As an avid MSer on temporary hold now, I’ve also restarted the bank bonus game. I currently have 8 CAccounts to deposit all these MO I was buying weekly. And been in the game 4 years 3 months,Clear about 22k after fees tax free. just retired. And that 22k is by only doing MS 2 or 3x weekly stating with 2 WM and 3 or 4 groceries and using ATMs. I have deposited about on average 8k monthly win MO with no problems from banks. Only Webster bank in CT closed my acct w/o warning via letter and check for balance. never gave reason but we all know why. Big banks/small banks seem not to care. WF BOA SAntander HSBC MTB KEY no problems yet. Also do go bank with my and 2 sons accts.
Now while on couch at home I started 3 WF 400.00 bonus checking accts… Wife and 2 sons with separate accts. Same for santander 225.bonus. opened 3 accts. My original post stated I did not know if BOA or Alliant counted as a DD for WF. So I panicked and xfer funds bank to Alliant. BOA coded and P2P and Alliint coded as online transfer. Waiting for tomorrow to see how WF codes Santander. At least WF gives you an email stating “welcome…you qualify for the 400.00 bonus…” Santander does not even tho I used their sign up bonus page with code. had to call them 2x to verify that code is attached. First rep 4 nights ago told me its not and he can not do anything. HUCA 2 nights later and rep told me they will investigate. Never heard back… So 3rd call and finally it is attached to acct. So anybody with new data points on DD i would be interested. Acc to DOC Santander coded DD from Alliant. So in a few weeks I can get back to the real joy MSIng. IM in upstate NY…on CT border. We are entering Phase 3 according to our “fantastic” gov.
well anyone comment as to whether the 4k WF deposit will merit the 400 bonus? Data points on DOC state that Santander and BOA code as DD. along with Alliant, other sites state Alliant does not work. So I did all 3 and pulled out to leave Santander. look I have done about 15 bank bonuses but stopped 2 years ago to spend more time with MS. $4,001.00 Sandander posts as Payment Alliant as online transfer BOA as P2P. None say DD. Do these count nowadays…anyone.?/
thanks
Back in 2018 when I got my last wells fargo bonus, the “fake” direct deposits from my small business account that led to me getting the bonus look like this on my statement
[Business Name] Deposit Dp26825361 [My Name]
Each deposit had a different bunch of random numbers after “Dp”
Sadly, it looks like none of yours have the word “deposit” in the transaction description. “P2P” and “Online Transfer” usually don’t code as direct deposits. “Payment” might. You’ve still got a chance.
My Alliant ACH’s coded as direct deposit within the past couple months.
Mine just says Alliant Cu Xfer, but the Wells Fargo category in online banking is direct deposit. You think it didn’t trigger it? I guess I should find out soon. On the statement, they show as “qualfying direct deposits” for waiving the monthly fee.
As someone who has easy access to DD (thankfully megacorp allows changes any time and up to 10(!) accounts), but already has Chase, how much can one theoretically milk this through? I see Citi and PNC/Bank of the West has some great bonuses now, but Citi has a lot of trouble with posting bonuses and I heard PNC is difficult to close the account. Is this just part of the “game” and deal with the repercussions later? Or are there easier, more profitable areas for me to check out?
as a MSer who wont be back in biz till I get vaccine: PNC and WF are quite easy. Both accts I have plus family have gotten many of the bonuses/. 300 PNC and 400 WF. If in footprint TD 300 and Santander 225 are quite easy. Do not bother with Citi, too many bad stories. Bu why close PNC and WF.?? They seem to post as DD at all the banks I use that require DD whereas BOA does not and other banks do not.
I’m guessing you have Chase checking, as there’s no reason to keep their savings account. You can churn the savings account for $200-$300 once every 2 years.
Citi can be a hassle if bonus doesn’t post automatically, but if you keep good records (T&C, screenshots, dates of all the qualifying events, etc), it just takes some effort. First time I had to chat and call multiple times before it got resolved. Last time I just sent a message detailing the offer, listing all the dates (opening, deposits, expected bonus), and asked to escalate, as first line CSRs are usually a waste of time, but the request to escalate is like a trigger for them 
. Got a response and bonus a few days later.
You’re not gonna become a heavy hitter with bank bonuses alone 
. I do a few $200+ offers every year. Player2 does the same.
What else? Stock mkt?
CD’s used to work well when we picked up few like Sharonview 4%.(mine won’t mature until 7/23).
No and no. Read this for the original definition of heavy hitter.
Interesting, thanks! I didn’t realize I could just churn through the Savings bonus, I’ll sign up once my lucrative Ally CDs expire 
Back to Fat Wallet…2011. Thanks
Yes, I understand I am like 10 years late, but 6 months of this bank bonus activity (close to 20K in bonuses) it feels like a taste of the old FWF days. Now have 2 18+ yr old kids (P3 and P4 ready to roll). I really wish there were more organized information on the banks (I’m talking FWF level not DOC). I am at the preliminary stages of planning an OOS bank bonus road trip as I have pretty much exhausted the local options and wish to summon the FWF squad.
20K? Are you retired?
I usually don’t sign up for less than $500, because I don’t think it’s worth my time, and there aren’t that many SUBs >= $500. And even for those I still account for opportunity cost (i.e., bonus is not as big as it seems if the deposit doesn’t earn interest for 60 days).
Don’t overlook brokerage bonuses. There was a really tasty one in January.
I’ve run my own (3rd party seller) business for almost 20 years now. I took a lot of what I learned at FW and turned it into a business. I would call the 2010s a golden age for this. I came close to 8 figures in revenue 1 year which was awesome, but “the man” sure enough slowed everything I could do through supply limitations and gating the ability to sell products and has dwindled down to nothing. This is as a 1-man show, I never brought in employees other than my wife’s help. Now I am relegated to fulfilling orders for my wife as she found a nice niche to maintain our life. I do tell people I am semi-retired when they ask, so yeah I guess I do have some free time. It dawned on me last 4th quarter to start doing this because I have my own real payroll and started sending our incomes wherever it was needed, but along the way a lot of these banks its like dd 500-1000 and you get 300 and that dd is really just an ach transfer. I do get your point on opportunity cost, but there are a lot of them that you are without your money for a couple days. There can be some time consumption, which I guess is why I am striving to make information/organization of it more efficient. It reminds me of the good ole FW days and I enjoy it.
It is kind of fun. With all of the fintech startups fighting for market share- the broker bonuses have been heating up in the last few years.
One recently gave out 1% on transfers with only a six month hold or so. Essentially uncapped up to like 3 million notional.
That!
For me, these now dwarf the regular bank signup bonuses once you have large enough assets to transfer. I think many of them are wisening up to the gig though with many adding longer hold periods. Still it seems pretty stable around 0.5-1% of asset value transferred per year of hold period. Not a tiny impact when transferring 7 figure amounts. And often a lot less work than the hoops you have to jump through to collect $200-300 bank signup bonuses.
I have no idea how they make any money off of it. I largely hold vanilla stocks and ETF and don’t trade much. Even if they’re screwing me out of a full penny on the spread every time, it’s still not much $$.
I still do signup bonuses. I am an avid mser also. retired so I have time to do this stuff. Banks bonuses, gift cards converted to MO, deposit and pay the bill. I still have 3 OBC. 5% at G/G/D.Plus the Disc Miles 3% for 12 months. Wife signed up for BOA Custom that gives 6% in drugs stores (CVS) Plus Rakuten is giving 10% instore at CVS.
I just finished the 1500 bonuses for Etrade and Marcus. Now I’m going to tranfer 25 k (P1 and P2) into out small accts at Ameriprise for the 900 bonus. Needs lots of time for record keeping as the 900. bonus req. a separets checking acct with 2k deposited (DD) for 4 months.) i use Wise and it codes as DD. Buit this hobby is time consuming. I also use WMart to drain Vanilla cards into my Disc Debit acct and same with the ONE acct.