Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $150
- Availability: AR, MS, TN
- Direct deposit required: Yes, no minimum specified
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Hard pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: No credit card funding
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: $10, six months
- Household limit: None
- Expiration date: 10/31/2026
The Offer
- Orion Financial is offering a $150 bonus when you open a new checking account and complete the following requirements:
- Receive a direct deposit (no minimum specified)
The Fine Print
- Offer only valid for new Orion Financial members opening new Orion Financial Free Checking accounts.
- Offer not available to individuals who currently have, or have had within 90 days of opening the new account, a deposit or loan product of any kind with Orion Financial.
- Offer also not available to individuals who have had any deposit account closed with a negative balance within three (3) years of opening the new account.
- You can receive only one new checking account opening related bonus per person and per account.
- The amount of your bonus is considered interest and will be reported on IRS Form 1099-INT or Form 1042-S to the IRS.
- Eligibility may be limited based on account ownership.
- Offer is non-transferrable and non-assignable.
- Offer availability is subject to change with or without notice.
- Offer valid for accounts opened from 09/1/2026 through 10/31/2026.
- To receive the bonus: Open an Orion Financial Free Checking account on or before 10/31/2026, which is subject to approval; and establish a direct deposit made to this account within 90 days.
- Your direct deposit must be an electronic deposit of your paycheck, pension, or government benefits (such as Social Security) from your employer or the government.
- Micro-deposits do not qualify as direct deposits for bonus eligibility.
- Micro-deposits are small deposits, typically less than $1, that are sent to your account to verify it is the correct account. Aside from opening the account, all requirements to receive the bonus must be met by 1/29/2027.
- Orion Financial will deposit the bonus into your account within 120 days of account opening if all requirements are met.
- To receive the bonus, the enrolled account must not be closed or restricted at the time of payout.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
Orion free checking has no monthly fees to worry about.
Early Account Termination Fee
Closure of Primary Account within 6 months of opening: $10
Our Verdict
They offer a 5% rewards checking account that some readers might already have. Might be able to open out of state as well. We will add this to our list of the best checking account bonuses.
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- PSA: Don’t Call The Bank
- Introduction To ChexSystems
- Banks & Credit Unions That Are ChexSystems Inquiry Sensitive
- What Banks & Credit Unions Do/Don’t Pull ChexSystems?
- How To Calculate And Share Your ChexSystems Datapoints
- How To Use Our Direct Deposit Page For Bank Bonuses Page
- Common Bank Bonus Misconceptions + Why You Should Give Them A Go
- How Many Bank Accounts Can I Safely Open Within A Year For Bank Bonus Purposes?
- Affiliate Links & Bank Bonuses – We Won’t Be Using Them
- Complete List Of Ways To Close Bank Accounts At Each Bank
- Banks That Allow/Don’t Allow Out Of State Checking Applications
- Bank Bonus Posting Times
Logged in to prepare to fund the account and no accounts show up anymore. RIP
Applied again on P1 (few days since last app) and got auto approved after selfie/ID. Used a different email address this time lol.
OOS DP- Applied 9/14 online (chex and CBs open). Instantly approved without needing to provide any id information. Funded through the application $100 to checking and $10 to a savings account by providing an external bank’s info. I was able to setup online banking right away. 9/15 funds show up in the accounts. 9/16 Online banking blocked and an email received to provide by email a DL, Soc Sec card and a utility bill. This was done that evening. 9/17 Another email rec’d stating that identity verification failed and please visit a branch. Nearest branch is 800+ miles away. Everything sent were very clear images, totally agree with Chex and CB data and I’ve been at the same address for 14 years. 9/21 Account access is still locked. Called new accounts and they stated that they would close my accounts and return the funds to the other CU. Pretty shabby treatment, if you ask me. They clearly don’t want to pay out the bonuses.
Auto approved OOS with chex and all credit frozen. Was able to access online banking immediately. Funded $5.
OOS: Immediate auto-approval State restriction: Landing page did not mention any state-specific requirement; it may appear elsewhere in the application or account terms? Account setup: Received account number, enrolled in online banking, and successfully logged in. Identification: Application did not request a driver’s license or license number. DoC commenters indicate this may be requested later. Alerts: Received welcome email. No OnAlert Chex notification and no hard-pull alert received. Funding: No credit-card funding. Remotely funded $10 from an external bank account; the deposit appears as pending when logged into online banking.
I’d like to know how long it takes to complete the identity verification. Submitted ID info but more than 24 hours (business day hours) later was still not approved.
gotcha. thanks!
The DD #, I confirmed it works by doing trial deposits.
So are we supposed to use this DD# or just account# as usual for direct deposit purpose or either should work?
OOS DP: Was initially approved immediately after applying. Received account number details but was unable to get into online banking. Received email requesting identity verification documents. Sent these over, a few days later received an email stating “ We are unable to verify your identity through our online channel. At this time, we will not be moving forward with the account opening process. The current account will be closed. ” Curious to see if anyone else is able to pass the documents check?
Usually they are the same but this CU adds 200000 to the beginning of the account # to make it DD #.
Oof I see, thank you, I definitely didn’t save that information. I guess now I recognize what is the account number, so I can proceed. Thanks!
DD#? you mean Direct deposit number? Is it different from account number? Pardon my limited knowledge 😀 I always use routing and account number to set up my direct deposit.
The DD # should have been given to you when you got approved. I couldn’t find it online when logged in besides the account number. The DD # is 200000xxxxxxx where the x is your 7 digit account number
DP: applied OOS with Chex frozen but credit bureaus unfrozen. Approved instantly. Wasn’t asked for documents (yet?). I will try a real DD. Question: if the account number looks like this 00xxxxxx-xx, are the first two zeros and the final two numbers (after the dash) part of the account number? I tried to link another account to Orion to drain the account after DD, but the trial deposits failed. Pardon my ignorance, I’ve never seen an account number like this
no promo code field makes me nervous about getting the bonus, but here we go…
Small risk. I don’t think there was a minimum so I did like $200-$300 at the very beginning of the week to hit Friday, if something goes wrong it’s no biggie and I’ll get the initial funds back eventually anyway.
I feel this is making a difference. CBs not frozen. TDD Were your CBs frozen while applying? If yes, then that is why they could still not verify you.
Bold move. Good luck! Keep us posted. Hopefully if the bonus posts quickly after requirement fulfillment, that would be amazing then 😀
Oh yeah, I meant from other situations where there was no lockout. I guess it was implied the freezes were for both PXs and not just you from your comment though.
Both were frozen yes, everything but equifax on both to be accurate You can only add 1 attachment to secure mail, so stuff was sent in 2 secure messages. Thats educated guess for difference.
Aside from Chex, nope
Were any of your credit reports frozen?
CBs frozen might’ve made a difference there. Were P2’s?
Applied a few days ago (after this post). Auto-approved OOS. No ID was requested. Not locked out as of yet, and the small ACH funding amount has been pulled from the source account. Two welcome emails. Chex was frozen, and I just checked and there was no pull attempt. No credit bureaus frozen.
Bold to start DDs so soon…
Applied today as an in state. Chex and bureau’s frozen. P1: No funding, instant approval, set up online banking, locked out shortly after with an email requesting DL and SS Card or go to branch. Sent, got a welcome email shortly after and back into online banking. P2: No funding, instant approval, set up online banking, thought we would try to avoid sending DL an SS Card via email so hurriedly preemptively sent them via secure message before getting locked out, didn’t matter, got locked out shortly after with an email requesting SS Card or go to branch. Sent it, got a welcome email shortly after and back into online banking. I figure let it sit for a couple days before proceeding further.
I went ahead and did $100 DD chase bix payroll today. I’ll wait and see what happens. I have not contacted the bank in regards to the “requested documents” email. I can still login for now. I’ll wait and see what happens in the next few days
Agree. I am thinking whether to make a call to my assigned rep or make a call to their generic number and then ask them to proceed my way.
I think each individual rep is handling the requested documents differently. Pickle was able to email his. This might be a classic HUCA. Looking forward to hearing what they say. I guess I will hold off on making my DD that I had planned on doing today.