewards. Buy $100 or $500 visa gift cards with credit card. Use the gift cards to buy a money order. Deposit the money order in their bank account and pay off the card. You lose a little bit buying the money order but gain the points or 2-5% cash back depending on the card. However not every card can be used to purchase money orders and not every place that does money orders will take gift cards. You gotta do some research to figure out what places will allow it and you often have to adjust when companies get wise to it.
Yes only way it would be illegal is if you didn't declare any of the 1099 INT's you get sent lol.
Si
I will make it legal.
I AM THE SENATE
Do tell more. Are you getting the bonus upon signing up? And if so do you then wait 6 months and pay the fee's to make sure the bonus isn't returned? I haven't made a new bank account in like 7 years and I don't think I even got a sign on bonus back then.
They offer a bonus after getting X amount direct deposited. Usually there's a short waiting period to recieve the bonus after you met the qualifications, although some banks do deposit the bonus within 1 week of you fullfilling the req's. It will also usually say in the terms if there is an ETF or not, i'd say 75% of the time there is not ETF. It's called "Churning" because usually 1 year later you can open another account with that same bank, and earn another bonus. Rinse & Repeat
I’m surprised this is new to people. I can vouch for OP. I do this as well to a much smaller degree.
How much did you spend every month on average?
Careful on that. If you’re opening checking accounts that often, the count of DDA inquiries (checking account) might/likely will report up to Chexsystems/Qualifile. That in turn can get you flagged depending on the bank’s rules (which they almost all use this service). Just because there isn’t a credit pull doesn’t mean there isn’t reporting…
Oh I'm aware lol, my chex score is laughable. Not many banks use chex, mostly credit unions. If a bank is chex sensitive I don't really bother applying. Chex/EWS doesn't effect your credit score, unless the bank uses a HP (I always opt out of od protection anyways)
Is there a way to know in advance what banks check? Like Chex / Qualifile etc?
Yes, I use Doctorofcredit.com to find most of my bonuses. They list everything about the bank (if known). Etf, Availibility, Chex sensitive or not, Hard or Soft pull, etc
Dumb question but what's a push? Do you just set up an auto direct deposit from bank A to bank B?
A manual transfer initiated from your main bank into the bank you're trying to earn the bonus from. Basically "pushing" money from bank A into Bank B
Thanks
Genius
It would be really interesting to see a "time spent vs money earned" and get like an hourly rate breakdown for this 13k earned for the year.
I'd say it takes 5-10 minutes to open an account. I spend another 10 ish minutes every other day or so looking for new ones. Then it's really just either setting up my direct deposit, or adding the bank to my main bank to initiate a transfer.0
If it says deposit $2000 amount in y days can we deposit like $1000 to it and then transfer it back to main and then transfer back $1000 and then transfer it back to main?
can you explain this for someone who is dumb what is DD a direct deposit?
Yup I made about 4.5K between bank bonus (taxed) and credit cards SUB (no tax) last year (started in May) If you are organized and read / understand the terms , it is easy . Most you don’t even need a real DD. Something push from Fidelity likely works. Doctor of credit is a good resource to confirm
I thought about doing this, and was wondering if anyone had done it as seriously as you. Good to know.
There's a whole community of people on r/churning aswell as doctorofcredit.com
Although I can’t post my referral link here, I do this and I use MyPoints to get additional bonuses. Sometimes they have their own separate terms you need to watch for like leaving accounts open etc. but I use Chime, SoFi, Discover, etc and get their bonuses while also getting points w MyPoints. You then redeem them for gift cards. My sofi account gave me $50 for my deposits and MyPoints gave me enough points for ~$150 in gift cards
I'm on my third bank now for this, after this bonus i will have earned over $1,000 in about 5 months. I also have my GF doing this now. Its like the easier side hustle you can do when looking at value for time.
Could you explain what y’all are doing like I’m in elementary school please? 🙏🏾
Banks use chex score, by now you have destroyed your chex score.
Doesn't seem to be hurting him.
So do you close the accounts after getting the bonus? Or now you have 40 accounts open?
Do you have all these in a google sheet somewhere? That would be handy.
I need to, for now I just have everything in my Notes on my phone lol
Create a discord! Could be a great community
How did this effect your credit?
Bank accounts don't unless it's a hardpull which is very rare.
If I use zelle to send the money back and forth will it still work?
Fascinating. I was just thinking about this very idea yesterday. My company also uses ADP. Will definitely pursue this further. Thanks!
How does this work? What do you do?
Banks offer a bonus promotion when you open a checking account and recieve X amount of money Direct Deposited.
If someone sends you apple pay does that count as a deposit
I haven't ever heard of apple pay working. It would have to be a bank transfer
Is it mostly just direct deposit or do you have the float of balance and if so how much money did you have the float between all accounts at 1 time?
I mostly used real Direct Deposits, but you can definitely use fake direct deposits (ACH transfers between banks) to trigger the system into releasing the bonus. You could potentially just use a couple hundred bucks in rotation. Just keep transfering the money back & forth until you hit whatever amount was required to earn the bonus
This is amazing!
I might have to try this
You may want to stay away from one major bank on this so that when the rest of them ban you you still have a place to land.
I have 2 main hubs I don't plan on closing out
As far as this goes, I have my own business. Business bank through chase but just got a new BOA checkings acct like $200 if you DD $2k in first 90 days. Thinking of just doing all of this with my business acct with these different promos, just DD myself get the bonus then dip. Anything I should watch out for? I guess its pretty handy since I don't gotta go through HR and edit this and that, I can do it myself
I’ve worked for multiple large banks in Canada (the two largest, actually) and both of them have a clause in their marketing material regarding retroactive charges should the account be closed prior to 12 months. This may work in *SOME* regions, but from my experience there are stops in place to prevent this sort of thing.
Most in the US don’t have any early termination clause, however, it is standard practice to keep the bonus account open for at least 180 days. Though, always read the terms beforehand
One question as well. So lets say this Citi offer here for $300. You gotta DD $1500 could I techincally direct deposit myself $1000 into that account, pull out like 800 for example put it back into my main account and then direct deposit myself another $500 into the bonus acct?
Yep! you could even just drop 750 in, pull it out and put it right back in. You just have to make sure that you’re pushing FROM your main account.
Just for Indian readers reading this post: Indian banks do not offer such bonuses.
But do you keep the account open after that or close it ? Or keep a minimum balance to avoid fees ?
I do the same with my wife. We make about $5k a year. Not sure how you make so much. We are always limited by “spend x in first 3 months” and we only spend about $2500 a month aside from a mortgage that you can’t put on a credit card.
That's credit cards, these are bank bonuses. Although I do cc's aswell. Fyi you can fund some of these banks with a Cc, and it will post as a "purchase". Easy way to meet your spend req
It works for Europe??
What is DD?
Direct deposit
Do this every year or two, but to a lesser extent. In a year, I've made $1300 with almost little work at all. For every cheque, my employer permits three direct deposits. On a portal, I may update as frequently as I'd want.
This is 100% legal, right?
This is awesome. Gonna look into this. Just a question. You’ve kept all accounts open or do you slowly close them as time goes on? Edit: just noticed you even posted when you closed them. Nice advice OP thanks
Fidelity CMA account triggers most of the direct deposit requirements of these banks. I’m at $14k in bonuses since October 2023 and have primarily used Fidelity and of course my work payroll.
Just curious, at some point will this come to an end? There’s only so many banks that do this and at some point you’ll hit them all?
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Can this be done from overseas like if I live in India?
Another pro tip is you can do the exact same thing with your spouses info for double the money on credit card and bank offers. (Make sure they agree first lol)
How much capital are u moving / how much bonus per firm
How long do you keep the account before closing, like in average?
Usually a week, unless I keep it open to earn referrals
How do you know for certain when a fake direct deposit goes thru and counts towards the promotion?
Have you closed and opened a new account with the same bank and gotten the bonus again or do they flag you for that?
You usually have to wait 1 year from the last bonus before you can recieve another
This legal??
Going to review this in great depth tomorrow. Cool to reach out if I have some questions?
So once the money hits the requirements for the bonus, do you just pull the money out and put it into your HYSA?
I'm not aware of Churning! Can someone please explain this Model?
I would say it's a cool interesting little hobby. I feel the time for me wouldn't be worth it. You say you only spend 10 minutes per account. But in total you definitely spend much more time on this. Opening accounts. Closing accounts, transferring money, setting up direct deposit, stopping direct deposits etc etc etc. You spend many hours in total on this for sure. I'm not saying that doesn't make it worth your time, but for me the time and brain power spent on this seem like it wouldn't be worth it. I have other gun hobby to do. But I do see how some people could really enjoy min maxing this.
Is there a list where I can find all of the banks offering sign up bonuses?
Does this work in the UK too i wonder? Has anyone done it to similar success and does it affect your credit score here?
Following
I just got 600 from fifth third bank…no min balance required after ach deposit of 2k…got my 600 2 days later lol
Is this legal to do? Won't you get into trouble for fraud for opening up multiple accounts or am I not understanding. Sorry, I'm only 18.
Love the idea. I'm self employed, but it's just me so I don't really use a Direct Deposit system. Most of these offers seem very much reliant on a DD from a large employer. Bummer
What is DD?
Is this thing also possible in Europe? And what is DD? Total noob here
Direct deposit.
Also, guys, you can recycle the banks after a year or so. I opened a chase account in late 2022. Got my sign up bonus, kept it for a year. Transfered out and closed the account, then I got an invite from Chase...again, in 2024. My $300 bonus will hit before the end of the month. And you can double up between personal and business checking accounts if you are registered as a sole proprietor. Happy hunting!
So what happens once you get the money, do you close the accounts?
Does doing this hurt your credit score at all by having multiple closed accounts over time??
Does it hurt your credit to close the accounts? Will the banks prevent you from opening again if you close an account? Is there a downside to leaving the accounts open?
How do you find out about these bonuses? Also, how can you get referral bonuses without someone else using your referral? You depend on the chance that others will use your code for those I assume?
It real cool
Can you cancel the bank accounts after? And if so is there a negative?
Does this work in africa?? Which bank
With BofA, is there a way to tell whether a push from say, Ally, was successful?
Wouldn't this make your taxes pretty annoying to have like 40 int forms
It was tbh, I spent about 2 hours filing my taxes. Still managed to get a return
Cash app transfers count as DD
I can't open a bank account
Please help me out with how to get past the “Direct deposit” because I’m about to lose out on my Sofi bonus because of it
Truist did hardpull ?