Principal Bank $50 Bonus

Principal Bank is offering a $50 signup bonus for students who open its Student Package Account. This requires a minimum deposit of $50 to both the checking and savings account, and you have to be either a full-time or part-time student. If the funds are not left on deposit for at least 6 months, there's a $50 account closing fee.

There's no minimum balance requirements to maintain the accounts. The interest rates are nothing special. The checking account doesn't earn any interest for balances under $2.5K. The current savings account rate is only 1.01% APY for all balances.

Principal Bank advertises that it provides 5 ways to make deposits, but it doesn't allow bank-to-bank ACH transfers.

Unlike many online banks, Principal Bank doesn't refund you when you get charged for using ATMs of other banks. However, Principal Bank is part of a network of banks known as the SHAZAM Privileged Status program. Members of this program do not assess surcharge fees.