Last March I saw a post here with a link for getting a $300 bonus for new customers opening a new account with Chase. I like the idea of banks giving you money to become a customer, so I jumped on it. One of the requirements was you had to leave the account open for at least 6 months or they deducted the $300 if you closed the account before then. Well, my 6 months is up the end of Setpember so I'm going to close the Chase account, I really don't like doing business with one of the Too Big To Fail banks.
I'd never done business with a credit union before, but last winter I was shopping for a car and noticed a CU offering some really good rates. I live in rural southeast AZ, and the CU was in Douglas, a town on the Mexico border. I opened the account in Dec, very pleasant experience. In Jan I'd decided on a 2013 Mazda 2 from Hertz (car rental) car sales. I app'd with the CU (Southeastern AZ Fed CU) and they approved me for 60 mo loan for 1.99%! But they're a small CU and car loans seems to be their main business, they don't offer CCs or any other type of loans, so to change from Chase I checked out the larger CUs in Tucson.
So today I opened an account with Arizona Central Credit Union (ACCU). They're offering a $200 new member/account bonus for 1) Direct Deposit $300 or more per mo, 2) Signup for paperless statements, and 3) Make at least 10 debit card purchases in 60 days. That last one will be the hardest for me, I never use debit - I get 1-2% cashback rewards on my CCs, but more important to me is if my card # gets snagged in a Target like breach my CCs have $0 liability, where with a debit card they empty your bank account and you'll likely, probably, eventually get your $$$ back; I like $0 liability much better. But, for 200 bucks I'll suffer through 10 chewing gum or cup of coffee debit card purchases, and then put it in the sock drawer.
But I'm done now, I'll stick with ACCU. After my banking was very stable for a numer of years I now have 3 Chexsystems inquiries - also opened a Discover bank account to compliment my Disco card (and OK, $50 new account bonus), and it never pays to be too greedy. So, I guess my point is if you like new bank account bonuses, don't forget local credit unions. They don't advertise as much as big banks, I found mine by Googling "Tucson credit union new account offers", there was a couple, ACCU's was the best.
And I've also done well this year with CC spend bonuses. I got a $100 bonus for charging $500 within 3 mos. for a new Cap 1 Quicksilver last Oct., a $100 bonus for charging $500 in 3 mos. on a new Barclays NFL card last March, and just got a Cap 1 Spark Select biz card with $200 bonus for charging $3k in 3 mos. But I'm done with CC bonuses as well, those inquiries are racking up, so time to jump back into the garden.
$950 in new bank & CC account bonuses in the last year from companiess wanting my business, not too shabby.
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850 FICO8 since 2015, Thanks MyFICO - 5+ years since last HP
