Banks are offering up to $900 in bribes to Americans to transfer their accounts.
Chase, the largest bank in the United States, offers the largest kickback of $900, but you need to open a checking account and a savings account to get the full amount and pay a certain amount.
Citi, First Horizon and Wells Fargo also offer hundreds of dollars in incentives.
Banks are eager to attract as many Americans as possible to deposit their money with them. and they are willing to offer a cash bribe to attract new potential customers.
Chase is currently offering up to a total of $900 for opening new services with the bank.
Chase’s offer may be generous, but it’s worth checking the details in case you face lower savings interest rates or higher fees than your current bank in the future.
The nation’s largest bank is currently offering customers $300 to open a new checking account and $200 for a new savings account.
On top of this, you can rack up another $400 for opening both.
Although these offers seem attractive, customers must “understand exactly what they need to do to get the bonus,” Adam Rust, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America, told the New York Times.
For example, to get the checking account bonus with Chase, customers must deposit at least $500 within three months of opening the account.
If you don’t, you’ll have to pay a $12 monthly maintenance fee on the new account.
For the savings offer you must deposit at least $15,000 within 30 days and maintain that balance for three months.
Meanwhile, Citi Bank is offering a generous $400 bonus to new customers who open a checking account.
Citi also has a 5 percent promotional rate on new savings accounts for the first 90 days.
Some regional banks also offer cash kickbacks, including Memphis-based First Horizon, which offers $450 to open a new checking account.
Cash bonuses are rising, and the average for opening a new checking account rose to $400 earlier this year, up from $130 in 2016, according to data from Curinos.
“Years ago, $100 was typical, but now, $100 doesn’t really move the needle,” Adam Stockton, head of retail deposits and lending at Curinos, told the Times.
Another factor to consider is that any cash bonus earned by switching accounts is reported to the IRS and taxed as interest.
It’s also important to consider the benefits made in your current bank account, such as mortgage savings or useful tools for traveling abroad.
Likewise, if your checking account offers a decent interest rate, it may not be beneficial in the long run to exchange it for a cash offer.
However, “if you could have $300 in your pocket tomorrow, that would be more compelling to some people than the delayed gratification of a 4 percent interest rate,” Stockton told the Wall Street Journal.
The cash bribes come at a time when banks are in the news for a very different reason: mass branch closures.
Physical bank branches could become extinct in the US by 2041, according to a new report
US banks closed 539 branches in the first half of the year alone, DailyMail.com research shows.
The hardest hit state was California, which suffered 72 closures. New York was second with 51 closures, followed by Pennsylvania with 40.
Closures have continued apace throughout the summer.
Chase abruptly closed seven branches in just one week earlier this month.
The bank, the largest in the United States, was not alone. In total, 14 branches were closed between September 8 and 14.
Wells Fargo, Capitol, Fifth Third Bank, Bank First and Citizens Bank also closed their branches between September 8 and 14.
If the trend of closures continues, the last physical bank branch could close as early as 2041, according to a new report from Self Financial.
This date has been reached by studying the rate of net closures throughout the country, which has averaged 1,646 each year since 2018.
Dailymail.com has reported on the alarming pace of closures, revealing the locations of weekly closures reported to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
In the first half of 2024 alone, major banks closed 539 local branches, leaving more and more Americans without access to basic financial services.