First Trade Union Bank Updates Checking Account and Bonus

First Trade Union Bank has again updated its checking account promotion. It has also renamed its online checking account. It’s now called FT Checking. The promotion continues to offer a cash bonus of up to $100, but the requirements have changed. It now takes more time to earn the full $100. A link to the promotion details is listed in the bank's FT Checking page. Here are the new requirements to receive the full $100:

• Open a new FT Checking account by 5/31/13
• First Trade Union Bank will deposit $10 into your FT Checking for up to ten months for every month a Direct Deposit of $100 or more is credited to the FT Checking account.

There are several direct deposit requirements that are needed to be met to qualify for the full bonus. These include:

• Set up and have at least one recurring direct deposit of $100 or more credited to your FT Checking account by 6/30/2013 to qualify for the bonus earnings.
• Direct Deposit must be credited in the following months in order to qualify: April 2013 - December 2013, January 2014 - March 2014. Bonus payouts will end April 2014.
• A qualifying recurring direct deposit is defined as the direct deposit of a paycheck, salary, pension, or government benefits electronically deposited by an employer or an outside agency. Bank-to-bank transfers between accounts held by the same individual, transfers between accounts both held at First Trade Union Bank, and deposits made via a banking location, ATM or remote capture process (phone, tablet, scanner) do not qualify.

Another important requirement mentioned is that the FT Checking account balance must be greater than $100 at the time the bonuses are credited to the account.

The nice thing about this promotion is that the checking account is something that you may want to keep for the long-term. The FT Checking account has no minimum balance requirement, no maintenance fees and online bill pay is free. Also, it offers ATM surcharge rebates. The first order of basic checks is free.

The account pays interest, but it's still very low for internet checking accounts. The current rate is 0.05% for balances over $1,000 (as of 4/10/2013).

If you want a higher interest rate, you can open the bank's online savings account, FT High-Yield Savings (formerly called High and Mighty Savings). This was much more competitive in 2011 when the top yield was 1.05%. The top yield is now only 0.70% APY for balances of $2,500 and over (as of 4/10/2013). However, this rate has held since last May. Like the checking, it has no monthly service fees.

The bank has offered some competitive CD rates in the past, but I don't see any competitive ones today. Most of the CD rates are under 1.00%.

Online Application - Available Nationwide

These FT Checking and Savings accounts can be opened online with the bank's online application, and they're available to people in any state. Account funding can be done with an ACH transfer from your existing checking or savings account.

In my last review of this promotion, a reader left the following comment about his experience opening this account:

I applied the last time they did a promotion and if I remember correctly, there was no hard credit pull but they pull ChexSystems and denied me because they said I had too many recently opened accounts (although other banks thought otherwise).

Bank Overview

The main office of First Trade Union Bank branches are located in Boston, MA and in New Hyde Park, NY.

The bank has an overall health score at DepositAccounts.com of 5 stars (out of 5) with a Texas Ratio of 12.14% (above average) based on December 2012 data. Please refer to our financial overview of First Trade Union Bank for more details. The bank has been a FDIC member since 1987 (FDIC Certificate # 32551).

Other 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.