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HardCredit

Is there a way to determine if this counts as a hard credit pull for any bank ?

ssss

The bank bonuses were the perfect pandemic “cross-word puzzle” equivalent to keep my mind sharp and to avoid watching movies.

Your recommendation to screenshot every step of the way is crucial. I needed those screenshots for multiple bank bonuses.

wanderlust

Its supper interesting and I will keep an eye out for this type of deal but one thing bothers me, does it not seem bothersome to have all these different financial accounts open with some cash in one or other? Do you leave them open or close them out. Some things like brokerages I would never switch as for me there are massive differences in experience and tools to trade with, and the small amount of time my money is out of use could cost me more then the bonus (options and futures are cheap but make a lot of return). The Merrill Edge one is tempting but looking at the ratings TD, Fidelity, and Interactive beat it every time (I use all three for different things). Anyway is interesting and helpful to know either way.

Mohammad M

Hey Nick, It’s nice to see how much you earned. It’d be better to list the current deals in one place so we can compare. I’d imagine a table for brokerage bonuses would be great. Each row would be a brokerage and each column the amount required. Then it’d be easy to pick one if I want to transfer $X. DoC has an ok list but the table would be a much better resource. Thanks!

rich

I don’t do a lot of chasing bonuses because you have to be careful reading the fine print and I know I’ve screwed it up at least one.

Recently I’ve gotten bonus from Marcus which was easy since I already had an account there and only needed to move money into the account. They also make it easy to track the timeline unlike other places that seem to hide things in hope you pull the money early and miss the bonus.

Someone gave me a referral link to Schwab and that was $500 for a $100K deposit.

I have money earning very little right now due to a house sale and unwilling to risk it in the market since I will need it within a couple of years so I don’t mind doing more of these bonuses.

With interest rates, CDs, bonds so low, it makes some of these bonuses worth the headaches although I tend to avoid going the direct deposit route if I can.

Speck

@ Nick, Did you get in on the $1000 Acorns referral (for 4 or 5 people depending on when you did it)?

Asking bc that was an easy $1000, although it’s technically a brokerage bonus, not a bank bonus.

Kim

Reading this article made me tired, and I do quite a bit of bank bonuses. So I plan to be even more selective going forward to simplify my life (and taxes). Another downside with bank bonuses that I only recently realized is that, assuming you want to report the bonuses as income for tax purposes, you need to keep good records because many banks are no longer issuing or sending hard copy 1099s anymore.

Grant

I believe if your account is still open, they will tell you to download the 1099 form online, but if your account is closed, they will mail you the 1099 form.

Paying taxes is kind of like winning the lottery or gambling winnings, you won $500 bucks so now you owe taxes. You still come out ahead at the end of the day 🙂

Kim

On your first point, I agree that if your account is open and you can download the 1099, the bank may tell you to do that. However, with respect to your second point that has not been true in my experience with multiple banks this year, perhaps due to COVID? It is something to be on the lookout for, and I realized it too late to call those banks.

Erik C

1099s are taxed at your marginal tax rate. For high income earners, this can easily be 40%+ when you include state income taxes. There are also other tax credit phase outs that happen when you start adding additional income. Just something to consider.

lochquel

I’ve had trouble with some banks too (both large and small) and these bonuses. While I believe they are required to send them (over $10 mind you), you have the requirement to claim all of this income on taxes. As I’ve missed 1-2 1099s per year after doing this a few years, I’ve found it easier to keep track for myself and self-report even if the forms don’t come. It’s been a hassle to log into the various apps/locations some of these banks hide this important information. Couple that with the mix of 1099 methods that banks send out (online only, paper only, paper/online both,etc…) it’s easy to lose something in the mix. Better to track than to be left hanging.

Kim

Agree; that was my bottomline message – if you do bank bonuses a lot, you need to keep good records or it becomes a headache at tax time, especially when you only realize you are missing a significant 1099 after you have filed. I use a spreadsheet that I copied off DoC to track these bonuses now, but learned the hard way that I need to do so. Now back to amending my federal taxes for the second time….

Carlos

What about taxes?

Carlos

Oh sorry Nick I missed that. So values in this post are not true earnings, they’re inflated by 20-40%. PSA to all!

Kim

Nick-I think what Carlos is getting at is something like a $1k cash equivalent value from a credit card signup bonus is better than a $1k bank bonus because the bank bonus is taxable income.

My point was that the bank bonuses should also be tracked in a spreadsheet in case you are not sent the 1099s by the bank (and can no longer get into that account because you have closed it). Doing this alot means opening and closing a lot of accounts with potential tax paperwork headaches if not organized.