Receive $125 for setting up a Chase Free Checking Account.
Attention! This deal is no longer available. Check out the best checking account bonuses and offers in 2011 for a list of updated give-a-ways from various banks and credit unions.
While this deal is no longer available, Chase does issue a number of checking account bonuses throughout the year which usually feature a simple and relatively straight forward cash bonus which generally amounts to $50, $100 or $125. Other banks tend to attach a few strings to sign-up bonuses so we have to give Chase credit for making this a relatively simple process with broad acceptance.
If you’d like to cash in on one of these, bookmark our site and come back often as we’ll never miss a Chase checking bonus offer!
Thanks to BankVibe.com reader Aleksey for pointing out the last checking account bonus from Chase.
Below were the terms and conditions of the deal from our archives:
When you open a CHASE Free Checking account and set up Direct Deposit, you will receive a $125 deposit from CHASE into your account.
Coupon Code: 3302697030420017
Terms and Conditions:
1. Offer valid through 01/31/2009.
2. To qualify for the offer you must open a new Chase Free Checking (no monthly service fee; on-line access) with a $100 minimum opening deposit of new money (money not currently held by Chase or its affiliates).
3. The $125 bonus is not available to customers with an existing Chase checking account.
4. Within 60 calendar days of account opening, you must initiate a monthly direct deposit such as payroll, pension or Social Security, or other gov benefits (or other kinds of direct deposits, such as disbursement coming from amazon.com, ebay, craiglist, etc. seller accounts).
5. The $125 bonus will be deposited into your new account within six weeks after the initial direct deposit has posted to your account.
December 17th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I think they have had this deal for a while. its a great one though! they keep changing the bonus amount so you will have to be on your toes
December 19th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Hi, I was wondering if an ACH transfer from one of my other bank accounts to Chase would count as direct deposit?
Right now I am abroad for the next 6 months so I do not have my old job or DD. I am still opening up bank accounts from here and using my parents house as my legal US residence. If the ACH transfer works, that would be fantastic. What about Paypal, and wouldn’t there be a fee for that?
December 20th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Zach,
I believe an ACH transfer would suffice. I would not use PayPal. You may want to give their customer service dept. a jingle just to make sure your ACH transfer would be ok.
December 21st, 2008 at 9:24 am
There customer service just got back to me…pretty damn fast if you ask me, especially since its the weekend.
Anyways they told me my ACH would not count as Direct Deposit, it had to come from an employer or government agency. So I guess I will have to wait til I am back in the states for the next promotion.
keep up the great work…just discovered this site last week off of bankaholic and already I like coming here more.
December 21st, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Zach,
Amazon.com cash disbursements into a seller’s checking account worked with no problem in my case – I’ve got $125 right after the first amazon.com was deposited at Chase. My guess that the same thing might work with Ebay/PayPal…
December 22nd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Thanks for the good word Zach!
I appreciate your participation:)
December 22nd, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Al,
Can u elaborate what you did like what is amazon.com cash disbursement? Do u have to be a seller at amazon.com and then just link your account to ur new chase checking account so everytime you sold something @ amazon it goes directly to the chase checking account? Thanks in advance for your help.
December 22nd, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Hey Al,
Can you explain how you did it? What is the amazon.com cash disbursement? Thanks.
December 22nd, 2008 at 8:14 pm
is this code for one time use only?
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Do you have to do just one direct deposit? Is funding come from a bank like Wells Fargo is there a fee? Thanks for the info. This site is way better than John Wu $15 million scam site.
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Al,
I’d like to hear more about this “Amazon Cash Disbursement”. Do you have a link perhaps? Thanks
December 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Worked for me!!
PS. Love the site. Just bookmarked it!
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Hi All,
Yes, you have to be a seller at amazon.com (say, you sell books, CDs, etc.) or at some other online retailer (Ebay, Half.com, Abebooks, etc.). I will use amazon as an example.
Once every two weeks (there is also an option to transfer cash more frequently) amazon.com makes an automatic transfer, if, of course, you had at least one sale in a given 2-week period.
To register as a seller you have to provide info about your checking account where you prefer the money to be transferred.
Four months ago I linked one of my seller accounts to the brand new Chase account (the one that offers a $125 bonus after the first direct deposit) and after the very first transfer from amazon.com got the bonus in full. That is, the amazon.com transfer was qualified by CHASE as the direct deposit transaction.
One thing to keep in mind, though, is that CHASE assumes that the direct deposit will be happening on a regular basis.
Now, let’s say, you opened the checking account with CHASE. You also registered as a seller at amazon.com (or elsewhere). You got lucky and sold a book or a CD. After two weeks amazon.com transferred your cash into yours CHASE checking. You got your $125. Now you decide to stop as getting into this whole thing (with setting up a seller’s account) served its purpose of getting $125. You end this because you had no much interest in selling stuff on-line on the first place or you have no inventory to continue.
If you do not sell stuff as a seller, your direct depositing also stops. At this point CHASE may get back to you and inquire why one of the terms of the account – that is, direct deposit, is not fulfilled. This potentially may become a complication, so you may want to keep this in mind.
If, however, you are a seller who has, at least, one sale per 2-weeks, I think there should be no issues.
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Eric,
I think one direct deposit is sufficient (should be coming from your employer, social security, etc).
Regarding the second half of the question – Could you please be more specific about Wells Fargo?
Frequently, a bank (say, Wells Fargo) will manage a trust (set up by your family member, say, your Dad), created to reimburse you and your siblings for health costs. Such reimbursements can be arranged to go directly to your checking account, and therefore may count as a direct deposit. Same thing may apply with education trust…
I am not sure if this is what you had in mind…
There should be no fees for the direct deposit feature (and definitely not in case with CHASE checking).
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Mar,
The code may be for one time use only.
I do not know for sure, but there might be a restriction in case the same customer attempts to use the same promo code twice… However, this would be really interesting to experiment with…
December 23rd, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Thanks Al. Opened the account today online. Will set up direct deposit within a week when I get my checking account number. Have you guys seen the everbank.com 4% checking and money market account. Do you think this is legit. I want to get the high yield. Has anyone bank with everbank? All info welcomed
December 24th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Hey Eric,
Can you provide the link to the 4% yield with Everbank? I’d like to look into this further. Thanks
December 24th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
If you type everbank.com. It’s on the main site. It says on the checking account you get 4% on first $100K for 3 months and 3.25% for the entire year after first 3 months end. Money market first $50K 4% for 3 months and 3.42% for first year after 3 months end. I’m going to sign up. I’ve researched it. You can’t beat these interest rates.
January 28th, 2009 at 5:15 am
Does anyone have any info on Capital Bank of Mexico. They offer a CD rate at 12% for 1yr.
January 28th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Donna,
Here is a link to more info on Capital Bank of Mexico:
http://bankvibe.com/highest-yielding-cd-rates-in-north-america/
They have bank cd’s with rates of 12-18% but they are not insured. However, they claim that no one has lost money on any interest or principal as long as they have existed.
I would still check them out. Make sure you call a representative from their bank or speak to someone within the customer service department. If their bank doesn’t have this option then they are probably a tad shady
February 12th, 2009 at 1:53 am
I finally got my bonus. However, they deducted $35 for Federal Interest Withheld. I am disappointed that I may have to wait until next year to get that money when I file taxes.
February 27th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Hey Bradley when did you open the account? Do they send a check or post it to your checking account. Thanks for info.
March 7th, 2009 at 10:04 am
“Recieve $125 for setting up a Chase Free Checking Account”
“Receive” is mispelled ……”I” before “E” but NOT after “C”
March 7th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Thanks for the spell check Steve
It’s corrected.
March 8th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
The Chase $125 bonus was paid by Chase within 4 days of a direct deposit of a State Unemployment deposit. But the account cannot be closed for 6 months, and the $125 is the only interest you get. I have written checks to keep at least $100 in the account, although the minimum balance is not specified.
March 23rd, 2009 at 5:26 pm
The Code for the Chase 125$ checking would not go. It said it had expired. I opened a chat with a customer rep and she applied it for me. Just an FYI….
March 24th, 2009 at 9:36 am
Follow this link for the new coupon code:
http://bankvibe.com/chase-renews-their-125-checking-account-bonus/
August 14th, 2009 at 9:06 am
This bonus does not apply to any restricted account, such as a probationary account, If you have credit issues and find it difficult to find a checking account, chase will offer you a probationary account which lasts 9 months and costs YOU $10 a month. If you do not abuse the account they will upgrade you to a free checking account but you will still not be eligible for the bonus.
April 9th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Chase has a new checking offer! Get $100 when you open a Chase Checking account, you’ll need to make 5 debit card purchases or set up direct deposit. The offer is good until May 28, 2010, and you can apply online or get a coupon to take to a branch.
Here’s URL:
chase.com/ccp/index.jsp?pg_name=ccpmapp/shared/marketing/page/123361_gen_bonus&ID=0000010942&MSC=c0410
And here’s the bonus information:
Bonus/Account Information — Offer valid through 5/28/10. To qualify for the bonus you must open a new Chase CheckingSM account with a $100 minimum deposit of new money (money not currently held by Chase or its affiliates). Also, within 60 calendar days of account opening, we must receive from your employer or the government a monthly electronic direct deposit of your payroll, pension or government benefits, such as Social Security, or you must have at least five debit card purchases posted to your account. The reward will be deposited into your new account within 10 business days after meeting one of these requirements. Bonus is not considered part of minimum opening deposit. Limit one checking account-related reward/premium per customer, per calendar year. Offer not available on account conversions or in combination with any other offer. Offer not available to existing Chase checking customers. Employees of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and our affiliates are not eligible. Checking account must remain open for a minimum of six months or the bonus will be debited from the account at closing. Account is subject to approval. Bonus is considered interest and will be reported on IRS form 1099-INT.
November 20th, 2010 at 4:13 am
is this code for one time use only
April 25th, 2011 at 11:35 am
It doesn’t do me any good if the offer expired in 2009!
September 30th, 2011 at 3:57 pm
why is this stuff still on…i mean 2009,2008 these people seem happy..but its oct 2011 right now and I got totally screwed with that offer that still exists to get a 125 bonus…you people kno that its just a MEASURING gimmnic…they will close the account before it gets to the six months required and take back the 125.. that is unless their DEPARTMENT FOR PROFIT LOSS PREVENTION has measured you and you are a cronic fee payer…lots of luck…this is a scam…Chase is a cess pool of snakes