What is the minimum bonus that would entice you to open a new bank or brokerage?

[SeattleLaw]

I've seen posts from people who chase bank and brokerage bonuses, but I'm curious what is the minimum for you to make it worthwhile?

It seems like quite a bit of work to open a new account, deal with the paperwork at tax time, etc. Are there bigger bonuses to be had, or are people content going through all of the hassle for $500-$1,000 a year?

[hedge_hog88]

I'm nearing completion for my first attempt: $900 on $15,000 at Chase for 3 months. In my mind, that's 6% yield for ~4 months, so 18% annual. That's worth it, I guess? But given how much my retirement accounts fluctuate day to day in the market, I'm not sure if it's worth the hassle like you said. However, there are people on here getting 10K returns yearly so YMMV.

[tj]

At this point I've done them all and my portfolio is larger, I'd need something substantial (or very low effort) to bite. Reality is if I'm bored and can get a few hundred for pushing some buttons, I'd probably still do it.

[nalor511]

1%/yr.hold, no limit (i.e. if it's limited to a $10k deposit then the actual dollar value is small)

[patrick]

It varies depending on bonus type.

The tax paperwork for a bank account bonus is minimal. It's just one more interest line on the tax return. Brokerage bonuses shouldn't be that much either unless you have to make trades, though unfortunately there is also some risk of them failing to track transferred cost basis.

In terms of absolute bonus amounts, some brokerage transfers have offered multiple thousands, though usually they required a large transfer amount. A couple years ago Public offered $2,000 for a $100,000 taxable deposit, and more recently Robinhood offered 3% on IRA transfers. In terms of percentage yield, checking account bonuses can be very high -- you might get $400 just for setting up direct deposit, which might well be 25% of the peak balance, which would stay in there for much less than a year.

There might be additional hassle involved if you have to repeatedly complain to get them to pay out the bonus as promised. Also there can occasionally be difficulties with closing an account.

[tashnewbie]

I made probably a few thousand dollars in 2023 with bank bonuses. Seemed worth it for a few hours of time at most.

Didn't do any in 2024 because I knew I would be buying a house and didn't want all of the new accounts on my credit score to affect underwriting.

At this point, I don't know if I'll bother. It's typically easy money because it's minimal effort and time to get things set up, but I just don't have the desire or energy to do it.

But, I'd say try a few out and see if it's something you find worthwhile.

[lthenderson]

$1,000,000.00

[GoldStar]

It depends.
If it is a bank account I already have open and can just do the transfer from a similar bank - even $100 may be worth it. (I used to move money between Ally and GS/Marcus and back evey year and sweep up 1% bonuses at each place within the same year - they seemed to stop those programs. It was quick money with little effort).
If I need to move millions from one brokerage to another (where I don't have an account and I am not sure I trust) and risk losing cost basis tracking and risk other issues, $1000 is not worth it.

[Barky]

I used to do it, not because of the money but because I was interested in banking and banking systems and I enjoyed messing around with different accounts, banks and interfaces. The money was mostly meaningless. Now that I have a surfeit of accounts and experience I don't bother for SUBs. I will, however, open an account with a bank that looks interesting or weird. Recently opened accounts with "Upgrade" and "Golden 1 Credit Union" just because I thought they looked funky.

[psteinx]

I just got this $1500 offer (I think I have the details right):

Capital One (I use Cap One QS CC card so maybe that's why I was offered it?)
Open cash account (pays 3.8%)
Then fund with $100K
Hold 90 days (IIRC, from the funding deadline, which is in turn ~15 days after the open, so really I *think* the money needs to be there from days ~16 through ~105)
Then I guess I could pull *most* of the cash out
And sometime thereafter (30-60 days?) they add $1500 to the account
Then I would presumably close it.

That's a *lot* of touches to make this work (open, wait a bit and fund ~15 days later, pull most funds ~91 days after that, pull remaining funds (with bonus) and close it ~30-60 days later, also probably need to do some "pushing" on the money from wherever the cash is coming, also need to handle the tax details of all this).

Then deduct some for the slightly sub-par rate (3.8% fully taxable vs. ~4.2-4.3% that's federally taxable but state tax free in a t-bill or fed MM account, plus I don't really want to tie up $100K for 3.5 months anyways right now (I try to keep my cash balances low and this isn't much of an emergency fund if I can't really pull the money out for ~3.5 months).

Bottom line, I calculate that this $1500 bonus turns into ~$550-$940, after tax, once I adjust for the taxes themselves and better (absent the bonus) alternative investments. And to realize that ~$550-$940 bonus, I have to make something like 6 touches to this account or other accounts, taxes, etc. Have to have good calendar reminders that I don't miss out on, etc. It's a lot of work for a not very big bonus, even though the "face value" of the bonus seems high and simple ($1500!)

I think I'm gonna pass, but haven't entirely committed.

I have not claimed brokerage transfer bonuses for myself (other than free trades MANY years ago), nor much in the way of CC/bank bonuses (occasional sign-up bonuses for CCs I wanted anyways). I dunno - I do read some of the threads on BH and the offers, and tell myself it's ~free money, but it really isn't (time/complexity).

Plus there's a little bit of "picking up nickels in front of steamrollers" aspect to it. What if I transfer taxable brokerage assets and the basis gets lost, or they're inadvertantly sold (realizing cap gains) somewhere along the way, or whatever? Chances of that probably small-ish, but not zero...

[123]

A 1% bonus (with no upper limit) would probably get me interested. $10K for every $1M

...If I need to move millions from one brokerage to another (where I don't have an account and I am not sure I trust) and risk losing cost basis tracking and risk other issues, $1000 is not worth it.

+1 I hate to mess around with things when everything is working. But I'll take reasoned risk if the reward is great enough.

[JazzTime]

I did one at Chase last year bc the bonus seemed pretty good. After I closed the accounts, I decided I would never do it again. First, the amount "after taxes" makes it much less interesting. Second, usually these bank bonuses require a monthly direct deposit. That's a pain moving my SS deposit from one place to another, then moving it back again. Between the initial setup, changing my direct deposit, then closing the account while making sure I complied with all the fine print is way too much effort.

Having said the above, I recently got an offer from a local bank that, at first blush, caught my interest. Luckily, I called the bank to make sure I knew all the "fine print" details. Good thing I did. You had to open the account at a specific branch - one some distance away, not the one 5 minutes away. Then you had to set up a direct deposit. And finally, you had to use a debit card several times a month. I don't use a debit card, I'm not about to drive to another branch, and I don't want to change my SS deposit. So no dice. Happy to leave well enough alone.

[glitchy]

I just got this $1500 offer (I think I have the details right):

Capital One (I use Cap One QS CC card so maybe that's why I was offered it?)

I also got the offer directly as a Capital One credit card holder, although it's available to anybody who doesn't already have a Captial One savings account and hasn't had one recently.

I agree with much of your analysis (that funds need to sit there between days 16-105) and that I am thus losing a quarter's worth of interest at Cap One at a rate which is effectively around 0.7% worse than a MM rate. So for $100k it's $175 in lost interest for a $1500 (before tax) bonus. Due to the lost interest it's not as good a deal as the ones that merely involve moving equities around but it my case I looked at it as an existing Cap One cardholder and went for it. Opening the account under my existing login was extremely low-friction, and they've got $50k of operating cash that I can do without for 90 days. (FWIW the reports on DoC about this offer suggest that while they say to allow 60 days for the bonus to pay out it's usually under a week.) For me, I deal with enough financial stuff regularly anyway that having some dated items on my to-do list is no big deal, again another personal aspect.

As in most such cases, it's still available as an emergency fund--if it's enough of an emergency, I can still pull the money and the fact that I'm going to lose a bonus is not going to matter.

To answer the original question, it ultimately depends how much of a pain in the butt it is. As another example the $2500 Wells Fargo Premier offer is in some ways very easy to execute (they can hold some long-term VTI for me for a while, sure), but needing the branch visit is annoying. The payoff was good enough to do it, though, and having it give me access to better money market funds at Fidelity that otherwise have a $10M minimum to get into was a nice perk that may have pushed me over. I consider starting business with a completely new institution to be a fairly large and annoying step, but I don't care at all about one 1099 more or less at tax time, bonus payouts have an extremely straightforward tax treatment.

[champagneacura]

I recently started doing this and will keep it going in 2025 with these rough guidelines:

- online only (no going into a branch or sitting through a sales pitch)
- no accounts with fees that I have to work around. if an account has a monthly fee that's waived with a minimum balance or other stipulations, I'm out
- 1.5% minimum bonus on brokerages, no minimum on bank bonuses (see below)
- I'll prioritize an easy bank bonus for less $$ over one with more hoops for a higher bonus
- I'm in a state with high income tax so I also check to make sure the cash I need for the offer won't compromise the bonus via lost tax-exempt gains elsewhere (detailed below by @psteinx)

If I want to stop doing this at any time I can just stop and keep all my existing accounts, without having to unravel the whole thing.

[yankees60]

I did one at Chase last year bc the bonus seemed pretty good. After I closed the accounts, I decided I would never do it again. First, the amount "after taxes" makes it much less interesting. Second, usually these bank bonuses require a monthly direct deposit. That's a pain moving my SS deposit from one place to another, then moving it back again. Between the initial setup, changing my direct deposit, then closing the account while making sure I complied with all the fine print is way too much effort.

Having said the above, I recently got an offer from a local bank that, at first blush, caught my interest. Luckily, I called the bank to make sure I knew all the "fine print" details. Good thing I did. You had to open the account at a specific branch - one some distance away, not the one 5 minutes away. Then you had to set up a direct deposit. And finally, you had to use a debit card several times a month. I don't use a debit card, I'm not about to drive to another branch, and I don't want to change my SS deposit. So no dice. Happy to leave well enough alone.

"I don't use a debit card"

I have never used one in my life and don't plan to. So that is always the end of any offer that would require me to use one. Plus, I don't think I'd even have enough opportunities in a month to use one the number of times they require you to use one.

[rich126]

While I've done a lot of things for credit card bonuses, I have done very few bank/brokerage signup bonuses. Years ago I did one for chase which worked but it just seems like a lot of work and possible frustration. And with brokerage bonuses you are often talking about a sizable amount to move around and with all of the fraud, I just don't want to risk it for $1,000 or so.

Chase has a bonus where you can get $900 for not a lot of effort that I've considered but I don't need a chase account and haven't done it, yet. Also many of these bonuses aren't as great when you consider how much money you might have to keep for 90 days at near zero interest compared to locking it up in a treasury. It is more money but not sizable enough to move the needle.

[SeekingSecurity]

I've been looking at that $900 Chase offer for a while. I'm interested mainly because I was already thinking it might be useful to have a brick-and-mortar banking option. Right now we just have Ally.

I have a question about the savings account though. It pays essentially 0%. Right now I'm earning 3.8% at Ally. For the $15k Chase requires in savings, I get $570 per year at Ally ($142.50 for 90 days). So, if I move $15k to Chase to get the $900, can I move it right back to Ally after the 90 days are up? That extra $757.50 seems like it's worth it for the minor hassle of making a couple of transfers.

If it's not that simple, then I could just open the checking account, which is what I'm really interested in anyway, for a $300 bonus.

[tj]

I've been looking at that $900 Chase offer for a while. I'm interested mainly because I was already thinking it might be useful to have a brick-and-mortar banking option. Right now we just have Ally.

I have a question about the savings account though. It pays essentially 0%. Right now I'm earning 3.8% at Ally. For the $15k Chase requires in savings, I get $570 per year at Ally ($142.50 for 90 days). So, if I move $15k to Chase to get the $900, can I move it right back to Ally after the 90 days are up? That extra $757.50 seems like it's worth it for the minor hassle of making a couple of transfers.

If it's not that simple, then I could just open the checking account, which is what I'm really interested in anyway, for a $300 bonus.

Of course you can. The savings account doesn't have some onerous minimum, so after the 90 days you could leave a token amount there if you didn't want to close it.

[stan1]

Sorry to be risk averse, but with ACATS fraud and accounts being restricted for up to a year because of real or perceived ACH fraud it is not worth it to me. I know others will feel differently, but its no longer the freewheeling days when we could move money around without friction. I put assets in different brokerages and leave them there long term.

[alpenglow]

I'm phasing out because, big picture, the money doesn't move the dial much. On a normal market day, I'm gaining or losing much more than the amount I make in bonuses in a year. I'm also annoyed by the added tax documents and having money all over the place. Fraud is a concern. I'm looking forward to bringing my money back from Tasty Trade after the one year lock up period. I'll probably keep Schwab as a backup account - I liked their site. The Robinhood offers have been tempting, but I'm not willing to lock up money for 5 years. To answer the question in the subject, I'd say at least 5 thousand with a max lock up period of 1 year.

[tuningfork]

Two commas at least. I used to chase credit card bonuses. The amounts I gained were insignificant to my wealth or income, and it added a lot more complexity to my life. Not worth it. I don't need a new bank account, especially if I had to manipulate deposits or other transactions to meet minimum requirements for the bonus. I recently managed to finally get my 4 or 5 brokerages down to one, no way do I want to undo that simplification.

[CatsAreCute]

I’ve done it in the past, but I won’t anymore.

Why?

I normally have all my credit reports and bank reports locked down (Chex, Innovis). It’s a pain in the neck to unlock the latter.

And many times you’ll lose some days of interest while moving things around. Then they will issue a tax form.

So I go through a ton of hassle for maybe $300-400 after tax?

Credit card bonuses are easier to go after with fewer hassles.

[schwank]

I too am almost through the $900 Chase reward period. I had no need for another acccount, but I already had a CC and they recently bought my mortgage from LoanDepot, so I'm not going to get away from them.

That said, as soon as the remainder of the $900 is deposited I'm just transferring all that money back to my Fidelity accounts. The only actual benefit is Zelle which Fido doesn't have, but turns out it's not useful as none of my friends use it anyways.

[SeekingSecurity]

I've been looking at that $900 Chase offer for a while. I'm interested mainly because I was already thinking it might be useful to have a brick-and-mortar banking option. Right now we just have Ally.

I have a question about the savings account though. It pays essentially 0%. Right now I'm earning 3.8% at Ally. For the $15k Chase requires in savings, I get $570 per year at Ally ($142.50 for 90 days). So, if I move $15k to Chase to get the $900, can I move it right back to Ally after the 90 days are up? That extra $757.50 seems like it's worth it for the minor hassle of making a couple of transfers.

If it's not that simple, then I could just open the checking account, which is what I'm really interested in anyway, for a $300 bonus.

Of course you can. The savings account doesn't have some onerous minimum, so after the 90 days you could leave a token amount there if you didn't want to close it.

Thanks!

[orcycle]

Last year I got three bonuses: $1,500 for a credit card; and two $2,500 bonuses to move our two retirement accounts to Wells Fargo, which made us eligible for Premier banking. Plus I moved my parents’ accounts to our brokerage for another $3,000, but I was going to do that anyway and asked for a bonus and they gave it to them. I planned to go after more but nothing else really seemed worthwhile.

I may revisit this again but not for a while. Doctorofcredit was my source for these deals.

[mary1969]

Brokerage $1,000. Bank $300. Credit Card $200.

I did a M1 bonus in 2022. I would not do that again. No thanks on Robo stuff.

[hoofaman]

I did 3 bank bonuses last year:

$900 Chase
$800 PNC
$400 Regions

The only reason I did the Regions one was because I was doing PNC at the same time and I figured why not, they sent me flyers on the same month.

A few years ago I got $900 from Merril Edge to move 250k in assets to their brokerage, but I only did that to get Plat Honors rewards tier with BoA, then I moved out the additional 150k back to Schwab. BofA also gave me $300 for each Customized Cash credit card I've opened (2 so far), I'll open another if they send me another invite. I wanted all those BofA accounts anyway though

Technically the Chase bonus was only $700 because to earn it they required me park 15k in a "Savings" account which yields nothing, which was less than the 5% market yield at the time on treasury MMF, so that's around $200 of lost interest over the 90 days it was required to sit there.

The process to signup and fulfil the terms don't take long, but I do spend more time then I should re-reading the terms to make sure I'm not missing anything. Perhaps a few hours in total was spent. Most of them just required some direct deposit ammount per month which is easy to setup in my employers payroll system portal and remove later when I'm done with them. Not bad but nothing to write home about, especially after factoring in taxes (32% and 6% state)

If your going to spend time doing something, optimizing your credit card rewards strategy seems to be a much better use of time as cash back rewards are not taxed and once your setup you don't need to think about it anymore, they will just yield for you every year. We use BofA unlimited cash rewards (2.62%), 2x (5.25%) BofA customized cash cards (rewards limit per quarter), and the Amazon Prime card (5%). We got about $3,200 cash back last year on 120k of annual spend, and we will get around the same this year on the same level of spend (and next year, and the year after that, etc). So if your finding yourself using cash, checks, or a card with < 2% cash back, probably worth looking into that first