Update 8/2/26: Deal is back through 12/31/2026. Hat tip to reader Pickle Rick
Update 6/7/26: Extended until 6/30/26
Update 6/8/25: Bonus extended until 12/31/25. Hat tip to Tikky
Update 1/14/24: Extended until 12/31/2024.
Update 6/30/23: Extended until 12/31/2023.
Offer at a glance
- Maximum bonus amount: $300
- Availability: PA
- Direct deposit required: Yes, $250+
- Additional requirements: See below
- Hard/soft pull: Soft pull
- ChexSystems: Unknown
- Credit card funding: Unknown
- Monthly fees: None
- Early account termination fee: None listed
- Household limit: None listed
- Expiration date: 6/30/2023
The Offer
- Service 1st Federal Credit Union is offering a $300 checking bonus when you open a new checking account and complete the following requirements:
- $150 bonus when you accept the following upon opening:
- accept a VISA® Check Card. The VISA® Debit Card associated with the member’s account must perform a transaction within 30 days of membership opening date to meet the program requirements.
- Online Banking
- Electronic Statements
- $150 bonus when you receive a direct deposit of at least $250 within 30 days of account opening
- $150 bonus when you accept the following upon opening:
The Fine Print
- $300 Cash Bonus Rules and Eligibility. Offer valid through 6/30/2023.
- Account opening and overdraft protection is subject to qualifications.
- Members with existing checking account(s) do not qualify.
- Offer does not apply to business accounts or multiple checking accounts.
- Member must accept a VISA® Check Card, Online Banking, and Electronic Statements upon account opening to receive $150.
- The $150 will be credited to a member’s account within 10 business days of opening a qualified checking account.
- Members can receive an additional $150 if they enroll in Direct Deposit.
- The first direct deposit must be credited to checking account within 30 days of checking account opening to receive an additional $150 cash bonus.
- Minimum direct deposit amount to receive this offer is a regular $250.00 deposit. Direct deposit is an automatic electronic deposit made to your account by someone else, such as an employer issuing payroll or a government agency paying benefits.
- It may not include deposits to your account that are made by an individual using online banking or an internet payment provider.
- The Checking Account must remain open for six months or the cash bonus ($150/$300) will be debited (subtracted) from the account balance at closing.
- The cash bonus is a credit that will post to the account within 30 days of the initial direct deposit. Some restrictions may apply.
- This offer may not be combined with any other promotion, except for the Service 1st Checking Bundle promotion.
- This offer can be modified or withdrawn at any time without notice. Cash incentive must be reported as taxable income.
- Please see a tax specialist for details.
- Savings account with a $5 minimum balance and one-time $1.00 membership fee is required.
- Membership eligibility required.
- **Members who have an inactive Service 1st Visa® Check Card for three (3) months or more will be assessed a dormant check card fee of $1.50 for each month the card remains inactive.
- All bank account bonuses are treated as income/interest and as such you have to pay taxes on them
Avoiding Fees
Monthly Fees
This account has no monthly fees to worry about.
Early Account Termination Fee
I wasn’t able to find a fee schedule so unsure if there is an early account termination fee or not.
$50 Referral
The terms state ‘This offer may not be combined with any other offer except the Service 1st Refer-a-Friend offer’ so it looks like you can stack this with a referral. The referral is for $50 each. Please do not ask for or share referrals in the comments below. They can be shared in this linked post. According to comments might be more difficult to get approved with a referral.
Our Verdict
Worth doing now that the bonus has been increased so much, especially with the extra $50 referral and even better if you can refer a few people as well. Will add this to our best checking bonus page. Reminder to not share referrals in the comments below.
Hat tip to Woody
Useful posts regarding bank bonuses:
- A Beginners Guide To Bank Account Bonuses
- Bank Account Quick Reference Table (Spreadsheet) (very useful for sorting bonuses by different parameters)
- 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 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
“My friends” have accused me of fraud. Dear Christina, We regret to inform you that your deposit application has been denied for the following reasons. Denial Reasons Suspected fraud or identity theft, Incomplete identity information For more information, call our Contact Center at 800.562.6049. For reference, your application number is 71368 Sincerely, Your friends at Service 1st
Be careful with those referrals. Someone on here was kind enough to quickly email me their name for referral. Sadly, this actually caused issues with my application. Despite having family in PA, I was told that since I used a referral from someone who is not a direct famly member, my application would not be approved.
They said I need a name of the person referring me. If anybody is willing to throw me their name, just shoot it to my email. ianfp17@yahoo.com . Much appreciated.
All set, thank you! (Tried to edit my response but couldn’t. If a mod sees this, please delete this comment thread, thank you!)
William Charles Thoughts on starting a referral thread? The bank explicitly states the referral stacks with the main bonus. “This offer may not be combined with any other offer except the Service 1st Refer-a-Friend offer.” Thank you!
Anyone able to let me use them as a referrer? They sent me a message wanting to know who referred me.
Just a heads up that I don’t see an email. Roger
Would greatly appreciate if someone could provide a name to attach to my referral code. Please reach out to clipblart at gmail dot com
Anyone comfortable with/interested in giving their first and last name for the referral via email? I can be reached at mfbecks at hotmail dot com
I sent you email.
There is no promo code for the main $300 bonus. Just the code for the referral bonus.
Is there a promo code for the checking offer or just open checking and it’s automatic?
PA resident and I work in the service area.
William Charles Back through 12/31/2026
Located in their service footprint.
Successful Bonus Data Point 6/26/26: Account opened. See my comment below. 7/6/26: Fidelity regular push $250. $5 debit reload to Chime. 7/10/26: Alert that the $300 bonus hit my account (transaction date shows Saturday 7/11/26) Looks like mobile pay app reloads work fine and, as mentioned by Sam , Fidelity transfer is good to fake DD. Hopefully new bonuses show up publicly so I can double with referral and bonus with P2.
oos, called in before applying to ask about eligibility. i have family that work for one of the largest employers of central PA. they didn’t ask anything else about it. applied, approved. one fidelity push & one gas station purchase that posted on 06/29 bonus received on 06/30 they said they were going to be continuously offering bonuses past 06/30 so possible it’s still available.
Following up here. You can request to add the RAF2 referral promo after you apply as well, and they will need the first and last name of the referring person for both people to get credit.
Successful Account Opening Data Point (OOF) For what it’s worth, I’m in state but out of footprint. I was instantly approved this morning with DocuSigns immediately coming in through email. I chose the second option for family member or work, worship, regularly do business in the area, and there was no check to validate eligibility. Chex stats: 3/1, 5/3, 13/6, LOL/12, LOL/24. Looks like the checking bonus expires 6/30/26 so only a few days later. The referral program also confirms to stack with the $300 bonus, according to the bank’s own we page: https://service1.org/membership/refer-a-friend The referral promo code is RAF2. I’m not sure if they reach out to validate that either.
are you located in the counties listed or out of foot print but in Pa? trying to see if they allow OOF
Seems like it based on reading the terms. Did confirm with support today that you can stack the referral bonus with this $300 offer, they just need to manually add the promo(s) for you.
DP: Account approved earlier in the week (living within service area). Can fund $2500 via CC, posted as a cash advance on my Citi Double Cash.
They have an eligibly map and look up feature under membership eligibly. Its basically North Central PA only. North of Harrisburg and West of Scranton but east of State College. All 5 of the current residence of Centralia currently qualify.
worried about existing customer language. Is bonus one time only?
Any OOS DP for the application option “You or an immediate family member* live, work, worship, attend school in, or operate a businesses or other legal entity located in qualified census tracts in the following geographic areas. Select your county below:”? Wondering how in the world they would verify the family member qualifications.
and must keep open 6 months or they will clawback the full bonus.
William Charles As mentioned by snailrock offer extended to 06/30/2026. Same link still works.
Extended to 6/30/26
Contacted CS and had the bonus manually applied. These guys have been great and we will likely stick with them.
P1 opened account 12/5; P2 opened on 12/22. All conditions met for both players by end of December. No bonus for either player and no referral bonus for P1 either. The only upside here is that I can confirm $2.500 CC funding for both Barclay and BoA codes as a purchase. Also, if you open savings first and then checking after, you can do $2,500 per account.