Disclaimer up front: This appears to be very targeted. I received postal mail on this but could find nothing on this offer anywhere on their site or the interwebs.
I play the savings accounts bonus game while resting from the credit card rewards game, but I never give more than a second’s thought to checking account bonuses. They are usually pathetic amounts and more hassle to open checking than savings.
But an offer came via postal mail today that is looking quite irresistible. BB&T is offering me $600 for opening an Elite Gold Checking account requiring only having $25,000 in the account for 75 days. (There’s also an option for direct deposits of $2000 or more, but you’d still have to maintain that amount for no fees).
What’s the catch? Well, they do pay interest but it is pretty much 0%. So I’d be losing $100 or so on the $25,000. But there’s still a net of $500 which by my calculations is about 12% interest.
What’s my down side here? Possibly a hard pull, an Chex entry for the new account. Not seeing why I wouldn’t do this.
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Likely no HP, but, be ready to have to keep the account open longer than officially advertised, and pay associated fees if you pull the money out at 75 days. Be prepared to have to fight for the bonus. If you can open it online, do that, and record your session, or at the very least take screenshots.
Also, keep in mind, if you’re comparing the benefits of putting the 25k on deposit and doing a DD, you usually don’t have to pay fees for the first month, and potentially can get them waived for a second month. IMO, it’s not worth moving 25k for the bonus, but the 2k DD would be worth it, but I guess up to you and how easy it is for you to setup DDs.
One last thing, look at the terms closely, BB&T is merging with Suntrust, so if you have an account with Suntrust, you may not be eligible.
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Good points. Especially this one. Upon deeper reading after I posted, I found that if your balance goes to zero during a “review period” after the 75-days is over, they will deny the bonus. I think this might be an indication that they intend to find some way some how to deny it.
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