New $200 Checking Account Bonus at Advance Financial in Indiana - Local Only
Advance Financial Federal Credit Union has another promotion in which you can earn up to $200 with a new checking account. Another $75 can also be earned when you close on a vehicle Loan. Full details are available in the credit union's promotions page. It's scheduled to last until 12/31/2012. To earn the full $200 requires the following be done during the promotional period:
- $50 for opening a new checking account and signing up for the debit card
- $50 for signing up and utilizing the online bill pay service
- $100 for setting up direct deposit (direct deposit must be your entire check)
Below are some of the important requirements mentioned in the small print:
Requirements: The direct deposit must be your entire check, payroll deduction or depositing a portion of your check does not qualify. Transfers from other accounts here at AFFCU or another financial institution do not qualify. Bill payments of AFFCU loans do not qualify, and bill payments must be for an entire bill or the required minimum payment (nothing less). Checking account, direct deposit and bill pay must remain open for a minimum of six (6) months or the incentives will be debited from your account.
The credit union does offer free checking accounts. One is called Better Than Free Checking. In addition to being free of monthly service charges, it offers free checks and free online bill pay. It also pays interest, but the interest rate is low (top tier rate is only 0.10% as of 10/15/2012).
One downside with the Better Than Free Checking is that it does not include free access to network ATMs. According to the credit union's fee page, using Alliance One or CO-OP ATMs cost $1.50.
For those who are active ATM users, this could be costly. Most credit unions that are part of these ATM networks give free ATM access to all of their checking account members.
Membership
Membership is open to anyone who lives, works, worships, volunteers or attends school Lake County, Indiana. You can also be eligible via family members (and not just immediate family). Please refer to the credit union's membership page for the full details. Membership requires a minimum deposit of $5 into the regular share savings account.
Credit Union Overview
Advance Financial branches are located in the Indiana cities of East Chicago, Schererville and Gary. The credit union is also a member of the shared branch network CU Service Center.
The credit union has an overall health score at DepositAccounts.com of 4 stars (out of 5) with a Texas Ratio of 11.68% (above average) based on June 2012 data. Please refer to our financial overview of Advance Financial for more details. The credit union is federally insured by the NCUA (Charter # 24078).
Other Credit Union and Bank Bonuses
We have a bank promotions page with a table of all of the active bank and credit union promotions. You can filter the table based on the type of promotion and based on your state. I have more details about how to use this page in this blog post.
You can view my latest bank bonus blog posts in this bank bonus page. I and DepositAccounts.com readers often post on bonuses in the checking account deals forum.
