Citizens Bank & Charter One $1,000 College Savings Bonus [MI, OH, CT, DE, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, and VT Only]

Offer at a glance

• Maximum bonus amount: $1,000
• Availability: Charter One: MI & OH, Citizens Bank: CT, DE, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, and VT
• Direct deposit required: No
• Additional requirements: Monthly addition of $25 or $50 in funds
• Hard/soft pull: Soft in branch, hard online
• Credit card funding: Up to $1,000
• Interest Rate: 0.1% APY
• Monthly fees: None
• Early account termination fee: Unknown
• Expiration date: None listed

The Offer

Direct link to offer (Charter One: MI & OH, Citizens Bank: CT, DE, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, and VT)

• Receive a $1,000 bonus when your child turns 18 when you complete the following requirements:
  • If your child is under 6: Add $25 per month to their CollegeSaver account ($25 opening deposit)
  • If your is between 6 and before they turn 12: Add $50 per month to their CollegeSaver account ($1,000 opening deposit)

The Fine Print

• All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

This account has no monthly fees and you’ll need to keep it open for 6-12 years so any early account termination fees should not be an issue.

Analyzing The Deal

Let’s see if this account makes sense, the interest rate is only 0.1%. It’s easy to find deposit accounts that earn at least 1%, you can also get 5% if you put the money in a rewards checking account although this would require a lot more management.

Before 6th Birthday

This assumes you set up the account just before their 6th Birthday

• Charter One / Citizens Bank: $3,647 + $1,000 bonus
• 1% account: $3,853
• 5% account: $4,948

The 5% account is the better performer by far, but this would require a lot more management. It’s also not that big of a difference ($308). The 1% account was the worst performer out of the three.

Before 12th Birthday

This assumes you set up the account just before their 12th Birthday.

• Charter One / Citizens Bank: $4,617 + $1,000 bonus
• 1% account: $4,773
• 5% account: $5,531

This time the $1,000 beats out all challengers and is the best option, although the 5% account is not far off.

Our Verdict

Your best bet would be to wait until just before your Child is 12 and then set up this account for them. Obviously in the real world this isn’t feasible because the deal might not be around when they are 12. I don’t have any kids so I won’t be participating in this deal, if I did have kids then I’d probably set up an account for them. It’s not required to spend the funds on education, so the money and bonus is actually pretty flexible.

The only concern is that interest rates go up dramatically and this account does not up their rates as well. I think the chances of this happening are relatively low, but it’s difficult to predict that with any level of certainty when you’re looking 6 or 12 years into the future.

Our bank account bonus page will now start to include savings accounts, as well as the usual checking accounts and business accounts.

Direct link to offer | Screenshot of offer

Thanks to EIG for letting us know about this bonus, she could win up to $225 for letting us known.