Checking Bonus Question

[Beast26]

I've made several thousand dollars collecting checking account bonuses and a few I actually used real direct deposits, but the majority of the bonuses I received came from transferring money from one of my bank accounts to the new target account. 

If I had my spouse open a checking account and I transferred the money from my account to hers would it count as a direct deposit?  Has anyone tried this?  I mainly use fidelity CMA as it codes as direct deposit for most banks.

[GZG]

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@Beast26 wrote:

I've made several thousand dollars collecting checking account bonuses and a few I actually used real direct deposits, but the majority of the bonuses I received came from transferring money from one of my bank accounts to the new target account. 

If I had my spouse open a checking account and I transferred the money from my account to hers would it count as a direct deposit?  Has anyone tried this?  I mainly use fidelity CMA as it codes as direct deposit for most banks.

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you are asking to just start getting your accounts fraud locked by doing it, especially if they aren't a joint on the CMA and the new account

have spouse open their own CMA and have them do it the same way you've been doing it, just from their account.

[Realist]

It depends on the bonus, and how you do it.  Is it direct deposit bonus, or is it a "deposit this amount" bonus?

People have write ups on how to game the system, where they can use certain transfer techniques that "might" be considered ACH or direct deposit like status.   Some may be accepted, but others aren't.  It's trial and error, and banks are closing out loopholes.  Imagine investing much time to find out you didn't get the bonus.  This is for direct deposit type bonuses.

For "deposit this amount" type bonuses, $15k with Chase to earn $900 for example, you have to introduce new money, and a petty one time direct deposit amount.  This can be a total of $30k in deposits to two accounts on day one.  Or, it can be 15K on day one to a new account.  Wait your four months, close your account, and open an account for your wife using the same $15k.  It can't be transferred from existing institutions, such as Chase to Chase.  It has to have exited the facility in some way, and have come back from another facility.

I don't play the direct deposit method this way personally, I do it legit for P1 and P2.  The reason why is because of the time investment.  Most of your offers are only going to fund after 90-120 days anyways, and many less are going to fund within 15 days of fulfilling requirements.  To take a chance to miss the bonus, with the little bit of work required, but the long wait required, it makes more sense to do it right and guarantee the bonus.  There is one caveat, supposedly the finacial instutions do ACH into the banking system, and count as a direct deposit.  I have the means to do this, I don't do this, but I've heard many stories about doing this.   You could read more about this on the doctor of credit website.

If you do it right with P1 and P2, on a healthy one per month schedule, you should be able to average about $7200 per year, only working one per month.  This of course is highly situational unless you can squeeze in more.  This is also depending on size of bonus, as some are as high as $900 (chase), and some much lower.  Typically your average is about $300 per welcome bonus on average.

At the end of the day, each and every year, the bonus pays for a nice vacation or two.   Or, a nice project or two around the home.  Or heck, a nice savings.   All just to push buttons on a keyboard, and shuffle numbers around.  It's not a second job kind of income, but it also doesn't take much to pull it in.  Besides, who wants to work a second job anyways.

[Yawgoog]

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@Beast26 wrote:

If I had my spouse open a checking account and I transferred the money from my account to hers would it count as a direct deposit?  Has anyone tried this? 

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I think most banks would consider that a person-to-person transfer, not a qualified direct deposit.  

[FicoMike0]

I don't see any obvious reason it won't work. The main thing is to use ach push. Will fidelity allow you to push to someone else's account? I've never tried. Let us know how it works.

[ptatohed]

I don't see the difference between P1 pushing to P2, or P2 pushing to P2.

[Beast26]

I agree and I posted to get you guys' opinions before I jumped into doing it.  If I do this I would transfer the money to her and then have her transfer the money to her other bank account before sending it back to me.  Of course the money will sit in her account for a week or 2 before we move it again to not be obvious.