Checking Account Bonuses of Up to $225 at M&T Bank

M&T Bank is offering several checking account bonuses via the microsite, builtforfamilies.com as of 9/12/2010. The bonus amounts range from $75 to $225 depending on the type of checking account and the services that you use. They may also vary by your location. You can see the details when you enter zip code. As you might expect the high-value ones ($225 and $175) require you to open a checking account with a monthly fee. To have the monthly fees waived, you'll need a high monthly balance. The bonus for the free checking account is $75. The bonus is a little higher ($100) for the MyChoice Checking account. Monthly fees are waived for the MyChoice Checking Account with a $500 balance or with 10 debit card purchases a month.

The MyChoice Checking Account bonus has the following requirements:

• $25 cash when you activate direct deposit
• $25 cash when you're approved for a new M&T Visa Credit Card
• $25 gift card for establishing overdraft protection
• $25 gift card when you enroll in free M&T Web Bill Pay and make 3 online bill payments

It's interesting to see an incentive to establish overdraft protection. Of course, if you're not careful with overdrafts, this could cost you much more than what you would make from the bonus.

These bonuses appear to be available nationwide. For a M&T Bank promotion from last year, I was told it was open for any state. I haven't contacted M&T Bank for this new promotion, but the microsite appears to accept all zip codes. The online application uses Andera which is common for online applications.

Last year I was told that they do not do a hard credit inquiry (they only use ChexSystem). Checks are not free, but they are not automatically ordered in the application. You'll have to call to order them if you want them.

A reader commented in my last year's post about the many fees that M&T Bank charges:

This bank has a lot of fees. They charge you $4 if you close account by mail. They also have a fee of $10 for early account closure.

They also have recently added a $3 fee for making bank-to-bank transfers.

M&T Bank has branches in the Mid Atlantic States with most branches located in New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The bank is a FDIC member (Certificate # 588).

Credit for this find goes to iBankDesign member ichaelm who posted it in this iBankDesign thread.

Other Bank Bonuses

To find other bonus deals at other banks, please refer to the bank bonus page which has all of my recent bank bonus blog posts. There are also additional bonuses listed in the checking account deals forum.