topic Tax refund bonus in Personal Finance

Tax refund bonus

IcyCool7227 — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 04:20:11 GMT

Super.com is having a $50 tax refund bonus when you file and have the refund sent the Super checking account. Does anyone else's banks or credit unions give any bonuses for tax season for the return direct deposit? A few years ago Bluebird did that too. I believe PayPal did that last year as well.

Re: Tax refund bonus

FicoMike0 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 03:05:02 GMT

I haven't seen a tax refund bonus. If your refund is at least $1000, you can get use it to get a new account bonus of $400 here

https://accountoffers.wellsfargo.com/welcomebonus/

For me, they waited the full 90 days before they poid.

Re: Tax refund bonus

Stuart89 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 23:42:41 GMT

I’ll tell you what - it will take a lot more than $50 to get me to switch banks.

Re: Tax refund bonus

AndrewF — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 19:07:24 GMT

FWIW if you have a PayPal account (I recommend adding the rewards DEBIT card so that it can give you a 5% category you choose each month and the funds are FDIC insured!) you get a $25 bonus (as points) if you get a tax return of at least $250 deposited into the PayPal account using the routing and account number it shows you for your PayPal Balance.

$25 isn't a ton but it's $25 you get for doing essentially nothing special if you are already a PayPal customer anyway.

They are also offering a free filing of federal and state returns for PayPal customers this year through their tax partner, April.

Re: Tax refund bonus

ptatohed — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:24:44 GMT

@FicoMike0 wrote:
I haven't seen a tax refund bonus. If your refund is at least $1000, you can get use it to get a new account bonus of $400 here
https://accountoffers.wellsfargo.com/welcomebonus/
For me, they waited the full 90 days before they poid.

So, Mike0, are you saying that a tax refund qualifies as a Direct Deposit? Is that only with Wells, or is that any bank? That's a good idea, I never thought about that!

Re: Tax refund bonus

AndrewF — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 20:14:04 GMT

@ptatohed wrote:
@FicoMike0 wrote:
I haven't seen a tax refund bonus. If your refund is at least $1000, you can get use it to get a new account bonus of $400 here
https://accountoffers.wellsfargo.com/welcomebonus/
For me, they waited the full 90 days before they poid.

So, Mike0, are you saying that a tax refund qualifies as a Direct Deposit? Is that only with Wells, or is that any bank? That's a good idea, I never thought about that!

Yes, tax refunds do count as a direct deposit. In fact, if you want to hit up a bank account bonus without switching over a real direct deposit, you could just deliberately overpay your taxes to the point that you get over $1,000 or over $500 or whatever the offer may be.

Independent Contractors have to file quarterly and make estimated payments. The estimated payment can be a deliberate overpayment because when you file the actual return you get back what you overpaid.

Re: Tax refund bonus

FicoMike0 — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 20:36:30 GMT

Ditto @AndrewF

Any govt payment seems to qualify. Some have used

https://www.treasurydirect.gov/marketable-securities/treasury-bills/

You can buy a bill maturing in as little as 4 weeks. You use the new account for deposit of the proceeds. You buy a bill for, say, $1000. That amount, plus interest, shows up as a dd.

In the past, I've used ach from my Fidelity brokerage account as a dd. I get a pension through Fidelity, my own ach looks similar.