(EXPIRED) Earn $150-$182 When Opening New Chime Account & Getting Direct Deposit

Both Swagbucks and MyPoints are offering rewards when opening a new Chime account and receiving a direct deposit, although it might be better to focus on the Swagbucks offer even though it seems to be worth a little less.

The Deal

• Earn 15,000 Swagbucks (worth $150) when opening a new Chime account and receiving your first direct deposit after clicking through from Swagbucks.
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• Must complete the following steps:
  • Enroll with Chime between January 1, 2021 and January 31, 2021.
  • Download the Chime app.
  • Access your account number and routing number from the app.
  • Add your account number and routing number to your payroll contact or service.
  • Receive your first direct deposit by February 28, 2021 to earn 15,000 Swagbucks.
• Other terms which are likely applicable:
  • Must make a minimum first deposit of $100 to qualify.
  • Offer may only be completed once (1) per user.

Quick Thoughts

Despite MyPoints having a Chime offer which is apparently worth more than the Swagbucks offer, I’ve highlighted the Swagbucks version of the deal above for a couple of reasons.

For starters, I’m much more familiar with Swagbucks than MyPoints. 15,000 Swagbucks can be redeemed via PayPal for $150, so it’s as good as cash. Cashback Monitor says that 26,000 MyPoints are worth $182, but I’m not sure how that works. My understanding is that you redeem for gift cards rather than being able to cash it out as actual cash, but I might be wrong about that.

The main reason I’ve highlighted the Swagbucks offer though is because they sent out an email yesterday advising that this offer is still valid. If you go on both the Swagbucks and MyPoints websites, their listings for Chime both suggest the offer is expired. Both sites say you have to enroll with Chime by December 31, 2020 and receive your first direct deposit by January 31, 2021. It’s therefore too late to enroll based on that first date.

However, the email from Swagbucks specifically mentions the new dates as can be seen in the screenshot above. I’d therefore much rather open a new Chime account after using a Swagbucks link for a sure $150 than use a MyPoints link for points which might be worth $182 but which might not be worth anything if they’re not actually offering a Chime deal any longer.

One thing to note is that the email from Swagbucks didn’t state how much the direct deposit needs to be. Their listing for the offer on their website mentions a minimum $100 direct deposit for the old version of the offer, so I imagine that the same still applies.

If you don’t want to ask your employer to redirect your pay to a Chime account for only one month, you might have other direct deposit options. Doctor of Credit has a very useful resource listing data points of what counts as a direct deposit with Chime.

Nick wrote recently about how he and his wife earned almost $5,000 from bank account bonuses last year, which should be more than $6,500 once pending bonuses are received. (See 2020 bank account bonus tally: $4480 earned, $1725 more on the way for more details on that.) Chime wasn’t one of the accounts he opened, but it could be a good option if his post inspired you to start exploring the world of bank account bonuses and you want to ease yourself in due to the straightforward requirements for earning the bonus.

Despite bank and savings account bonuses being low hanging fruit, I’ve been extremely lazy about completing any of them over the course of the last few years, perhaps earning $1,000 in that time. This seems like such an easy $150, I’m planning on opening accounts for both me and my wife. If opening an account for a P2, it would be best to ensure they have their own Swagbucks account. The terms on the Swagbucks website mention the following:

Offer may only be completed once (1) per user.

I’m not sure if that means Swagbucks will limit you to earning only one bonus on your Swagbucks account, so it’d be safest to open a second Chime account for another household member under their own Swagbucks account.

Be aware that last year Chime closed a bunch of accounts with no reason given. I’m therefore only going to “direct deposit” $100 in each of our accounts to limit any issues going forward.

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