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Yesterday, we posted what might be the runner-up for deal of the year: SoFi Money is offering a totally fee-free cash management account with a debit card that rebates ATM fees worldwide and when you sign up through a referral and deposit $100, you get a $50 new account bonus (See: Easy money: SoFi debit card new account / referral bonuses for more details). Furthermore, you get $100 for every person you refer who opens a new account and funds it. What’s more, both bonuses can post as fast as the day after you fund the account. I both opened an account yesterday and referred two people yesterday and both the new account bonus and referral bonuses posted in my account activity this morning. Unfortunately, finding your referral link hasn’t been intuitive for all readers. Fortunately, this post will show you how to do it so you can get your friends and family on the deal and make everyone some easy money.
First, sign up for SoFi Money
The first thing you’ll need to do is sign up for your open SoFi Money account. See yesterday’s post for full details. To recap briefly, SoFi Money is a cash management account (think checking account without the checks) with no fees, no monthly minimums, no direct deposit requirements, no monthly transaction requirements, no hard pull, and unlimited ATM fee reimbursements worldwide. SoFi isn’t a bank itself but deposits your money with banks, so keep in mind that your money is not initially FDIC-insured (until it reaches their partner banks). In short, I wouldn’t deposit a hundred grand today, but neither would I be concerned about depositing a hundred bucks.
If you’re looking to open a new account, feel free to use one of our referral links with our thanks (you’ll get your $50 new account bonus as long as you deposit $100 within 14 days, though it’s easy to do immediately):
After you’ve opened an account (which takes about 60 seconds), you’ll need to fund it with $100. You can either do that via ACH or link an existing bank login. I linked a Capital One bank account and transferred over money and it took a grand total of about an additional 60 seconds. In my case, I put $200 in my SoFi account, but keep in mind that you’ll only need to deposit $100 to trigger the bonus.
Next, download and install the app
In order to get your referral link, you’ll need to download and install the app on your phone:
Once you download and install the app, login.
Finding your referral links
The first time I logged in, there was a banner ad at the top of the app advising me to click there to refer friends. A reader pointed out that this banner add can change (you can pull down in the app to refresh it) and show referral links for different SoFi products.
However, it’s easy to get your referral links for the specific SoFi products to which you want to refer others (SoFi Money, SoFi investing, etc). All you have to do is click the icon that looks like a universal “My Account” icon in the app (on the Android version, it was in the top left corner as shown below):
Then click the spot that says “Invite friends, earn up to $10k”.
That’ll take you to a full list of the various SoFi accounts to which you can refer others. Simply click on the type of account to which you wish to refer someone to generate your link.
From there, click the buttons to copy your link (so you can paste it in an email or our Frequent Miler Insiders group or the place of your choice), share it via social media or text messages, etc.
Note that you can also join SoFi Active Investing via referral and fund your investing account with $100 or more and get $50 in free stock when you sign up through someone’s referral link. Note that you can simply move the $100 you deposited in your SoFi account to your Active Investing account to trigger this — you don’t need to deposit an additional hundred bucks and there isn’t any requirement that you actually buy stock with the $100 you use to fund your Active Investing account. You can then refer friends to the Active Investing account and get $50 for each friend who signs up. If you’re interested in signing up and getting $50 in free stock, feel free to use our referral links with our thanks:
- Greg’s family SoFi Investing referral link
- Nick’s family SoFi Investing referral link
- Stephen’s SoFi Investing referral link
Bonuses post quickly
Yesterday, I deposited $200 from my Capital One account. I referred Greg and it looks like a reader signed up with my link. This morning, I saw two $100 referral bonuses and a $50 new account bonus in my account. It was that fast. I don’t yet have a debit card to take the cash out of the ATM, but I assume I could likely ACH transfer to my bank if I wanted to. This is pretty awesome.
Sharing your referral link
If you’re looking for friends to refer, head over to our Frequent Miler Insiders Facebook group and find the relevant thread. List your link as a REPLY to my first comment on that thread. Referrals not following the directions will be deleted. Comments on this post that include a link will get caught in our spam filter and will not post, so head over to the Frequent Miler Insiders group instead to post your link.
Bottom line
This SoFi Money account is really an amazing deal in many regards: it’s got a generous new account offer that posts in a day or two, it’s got a generous referral bonus that posts just as fast, it’s got a debit card that rebates ATM fees worldwide, and the account has no BS fees or hoops to jump through while also offering 1.8% APY. What’s more, if you know just a couple of people who would open a free account for some easy money, you could easily rack up a few hundred bucks with very very little effort. This is the definition of low-hanging fruit and should put at least a couple hundred bucks in your pocket if you’re playing in 2-player mode ($50 for Player 1, a $100 referral bonus for referring Player 2, and the $50 bonus for Player 2). Generate your referral link and share the love with friends and family while you can.
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Hey I used Nick’s link on this, but now SoFi says they need “full account name and email” of the referrer for me and you to get the bonus. I also tweeted about this. Can you DM or email me? Looks like SoFi is trying to get out of a lot of payouts…
A few people have run into this issue, but each person who has reached out to me and passed the info on to SoFi has gotten paid so far. I will reach out to you via email in a few minutes.
As I said, this seems to have affected a handful of people, and I don’t know why it wasn’t automatic for some folks, but in my experience thus far SoFi isn’t “trying to get out of a lot of payouts”. I’m sure we can get it worked out.
Hi Nick, I have run into the same issue. Need the referrer’s e-mail address to receive the bonus. Thanks!
Hi John — I’m sending you an email to the address you used for this comment, so be on the lookout for that.
Thank for the article and the invite! I read on their website that they also reimburse the 1% visa charges when using the card on a foreign country ATM. — FYI: — No 1% Visa credit.
Called today to ask how soon after the transaction the Visa fee gets credited and was told that ONLY the ATM fee gets reimbursed, the other was a mistake, no reimbursement of the Visa 1% exchange fee. FYI.
Pitty. Not to overlook the obvious immediate 50% to 100% bonus here, but I really opened the account counting on this reimbursement, hoping to replace my regular ATM card for use abroad.
Rep also said to call if bonus and referral bonus don’t show after 10 business days.
I signed up for myself (using Stephens link) no problem. Then I tried signing up for wifey. Used my cell phone number (verified
Again) but then they claimed they couldn’t verify all her info. No chance this is actually true Since she is very well established with several banks. Do they have some sort of block in place based upon number of new accounts per address, phone number, IP address or something that people have figured out? Or another data point on when I could try with her again?
We haven’t figured out why some people have had trouble. It’s not a block by mailing address or IP (some have mentioned trouble with a VPN, but I assume you were setting up both accounts within a few minutes and thus using the same IP). In terms of trying again, I know two people who tried again right away with some piece(s) of info changed (one used a different email & phone….the other used a different address as he has more than one mailing address and thought perhaps SoFi was seeing the other wherever they pull info from). Both were successful the second time. There have also been some folks who are just having trouble with it and I’m not sure why. In your case, I’d definitely expect the identical phone number to be a potential issue since SoFi uses that for 2 factor authentication initially. Since that # is already linked to your acct, I could see that being the roadblock (though I obviously don’t know for sure).
Couple of other data points and a question. It wouldn’t let me create a new login for her as they said that her ssn is already linked to a login. I was able to change her phone number and try again but still failed. Called and they said try again in a month which is what I’ll do.
Question: any reason to believe that a mobile check deposit will not trigger the bonus?
I assume any deposit of $100 will qualify.
Just a heads up. I used a referral link with the $50 bonus to sign up for a new Money account. However, when I downloaded the app there was a banner after I logged in for $100 bonus if I signed up for a Money account (not through a referral). I’m assuming that was a targeted bonus offer because I already had a student loan through Sofi.
So worth checking the app first for a $100 sign up bonus if you have any existing Sofi products.
For anyone concerned about the FDIC insurance I pulled out this from the FAQ:
https://www.sofi.com/faq/
Are my deposits insured?
Deposits are swept daily to one or more banks (the “Program Banks”) where they earn a variable rate of interest and are eligible for FDIC insurance. Once your deposits reach one of the Program Banks (typically within 2 business days), they are FDIC insured.3 FDIC Insurance is not provided until the funds arrive at Program Bank. Funds in the SoFi Money Sweep Program are eligible for up to $1,500,000 of FDIC insurance through the Program Banks. If the number of Program Banks changes, or you elect not to use, and/or have existing assets at, one or more of the available banks, the actual amount of FDIC coverage will change. For more information on FDIC insurance coverage, please visit http://www.FDIC.gov. Customers are responsible for monitoring their total assets at each of the Program Banks to determine the extent of available FDIC insurance coverage in accordance with FDIC rules. The SoFi Money deposits are not covered by SIPC.
Hello Nick, I just signed up your link and completed all the account setup. You should be able to receive the bonus from me. Thanks for the great article and generous sharing. I really appreciate and benefit from reading.
Awesome, thanks! You’re welcome. Glad that readers can take advantage. This is an awesome deal for such little effort. Now get your family signed up and buy yourself something nice! 🙂
When I signed up through your referral link (last night) it showed the $50 bonus as pending, Today is does not show the $50 as pending, only my deposit as pending. Any thoughts?
“To recap briefly, SoFi Money is a cash management account (think checking account without the checks)”
I’ve been using them as my main bank for quite a while. They do have checks:
https://www.sofi.com/my/money/account/#/more/order-checks
Interesting! I found that in the app after seeing your comment. So it’s like a checking account with the checks. 🙂
Exactly 🙂
I don’t get anything out of saying this — I do think they are worth using as your main checking account.
One can do better by having a high-yield savings that auto-deposits into a checking account when you overdraft, but I really like the simplicity of having just one account. I use SoFi as my main checking now (switched from Alliant checking/savings).
How can this be cashed out?
ATM (limit of $615 per day apparently) or ACH.
Can I refer my wife?
Absolutely. That’s what the last couple of sentences are about.
Any info on a minimum time to keep the account open? Not looking to close it right away – just wondering.
I saw nothing in the terms indicating any minimum time. No hoops like that at all – the only requirement was to open and fund with $100 within 14 days. All reports I’ve seen on other sites indicate bonus paid out within a day or two. I think you could close whenever you want.
One last question – if this is the runner up deal of the year, what was the winner? (I should know and remember, but I can’t).
Turkish Miles & Smiles: 7500 Thank You points each way to Hawaii is what I’d say has been the deal of the year.