DOC Compass — Offers, decoded

There is a bigger $400 offer worth considering

Offer at a glance

Maximum bonus amount: $150 for checking, $100 for money market and $50 for credit card
Availability: IL, MN & WI only
Direct deposit required: Optional
Additional requirements: Three bill pays or a direct deposit of $300+
Hard/soft pull: Soft
ChexSystems: Unknown
Credit card funding: Up to $1,200 no American Express cards.
Monthly fees: $11, waivable
Early account termination fee: 12 months, bonus forfeit
Household limit: One
Expiration date: ~~December 31st, 2017~~ ~~December 31st, 2018~~ December 31st, 2019

The Offer

Direct link to offer

Associated Bank is offering a bonus of up to $300, broken down as follows:
- $1750= when you open a new personal checking account
  - Make three payments using Associated Bank Online Bill Pay OR have at least one direct deposit of $300 or more within 45 days of account opening
- $100 for opening a money market account with a minimum deposit of $10,000, must retain this balance for 90 days
- $25 for opening a new Visa Bonus Rewards PLUS Credit card and making your first purchase

The Fine Print

$150 will be deposited into your account within 75 days of account opening after meeting the qualifications
Account must be open at the time the bonus is paid and must remain open for a minimum of 12 months. If the account is closed within 12 months, Associated Bank reserves the right to deduct the monetary bonus from the account prior to closing.
Customers with an Associated Bank checking account in the last six months, joint owners on an existing Associated Bank checking account and Associated Bank colleagues are not eligible
Offer limited to one per household, cannot be combined with other offers and is subject to change (at Associated Bank’s discretion) at any time without notice.
A minimum opening deposit of $10,000 is required to receive the bonus and at least such amount must remain on deposit for 90 days to receive the bonus.
Deposits from existing accounts do not qualify; funds must be from outside of Associated Bank.
$100 bonus will be deposited into money market accounts within 120 days of account opening.
All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them

Avoiding Fees

Checking Account

There is a $11 monthly maintenance fee which is waived if you meet any of the following requirements:

$1,000 minimum daily balance
$2,500 in combined deposits
Direct deposits combining $500 or more per month
Under the age of 24 and enrolled in paperless statements.

Money Market Account

This account has a $16 fee that is waived with a $1,000 minimum monthly balance.

Early Account Termination Fee

There is no early account termination fee, but the account needs to be open for 12 months or the bonus is forfeit.

$50 Referral Bonus

You can also refer friends if you visit here. You’ll receive $50 Visa gift card per person you refer and they should still be able to sign up for the $150 bonus (if anybody successfully does this, please confirm). Feel free to share your referral links in the comments, but make sure you also let us know some useful information (e.g soft pull/credit card funding etc etc) or your referral link will be removed.

Our Verdict

The $150 checking bonus has been around for some time. That is definitely worth doing, let’s see if the money market account is or not.

You need to keep a $10,000 balance for 90 days to trigger the bonus
Then you need to keep $1,000 in there for another 9 months to avoid the early account termination fee (forfeiting the $100 bonus)
Account earns at 0.05% APY

If you put the $10,000/$1,000 into a 5% account you’d be ~$160 anyway so I don’t think the money market account is a great deal. Might be useful to some people that have already maxed out the easy 5% accounts though. You can view the best high interest accounts here and the best checking bonuses here.

Big thanks to reader, Curmudgeon who let us know. Learn how to find bonuses and contribute to the site here.

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