$100 Checking Account Bonus at Urban Trust Bank in FL & DC - Local Only

Urban Trust Bank is offering a $100 bonus for opening one of its consumer checking accounts, establishing direct deposit and for making 5 debit card transactions per month over 3 months. This bonus is listed on the bank's front page and in the bank's promotion microsite. The offer expires 3/18/2011.

Here's the small print of the offer:

Limited Time Offer. To be eligible for this bonus offer, you must open a new consumer Urban Trust Bank Checking account with a $100 minimum new money deposit. Bonus is not considered part of the minimum opening deposit. Direct deposit is required. A minimum of 5 debit card transactions are required per statement cycle over a 3 statement cycle period for a total of 15. Bonus will automatically be deposited into your account after the 4th statement cycle. If account is closed prior to the end of 4th statement cycle, the Bonus will not be paid. Limit one checking account-related bonus per customer, per calendar year. Account is subject to approval. Bonus is classified as interest and will be reported to the IRS on form 1099-INT. Free Visa debit card not available for Opportunity Checking account. Free ATM access available at Allpoint and Urban Trust Bank ATMs only. Offer expires 3/18/2011.

It appears any of their consumer checking accounts can qualify. They do offer a free checking account with no monthly fees. Their interest checking account, Urban Select Checking, requires a $1,000 balance to avoid a $15 monthly fee. They also have a second chance checking account for those who might have trouble qualifying for checking accounts at other banks. This has a $10 monthly fee. Urban Trust is partnered with AllPoint, so checking account customers have access to 37,000 surcharge free ATMs.

I posted on the Urban Select Checking back in 2009 when this account had a 2.50% APY. At that time both Ally and Alliant savings accounts were only paying 2.00% APY. As you might expect, this high rate didn't last. Urban Select Checking's top rate is now only 0.45% which requires a $25K balance.

Bank Overview

A branch visit is required to open an account. Branches are located in Central Florida, West Florida, Jacksonville, Florida and in Bethesda, Maryland (in the Washington DC metro area). Most of the branches are inside Walmart stores.

Urban Trust Bank has an overall health score at DepositAccounts.com of 3 stars (out of 5) with a Texas Ratio of 24.54% (average) based on December 2010 data. Please refer to our financial overview of Urban Trust Bank for more details. The bank has been an FDIC member since 1963 (FDIC Certificate # 31390).

Other Bank Bonuses

To find other bonus deals at other banks and credit unions, 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.