Bank of America Checking Account Bonus

There is a nationwide Bank of America checking account bonus that could net you $300 in cold hard cash. More than that though, the offer can also improve your ability to be approved for Bank of America credit cards. That is because they give a lot more rope to bank account holders. They appreciate multifaceted customers more than maybe any other bank and that is an extra spiff of grabbing this account. Let's take a look at this checking account bonus, and then how it helps elsewhere too.

Offer Details

Here are the offer details for this $300 Bank of America checking account bonus:

• Open a new Bank of America checking account.
  • Bank of America Advantage SafeBalance Banking®, Bank of America Advantage Plus Banking®, Bank of America Advantage Relationship Banking® accounts are eligible for this offer.
    • The minimum deposit required to open a Bank of America Advantage SafeBalance Banking® account is $25.
    • The minimum deposit required to open a Bank of America Advantage Plus Banking® account is $100.
    • The minimum deposit required to open a Bank of America Advantage Relationship Banking® account is $100
• Complete $2,000 in direct deposit within the first 90 days of account opening
• Offer expires May 31, 2025
• Link To Offer

That is it. A pretty simple checking account bonus if you can easily change your direct deposit set up at work. If you can't, or don't have traditional direct deposit, then you can try one of these options. These are not guaranteed to work though, and you have no recourse if they don't. That is because they don't fall within the offer terms.

Offer Terms

Here are some notable terms for this $300 Bank of America checking account bonus:

• Offer is limited to individuals who have not owned or co-owned a Bank of America personal checking account within the last twelve (12) months.
• Fiduciary accounts (e.g., trusts), Bank of America Advantage SafeBalance Banking® for Family Banking accounts, and business accounts are not eligible for this offer.
• Offer cannot be combined with any other checking offer and is limited to one bonus per account and per customer. 
• A “Qualifying Direct Deposit” is a direct deposit of regular monthly income – such as your salary, pension or Social Security benefits, which are made by your employer or other payer – using account and routing numbers that you provide to them.
  • Examples of non-qualifying transfers and deposits include the following: teller deposits, wire transfers, debit card transfers, ATM transfers or deposits, Online and Mobile Banking transfers or deposits, or transfers from a bank or brokerage account or Merrill investment account.
• After you satisfy all of the requirements, we will attempt to deposit the earned bonus directly into your new eligible personal checking account within sixty (60) days.
• You will receive a 1099 for this bonus and need to pay taxes on the $300
• There does not appear to be an early account termination fee for this one that I could see.

Avoiding Account Fees

You will want to avoid monthly maintence fees when chasing the $300 bonus. We want to get to keep all of it after all, don't we? If you are doing this offer then you will want to open the SafeBalance Banking account. Here is how you can avoid the monthly fees for that account:

• An owner of this account is under the age of 25 gets the fee waived
• Maintain a minimum daily balance of $500 in your account
• An account owner is a member of the Preferred Rewards program

The easiest way is just to park $500 in the account during the time you have it open for the checking account bonus.

Bank of America Checking Account Bonus: ToP Thoughts

This Bank of America checking account offer is a pretty good bank bonus, at $300, but the value lies in the hidden perks. When you have a Bank of America checking account it opens up more credit card doors to you, so to speak. That is because the amount of personal cards you could have signed up for, from all banks, and still get an approval with BoA goes from 3 cards to 7 cards in a 12 month period. You read that right, bank account holders get more than double the leeway on applications when it comes to approvals. This goes along with all of their other rules Bank of America has for credit card applications. It is a nice hidden perk to go along with the $300 checking account bonus.

If you are planning on grabbing the Bank of America checking account bonus let me know over in the ToP Facebook Group.