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$200 Checking Account Bonus at Union Bank in CA, WA and OR

Monday, December 28, 2009 - 8:15 AM CT by Ken - Bank Deals Guy

Union Bank is offering up to $200 for opening its Signature Banking Checking account and for establishing qualifying services. The Signature Banking Checking has a high minimum balance requirement so this isn't a great deal, but it may be worthwhile to a few. The promo is listed on the bank's front page, and the details are described in bank's promo page. Here are the requirements:
  • Open a Signature Banking Checking account by 1/31/10
  • Establish two qualifying services for $200
  • Establish one qualifying services for $100
  • Qualifying services include 1) monthly direct deposit, 2) three online bill payments to three different payees, beginning the month after account opening 3) five debit card purchases or payments per month
Some important small print includes:
  • Valid for new customers with funds not presently on deposit with Union Bank
  • Bonus will be deposited by 4/30/10 into the Signature Checking account which must be active and in good standing
  • Limit one offer per household
  • Bonus reported as interest paid for tax purposes
The requirement that the checking account must be a Signature Banking Account is the big downside to this offer since it requires a $10,000 minimum combined average monthly balance to avoid a monthly service charge. Account must remain open for 90 days to avoid an early closure fee. Refer to the right column of the bank's checking comparison table for Signature Banking Checking details.

I noticed the bank's Preferred Savings account has a competitive rate of 1.50% APY for balances of at least $10,000. This is listed in the bank's savings account rates page as of 12/28/09. This could help ease the checking's $10,000 combined minimum balance requirement.

There's a toll-free number listed on the promo page. I haven't called this number to see if it's available nationwide. I would guess a branch visit is required. According to the bank's company profile page, the bank has 337 banking offices in California, Oregon, Washington and Texas. However, the vast majority of the branches are located in California.

Union Bank has been a FDIC member since 1979 (FDIC Certificate # 22826).

Thanks to the reader Marc who mentioned this promotion in the comments of the bank deals hub.

Update: A reader noted that there are also two $50 bonuses available for opening a free checking account. Both require either direct deposit or three online bill payments:

Other Bank Bonuses

To find other bonus deals, please refer to my bank bonus page which has all of my recent bank bonus posts.



 
 
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In order by popularity, then date posted.

Anonymous - #1, Monday, December 28, 2009 - 9:16 AM CT

bonus is also available for opening a free checking account

https://www.unionbank.com/campaigns/offers/japanese_ny.jsp

$50, expires Dec 31, 2009

https://www.unionbank.com/campaigns/offers/nijiya.jsp

$50 Nijiya Market gift certificate, expires Feb 28, 2010


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Anonymous - #2, Monday, December 28, 2009 - 9:25 AM CT

.


Union Bank also offers Market-Linked Certificates of Deposit products that are FDIC insured.


.


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Anonymous - #3, Monday, December 28, 2009 - 10:46 AM CT

This is not a bad deal considering that you get a $200 bonus shortly after opening and that you can keep a combined balance to meet the requirements, thus you get a fairly competitive savings rate as well. This is one of those open up - get bonus - close after three month deals. Yes, It's tedious and a bit silly, but it has a good return for the short term.


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Anonymous - #4, Wednesday, December 30, 2009 - 4:21 PM CT

I inquired about this at a branch. The small print is a bit misleading in that you have to make the 3 billpays in the months of Feb and 3 more in March, in addition to 5 debits both in Feb and in March. Also, you can only fund it with cash or check. I went in and tried to open an account and was planning on ACH from online savings and you can't do that. Pretty sad. It's pretty new and doesn't seem like they know what's going on just yet. From the looks of it, you actually don't need to do anything in January since you have till 1/31 to open the account, so it's just Feb and March you need to make sure you do the transactions. With the 1.5% savings that BG pointed out, I think it's worth doing the deal since you can keep all the funds in there except for the small amount to fulfill the reqs.


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Anonymous - #5, Friday, January 1, 2010 - 11:00 PM CT

we opened the account last week. I agree with the above comment - seems like even the bank employees don't have the exact details on what the requirements are for getting the 200 bucks.

One thing though - the savings account rate of 1.5% has expired as of dec31st. The new rate is not known yet and could be a measly 0.05%, unless there is some other promo


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